Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 6:6/אבן עזרא על בראשית ו׳:ו׳
אוינחם ד'. ידוע כי לא אדם הוא להנחם רק דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם כי המשחית מה שעשה יראה שניהם,
1AND IT REPENTED THE LORD. The Torah spoke in the language of men,18 is an anthropomorphism. for we know that God is not a man that he should repent. This term is used because if a human being acted in the way God did, destroying his creation, it would be said of him that he repented.19, Part I, Chap. 52.
בוטעם ויתעצב אל לבו, הפך "ישמח ד' במעשיו" (תהלים קד לא) כי טוב בעיניו שיקבלו נבראיו חסדיו וי"א כי וינחם כמו "מתנחם לך להרגך" (בראשית כז, מב) ויפרשוהו וזע"ד ואמרו כי לבו הוא הנביא ואלו היה כן לא היה אחר ויתעצב מלת אל ואנה מצאנו שנקרא הנביא לב:
2[AND IT GRIEVED HIM AT HIS HEART.] This verse is the opposite of Let the Lord rejoice in His works (Ps. 104:31). God is said to be happy when his creatures benefit from his acts of kindness.20 Others say that va-yinnachem (and it repented) should be rendered as set a time,21 as in doth comfort (mitnachem) himself, purposing to kill thee (Gen. 27:42).22 They also say that His heart does not refer to the heart of God but to the heart of the prophet.23 However, if this were the case Scripture should not have read: and it grieved “at” (el) His heart.24 Secondly, where do we find a prophet called a heart?