ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף יחזקאל 16:3

Seed of evil doers. They and their forefathers have been wicked ; or, their father was an Amorite, their mother a Hittite (Ez. 16:3),¹⁵The Israelites are, according to this explanation, called a seed of evil-doers, because their forefathers, the ancestors of Abraham, were idolators. as I shall explain.¹⁶The commentary of Ibn Ezra on Ezekiel is not known.

Whereas the terms מכורותיך and מולדתיך occur in Ezekiel 16,3-4, describing close relatives in one’s birthplace, in our verse, the vowel tzeyreh under the letter כ converts this word into one that could have been written with a dagesh, i.e. from the conjugation piel, the strong, transitive conjugation, suggesting that these emotions were evident only when the two brothers engaged in a scheme of doubtful ethical merit. The construction of the word is parallel to Job 37,12 where the word מסבות, describes clouds in constant motion foreboding turmoil, nature at its most destructive. Examples of the expected vowel chirik becoming a tzeyreh instead, are found in Lamentations 2,9, as well as in Numbers 8,26, and in Psalms 74,18. In all those examples the addition of the extra “dot” next to the chirik converts the meaning into something stronger, more aggressive, more intense.

INSTRUMENTS OF VIOLENCE ‘M’CHEIROTHEIHEM.’ According to Onkelos and all commentators,¹⁰¹Rashi and R’dak. the meaning of the verse is as if it were written: instruments of violence ‘m’garotheihem’ (in their sojournings). This is similar to the verses: Thy sojourning (‘m’chorothayich’) and thy nativity,¹⁰²Ezekiel 16:3. There too m’chorothayich is as if it were written m’gorothayich. into the land of their sojourn (‘m’churatham’).¹⁰³Ibid., 29:14. Thus the commentators said that the meaning of the verse is that they did violence in the land of their sojourn.¹⁰⁴That is, the people lived with them in peace, and they did not act accordingly. Now if so, the approximate sense of the verse is as follows: “They had instruments of violence in the land of their sojournings,” it being referred to as “the land of their sojournings” since they lived there afterwards.¹⁰⁵At the time when Simeon and Levi wrought punishment upon the city of Shechem, they had just entered the land. How then could Jacob refer to the event as having taken place in the land of their sojourning? Ramban answers that this is a reference to the future.
But in my opinion Jacob is saying that “the instruments of violence are their dwelling places,” i.e., the essence of their lives, even as the expression, the days of my pilgrimage (‘m’gurai’).¹⁰⁶See above, 47:9. He is thus saying that the very instruments of violence are their dwelling places for they live and sustain themselves by them. A similar expression is found in the verse: The desert yieldeth them bread for their children.¹⁰⁷Job 24:5. The word “yieldeth” is not in the Hebrew text. Ramban interprets the meaning of the verse as follows: “The desert is to him bread for his children,” for there he has the opportunity to rob and plunder. Similarly, the verse here says that the sword is their livelihood. Ramban’s interpretation of the above verse in the book of Job is also found in his commentary to that book. See Kitvei Haramban, I, p. 80. And it is on account of this that their father divided them in Jacob¹⁰⁰Verse 7 here. so that they should not unite and scattered them in Israel so that they should not assemble. This was indeed so, for Simeon’s inheritance in the Land was contained in the inheritance of the children of Judah, as it is written, And their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah,¹⁰⁸Joshua 19:1. with the cities of Simeon set apart from one another throughout the entire tribe of Judah. And Levi’s inheritance consisted of the Cities of Refuge,¹⁰⁹See Numbers 35:1-8. which were scattered through all Israel.¹¹⁰See Joshua, Chapter 21.

מכרתיהם denotes weapons. In the Greek language the word for a sword is μάχαιρα (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 9). Another interpretation of מכרתיהם is: (taking מכרתיהם as מגרתיהם their sojournings with an interchange of כ and ג) in the land of their sojournings they got into the habit of using weapons of violence, מכרתיהם being of the same root as (Ezekiel 16:3) “Thine habitation (מכרתיך) and thy nativity [is in the land of the Canaanite].” This is how Onkelos renders it.