collateral

לֹא יַחֲבֹל רֵחַיִם וָרָכֶב (Devarim 24:6), he shall not take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge. Most of the uses are the taking of a pledge, some the giving of one, as וְעַל עָנִי יַחְבֹּלוּ (Iyov 24:9), and on the poor they give pledges: they borrow money on their own pledge, counting on robbing the poor man and paying the debt out of what they rob. יַחְבְּלוּ שׁוֹר אַלְמָנָה (Iyov 24:3) he reads as taking a widow's ox for a debt owed them, a thing forbidden because of her helplessness, or else as seizing it where no debt is owed at all, as כִּי תַחְבֹּל אַחֶיךָ חִנָּם (Iyov 22:6), for you take pledges from your brothers for nothing.

חָבַלְנוּ לָךְ (Nechemiah 1:7), we have dealt corruptly toward You. בָּז לְדָבָר יֵחָבֶל לוֹ (Mishlei 13:13), whoever scorns the word will be ruined by it, belongs here, though Rabbi Yonah had put it with the pledge. And where the verb takes an object, מְחַבְּלִים כְּרָמִים (Shir HaShirim 2:15), spoiling the vineyards, and לְחַבֵּל כָּל הָאָרֶץ (Yeshayahu 13:5), to destroy the whole land. בַּעֲבוּר טָמְאָה תְּחַבֵּל וְחֶבֶל נִמְרָץ (Micah 2:10), because of uncleanness it will destroy, with a grievous destruction, may be read in this sense too, though Radak also counts it among the pangs.

חֶבְלֵי יוֹלֵדָה (Hoshea 13:13), the pangs of a woman in labour, and צִירִים וַחֲבָלִים יֹאחֵזוּ (Yeshayahu 13:8), pangs and throes take hold. All of them together, he says, are pangs and pains.

וַתּוֹרִדֵם בַּחֶבֶל (Yehoshua 2:15), she let them down by a rope. Because an inheritance is divided by the rope, as וְאַדְמָתְךָ בַּחֶבֶל תְּחֻלָּק (Amos 7:17), your land shall be divided by the rope, a region is itself called a חֶבֶל: כָּל חֶבֶל אַרְגֹּב (Devarim 3:4), all the region of Argov. רַב הַחֹבֵל (Yonah 1:6) is the chief man of the ship, set over her ropes to work her as she should go.

On וּכְשֹׁכֵב בְּרֹאשׁ חִבֵּל (Mishlei 23:34) Rabbi Yonah says it is a thing made of ropes that floats on the water to mark where ships may anchor, so that a man lying on it is in danger; or else it is the chief of the ship himself, who lies at the head of the ropes and must watch them in great anxiety. Others say חִבֵּל is the mast, from which all the ropes hang. And the Gaon, Rav Saadiah, says the ship herself is called חבל, since she is worked by drawing the ropes and letting them go.

כִּי בְתַחְבֻּלוֹת תַּעֲשֶׂה לְּךָ מִלְחָמָה (Mishlei 24:6), for by counsels you shall make war for yourself; he glosses the word as the counsels and thoughts a man turns over in his heart to choose the straight one. And in חֶבֶל נְבִיאִים (Shmuel I 10:5), a group of neviim, the word is a company or a gathering. Of this sense is וּלְאַחַד קָרָאתִי חֹבְלִים (Zecharyah 11:7), and one I called Chovlim: the one named in לְאַחַד קָרָאתִי נֹעַם, one I called Pleasantness, is the kohen, and the one called Chovlim is the king, who is head of the assembly. Others take נֹעַם as the rule of Zerubavel and of Nechemiah the Tirshasa, who were of the house of David, and חֹבְלִים as the kingship of the kohanim who reigned close to the destruction of the Second Temple, from the second sense, destroying: they corrupted their ways and their deeds after the death of Chashmonai and his sons, divided the kingdom of Yisrael, and brought about the destruction of the Second Temple. Radak suggests the two senses, counsels and company, may be one, since thoughts are themselves a gathering of matters in the heart. Resembling this sense are Chazal's words חבילי תלתן וחבילי זרדין (Sukkah 12a), bundles of fenugreek and bundles of shoots, and אין עושין מצות חבילות חבילות (Pesachim 102b), mitzvos are not done in bundles.

לַֽעֲבֹט עֲבֹטֽוֹ (Devarim 24:10), to seize his pledge, and יוֹצִיא אֵלֶיךָ אֶת־הָֽעֲבוֹט (Devarim 24:11), he shall bring the pledge out to you. It is the pledge, a thing seized and held back in a man's hand.

