Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 8:10/אבן עזרא על בראשית ח׳:י׳
אומלת ויחל עוד, על דעתי מתחלה כי אילו היתה מגזרת תוחלת היה וייחל כמו וייקץ או ייחל כמו וישב יעקב (בראשית לז א) ויתכן להיותה מלה זרה בדקדוק:
1[AND HE STAYED.] Va-yachel (and he stayed) is, I believe, derived from the word techillah (beginning).18. Cf. Targum Yerushalmi, And he began to count. For if it came from the same root as tochelet (hope),19. This root connotes waiting with hope, as in la-meyachalim le-chasdo (toward them that wait for His mercy) (Ps. 33:18). it should have been vocalized va-yichel, as is the case with va-yiketz20 (and he awoke), or vocalized va-yechel, as in the case of va-yeshev (and he dwelt).21 is a peh yod then it would be vocalized like a word of this classification, i.e., like va-yiketz or va-yeshev, both of which are peh yods. The vocalization va-yachel shows that it belongs to the kefulim, those roots whose second and third radicals are identical. However, it is possible it is an irregular verb.22, meaning to stay, wait with hope, but is vocalized as if it came from the root chet, lamed, lamed (Krinsky).
בויוסף שלח את היונה מן התיבה, בארבעה ועשרים בשבט:
2AND AGAIN HE SENT FORTH THE DOVE OUT OF THE ARK. On the twenty-fourth day of Shevat.