ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף איוב 7:4

ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד. The word ערב describes the beginning of the night, whereas the word בקר describes the beginning of the day. During the period called ערב, things which could be seen clearly previously begin to become indistinct, appear confused. The reason is that the sense of sight reposing in the eye cannot be effective without light from the outside. The whole night is sometimes referred to as ערב, i.e. as a continuation of the period when things began to appear blurred. This is similar to all the 30 days comprising a month being called חודש on account of the first day of the month which the Bible calls חודש. (Samuel I 20,18) This first day of the month is called thus as on that day the moon renews itself, having faded from view previously. Job 7,4 refers to the entire night as ערב, and so does Psalms 59,7 ישובו לערב יהמו ככלב, “they return at night growling like dogs.” It is a fact that dogs do not bark during the early part of the night. The messengers of Sha-ul kept watch outside David’s house all night long in order to kill him in the morning (Samuel I 19,11) The word לשמרו in that verse means “to guard him so that he could not escape during the night.” An entire day is never called בוקר. This term is applied only to the parts of the day before noon. As soon as noon has passed we enter a period described as ערב seeing that the sun has embarked on a westerly course. Its light becomes progressively weaker. The period assigned for slaughtering the Passover (Exodus 12,6) is known as בין הערבים, commencing one half hour after noon. In Judges 19,9 we read that this period when the “day” becomes weaker is known as לערוב, “towards evening.”
The night is different from the day in that the entire night is described as לילה, not only the period preceding midnight. The reason is that the stars which help illuminate the night remain visible until dawn. The verse means that combining the periods described as ערב and בקר constitute a day. This is so in spite of the fact that not the entire “day,” i.e. the period when the sun is visible on the horizon is called יום. The word בקר must be viewed as the opposite of the word ערב. It is a period when the intensity and quantity of light visible is far greater than the light available during the night. יום and לילה are also opposites The reason why the Torah did not write ויהי לילה, ויהי יום יום אחד which would have been so much clearer, is that the word יום is a word which is applicable both to a single day and to a whole sequence of days such asשלושים יום, and we could have become confused, not knowing whether the Torah referred to the word יום as merely a “single day,” or as a period of days. Furthermore, the fact that day is the major phenomenon, and the essence of what is good of everything that exists in our “lower” regions of the universe, whereas night is a minor phenomenon, makes it imperative that the combined period be called יום, and be described as a unified period.

גד גדוד יגודנו GAD, AN ASSAILING TROOP SHALL ASSAIL HIM — all the words in this verse which have, the letters גד are connected in meaning with the word גדוד and so also did Menachem ben Seruk classify them. Should you say, however, that גדוד has always two ד’s and these words have only one, the answer is: The word גדוד is a noun and therefore requires two ד’s, for it is the way of a biliteral root to have the second letter doubled when used as a noun; the root proper, however, consists only of two letters. Thus it says, (Proverbs 26:2) כצפור לנוד “the wandering sparrow”, (לנוד a verb, infinitive) of the same derivation as נדודים in (Job 7:4) “I am full of גדודים wanderings” (a noun); (Judges 5:27) ‘‘there he fell down (שדוד) dead”, a noun in meaning, which is of the same derivation as the verb in (Psalms 41:6) “that wasteth (ישוד) at moon-day”. So, also, יגודנו ,יגוד and גדוד have the same derivation. When, also, one uses such biliteral roots in the future tense Kal, it (the second letter) is not doubled. For example: יגוד he will troop, ינוד he will wander, ירום he will be high, ישוד he will devastate, ישוב he will come back. When, however, such a root is used in a reflexive sense (Hithpael) or in a causative-transitive sense the second letter is doubled Examples are: יתעודד ,יתרומם ,יתבולל ,יתגודד. Examples of the causative-transitive sense are: (Psalms 146:9) “He strengtheneth (יעודד) the fatherless and the widow”; (Isaiah 49:5) “To bring Jacob back (לשובב) to Him”; (Isaiah 48:12) “The restorer (משובב) of paths”. The form יגודנו which is used here has not the force that others will make him do something (i.e. it has not this causative-transitive sense with the direct accusative suffix נוּ) but it means “a troop will troop out from him”, exactly the same as (Jeremiah 10:20) בני יצאוני which means “my children have gone forth from me”, (as we might say “have left me”). (Cf. Rashi on Genesis דברו לשלום 37:4, and on תמלאמו Exodus 15:9.). גד גדוד יגודנו accordingly means, “troops will troop out of him” signifying that they (the Gadites) will cross the Jordan with their brethren, all armed, and remain with them until the land will have been conquered.