Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 9:25/אבן עזרא על בראשית ט׳:כ״ה

אעבד עבדים. טעמו עבד כאחד העבדים ואילו היה עבד העבדים היה עבד לעבדים והעד קדש קדשים (ויקרא ו יח) בקדש הקדשים (שמות כו לג),

1A SERVANT OF SERVANTS. Eved avadim (a servant of servants) means a servant like all other servants.⁴³ means a member of the servant class. If Scripture meant a servant to servants then it would have read eved ha-avadim. Proof of this is: it is most holy (kodesh kodashim) (Lev. 6:18), and In a most holy place (be-kodesh ha-kodashim) (Num. 18:10).⁴⁴ means holy (kodesh) as one of the holy objects (kodashim). When Scripture wants to say most holy it uses the term kodesh ha-kodashim. Similarly had Scripture read eved ha-avadim, it would have meant a servant of (to) servants.

בוטעם לאחיו לכוש ומצרים ופוט שהם בני אביו וי"א כי הכושים הם עבדים בעבור שקלל נח את חם, והנה שכחו, כי המלך הראשון אחר המבול היה מכוש, וכן כתוב "ותהי ראשית ממלכתו בבל" (בראשית יו"ד י):

2[UNTO HIS BRETHREN.] To Cush, Mizraim and Put, the sons of Ham his father. There are some who say that the Cushites are enslaved because Noah cursed Ham. However, they have forgotten that the first king to rule after the flood was a Cushite. Thus it is written, and Cush begot Nimrod…And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar (Gen. 10:8-10).⁴⁵