Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 40:11/אבן עזרא על בראשית מ׳:י״א
אואשחט אותם. כמו שוחטי הילדים (ישעי' נז ה) ולא כאשר פי' הגאון:
1AND PRESSED THEM. Va-eschat (pressed) is similar to shochate (slay) in That slay (shochate) the children in the valleys (Is. 57:5). Saadiah Gaon’s interpretation of va-eschat is wrong.17 does not mean to press or squeeze as Saadiah Gaon says (this interpretation is accepted by J.P.S. and all others) since the word is not found elsewhere in the Bible. The word sachat, meaning to squeeze, is found in Rabbinic literature, but there it is spelled with a samakh and not with a sin. I.E. notes that the word shachat spelled with a shin or sachat spelled with a sin as in our verse means the same, to cut, hence to slay by cutting the throat. Thus our verse should be rendered: And I cut the grape so that its juice ran. It is also possible that in I.E.’s copy of Isaiah shochate was spelled with a sin, i.e., he read sochate, and what I.E. is doing is noting that va-eschat is like sochate. For additional interpretations see Cherez and Weiser.