From this comes וְלֹא יְעַבְּטוּן אֹֽרְחוֹתָֽם (Yoel 2:7), they are not held back in their paths, since they run swiftly, as it says כְּגִבּוֹרִים יְרֻצוּן, they run like mighty men. So the Targum renders וְלָא מְעַכְּבִין אוֹרְחָתְהוֹן, they do not delay their paths. Some read it as not lending their paths one to another, from וְהַֽעֲבֵט תַּֽעֲבִיטֶנּוּ (Devarim 15:8), you shall surely lend him, since the pasuk says וְאִישׁ בִּדְרָכָיו יֵֽלֵכוּן, each man goes in his own ways. Others read it as not twisting or perverting, which they take to be its sense in Arabic.

וְהַֽעֲבֵט תַּֽעֲבִיטֶנּוּ (Devarim 15:8), you shall surely lend him דֵּי מַחְסֹרוֹ, enough for his need, because a loan made against a pledge is called העבט. The Targum renders אוֹזָפָא תּוֹזְפִנֵּהּ, you shall surely lend him. So too וְהַֽעֲבַטְתָּ גּוֹיִם רַבִּים (Devarim 15:6), and you will lend to many nations, and וְאַתָּה לֹא תַֽעֲבֹט (Devarim 15:6), and you will not borrow.

עַבְטִיט may be from this root, on the pattern of סַגְרִיר, steady rain, meaning a great deal of money; he has written at the root טִיט that it is a compound word.

אֲשֶׁר שָֽׁכַן ־שָׁם (Yehoshua 22:19), where the Mishkan of Hashem dwelt; וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָֽם (Shemos 25:8), I shall dwell among them; שְׁכֹן בָּאָרֶץ (Bereishis 26:2), dwell in the land; and לִשְׁכֹּן בָּֽעֲרָפֶֽל (Melachim I 8:12), to dwell in the thick darkness. לְשִׁכְנוֹ תִדְרְשׁוּ (Devarim 12:5), to His dwelling you shall seek, has a chirik, and he takes it for an infinitive on the weight of וּכְפִתְחוֹ עָֽמְדוּ כָל־הָעָֽם (Nechemiah 8:5), and when he opened it all the people stood, or else for a noun.

מִשְׁכַּן (Vayikra 17:4), the Mishkan of Hashem; מִשְׁכָּנוֹת לַֽאֲבִיר יַֽעֲקֹֽב (Tehillim 132:5), dwellings for the Mighty One of Yaakov; and וּֽמִשְׁכְּנוֹתָיו מְלֵֽחָה (Iyov 39:6), his dwellings the salt land. The masculine plural is in קְדשׁ מִשְׁכְּנֵי עֶלְיֽוֹן (Tehillim 46:5), the holiest of the dwellings of the Most High.

וּשְׁכֵנוֹ הַקָּרֹב אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ (Shemos 12:4), his neighbour nearest his house; the feminine וְשָֽׁאֲלָה אִשָּׁה מִשְּׁכֶנְתָּהּ (Shemos 3:22), and a woman shall ask of her neighbour, and the plural וַתִּקְרֶאנָה לוֹ הַשְּׁכֵנוֹת (Rus 4:17), and the neighbour women named him. A שכן, he says, is one who dwells beside a man, his house beside his house; but וּבַל־יֹאמַר שָׁכֵן חָלִיתִי (Yeshayahu 33:24), and the dweller shall not say, I am sick, is of one who dwells inside her, in Yerushalayim, as the pasuk goes on, הָעָם הַיּשֵׁב בָּהּ נְשֻׂא עָוֹֽן, the people that dwell in her are forgiven their sin; and יָגוּרוּ שְׁכַן שֹֽׁמְרוֹן (Hoshea 10:5), the dwellers of Shomron shall fear, is those who dwell in Shomron.

Where the verb takes an object, אֹהֶל שִׁכֵּן בָּאָדָֽם (Tehillim 78:60), the tent He set to dwell among men, and לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם (Devarim 12:11), to set His name to dwell there; וְהִשְׁכַּנְתִּי עָלֶיךָ כָּל־עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם (Yechezkel 32:4), I will settle all the birds of the sky upon you, and וּכְבוֹדִי לֶֽעָפָר יַשְׁכֵּן סֶֽלָה (Tehillim 7:6), and make my honour dwell in the dust, selah. From this sense comes יִשְׁכְּנוּ אַדִּירֶיךָ (Nachum 3:18), your mighty ones rest, which is the rest of death, and like it שָֽׁכְנָה דוּמָה נַפְשִֽׁי (Tehillim 94:17), my soul rested in silence.

וְשַׂמְתָּ שַׂכִּין בְּלֹעֶךָ (Mishlei 23:2), and you shall put a knife to your throat, of which he says only ידוע, it is known; and he has already written the word in another sense under the root שֹוֹך, where the reading that files it with לְשִׂכִּים בְּעֵינֵיכֶם (Bamidbar 33:55), thorns in your eyes, is his father's.