אבן עזרא — פן יש בכם איש או אשה או משפחה או שבט / יעשן אף ה' / ורבצה בו כל האלה / והבדילו ה' לרעה

Q — The warning opens with a four-fold list — "איש או אשה או משפחה או שבט" who turns from Hashem. Then the punishment clauses follow in pasukim 19-20, which on first read repeat themselves: "יעשן אף ה' וקנאתו... ורבצה בו כל האלה... ומחה ה' את שמו... והבדילו ה' לרעה מכל שבטי ישראל." Why the apparent threefold repetition? (Or HaChaim asks: once "מחה ה' את שמו," what room is left for "והבדילו"?)

A — Ibn Ezra reads the threefold punishment as exactly parallel to the threefold subject — the warning targets three units (individual, family, tribe — the woman folds into the individual category), and the punishments distribute one to each. (1) Individual ("איש או אשה") → "יעשן אף ה' וקנאתו באיש ההוא" — "ימות מיד," he dies immediately. (2) Family ("משפחה") → "ורבצה בו כל האלה... ומחה ה' את שמו" — the family is wiped out by accumulating curses until its name is erased. (3) Tribe ("שבט") → "והבדילו ה' לרעה מכל שבטי ישראל ככל אלות הברית" — the tribe is set apart for evil. The vav at the start of each punishment clause = "or" — distributive, not cumulative. Ibn Ezra brings a parallel from Yiftach's vow (Shoftim 11:31): "והיה לה' והעליתיהו עולה" — usually read as one cumulative act (dedicated *and* offered up). Ibn Ezra reads it disjunctively: either "to Hashem" (if a person — dedicated to Divine service, not slaughtered) *or* "as an olah" (if an animal). This same Yiftach reading is fiercely attacked by Ramban (in his comment on Bamidbar 27:29) — but the principle, however contested, is unified across Tanach. (Radak and Ralbag follow Ibn Ezra on Yiftach.) Implication: Bat-Yiftach was consecrated, not slaughtered.