Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 42:7/אבן עזרא על בראשית מ״ב:ז׳

אויתנכר. מגזרת נכרי, הראה שהוא נכרי:

1BUT MADE HIMSELF STRANGE UNTO THEM. Va-yitnakker (but made himself strange) comes from the same root as nokhri (stranger). Its meaning is, he showed himself to be a stranger.

בקשות. שם התואר והטעם מלות קשות, וכן יענה עזות (משלי יח כג):

2ROUGHLY. Kashot (roughly) is an adjective. Its meaning is rough words.¹¹) is short for rough words (Weiser). The Hebrew literally reads: and spoke rough (kashot) with them. Answereth impudent (Prov. 18:23) is similar.¹²

גויכירם. בתחילה הכיר שהם אחיו ואחר כך הסתכל בכל אחד והכירו וזהו ויכר יוסף את אחיו:

3AND HE KNEW THEM. When Joseph first saw the group he recognized them as his brothers. ¹³. He then looked at each one of them and recognized them individually. The latter is the meaning of And Joseph knew his brethren (v. 8).¹⁴. Verse 8 states, And Joseph knew his brethren. I.E. interprets our verse as referring to the brothers as a group and verse 8 to each individual brother.