אבן עזרא — בכור השפחה אשר אחר הרחים / בכור השבי אשר בבית הבור

Q — Moshe forecasts the death of "בכור השפחה אשר אחר הרחים" but the actual makkah strikes "בכור השבי אשר בבית הבור." Why the change of language between the announcement and the execution?

A — Ibn Ezra rejects the question itself with a sweeping principle: "הנביאים אינם שומרים המלות רק הטעמים." Words are bodies, meanings are souls; the body is merely a vessel for the soul, so synonymous expressions are fully interchangeable. The שפחה of the announcement and the שבויה of the execution are the same person — captive women were forced to grind by day and slept in the dungeon at night, hence both descriptors fit. The principle is striking and far-reaching: it dissolves whole categories of darshan-style questions about variant wording. Ibn Ezra applies it to "הגמאיני" / "השקיני" (Eliezer's mission), "זכור" / "שמור" (the two dibrot), "לא תחמוד" / "לא תתאוה" (Yitro vs Va'etchanan), Pharaoh's and Nevuchadnetzar's repeated dreams, and Moshe's recounting of the egel-tefilla. Variant wording carries no meaning of its own; the content alone matters.