curse

וְאַתְּ אָלִית וְגַם אָמַרְתְּ בְּאָזְנַי (Shoftim 17:2), and you adjured, and also said it in my ears: the verb is transitive and means השבעת, you made another swear. אָלֹה וְכַחֵשׁ (Hoshea 4:2), swearing and lying, and אָלוֹת שָׁוְא (Hoshea 10:4), swearing falsely, are the infinitive, which is intransitive. The heavy form is וְנָֽשָׁא־בוֹ אָלָה לְהַֽאֲלֹתוֹ (Melachim I 8:31), and he lays an oath on him to make him swear.

תְּהִי נָא אָלָה בֵּֽינוֹתֵינוּ (Bereishis 26:28), let there now be an oath between us; בְּשָׁמְעוֹ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי הָֽאָלָה (Devarim 29:18), when he hears the words of the oath; אֵת כָּל־ הָֽאָלוֹת הַכְּתוּבוֹת עַל־הַסֵּפֶר (Divrei HaYamim II 34:24), all the oaths written in the book; and לִשְׁאֹל בְּאָלָה נַפְשֽׁוֹ (Iyov 31:30), to ask for his life with an oath. In another form, תַּֽאֲלָֽתְךָ לָהֶֽם (Eichah 3:65), Your oath upon them, the tav added as in תַּֽאֲנָתָהּ מִי יְשִׁיבֶנָּה (Yirmiyahu 2:24), her desire, who can turn it back. All of them mean an oath, for a curse is made with an oath and with mention of Hashem's name.

Another sense: אֱלִי כִּבְתוּלָה חֲגֻֽרַת־שַׂק (Yoel 1:8), lament like a maiden girded with sackcloth, which he explains as קונני, lament; and so the Targum renders שָׂא קִינָה (Yechezkel 19:1), take up a lament, as טוּל אִלְיָא, and וַיְקֹנֵן הַמֶּלֶךְ (Shmuel II 3:33), and the king lamented, as וַאֲלָא מַלְכָּא.

הָֽאַלְיָה תְמִימָה (Vayikra 3:9), the whole fat tail: the yud is the last root letter and the heh the feminine ending, and its sense is known.

תַּחַת הָֽאֵלָה אֲשֶׁר עִם־שְׁכֶֽם (Bereishis 35:4), under the elah that is by Shechem; כְּאֵלָה נֹבֶלֶת עָלֶהָ (Yeshayahu 1:30), like an elah whose leaf withers; and with a dagesh, תַּחַת הָאַלָּה אֲשֶׁר בְּמִקְדַּשׁ י"י (Yehoshua 24:26), under the elah that is in the sanctuary of Hashem, the dagesh standing in place of the quiescent letter in אלה, though that letter is no root letter, if these words are of this root. The plural is כִּי יֵבֹשׁוּ מֵאֵילִים אֲשֶׁר חֲמַדְתֶּם (Yeshayahu 1:29), for they shall be ashamed of the elah trees you desired; in Yechezkel, וְלֹֽא־יַֽעַמְדוּ אֵֽלֵיהֶם בְּגָבְהָם, and their elah trees shall not stand up in their height; and הַנֵּֽחָמִים בָּֽאֵלִים (Yeshayahu 57:5), who inflame themselves among the elah trees. All of them are the name of a tree, and they say it is the one called in the vernacular אוֹלֻמוֹ, olmo. כִּי יֵבֹשׁוּ מֵאֵילִים and הַנֵּֽחָמִים בָּֽאֵלִים, and the like, can also be read as a general name for any tree, and so אֵילֵי הַצֶּדֶק (Yeshayahu 61:3), trees of righteousness.

The pasuk says בְּמִקְדַּשׁ י"י, in the sanctuary of Hashem, though they were at Shechem: it appears that they brought the aron of Hashem there, as it says וַיִּֽתְיַצְּבוּ לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִֽים (Yehoshua 24:1), and they presented themselves before Hashem.

Yonasan renders אלה and אלים as בּוּטְמָא, butma; but וַיּוֹצֵא אֵלָיו אֶל־תַּחַת הָֽאֵלָה (Shoftim 6:19), and he brought it out to him under the elah, he rendered אִילָנָא, a tree, while the earlier וַיֵּשֶׁב תַּחַת הָֽאֵלָה (Shoftim 6:11), and he sat under the elah, he rendered בּוּטְמָא. Rabbi Yonah wrote that it is called so in Arabic, בט"ם, butm. Radak adds that they may all be from the root איל.

אוּלַי יְמֻשֵּׁנִי אָבִי (Bereishis 27:12), perhaps my father will feel me; אוּלַי נָֽטְתָה מִפָּנַי (Bamidbar 22:33), perhaps she turned aside from me; and אוּלַי יַֽעֲשֶׂה זָרִים יִבְלָעֻֽהוּ (Hoshea 8:7), perhaps it will yield, strangers will swallow it: they are said of a doubtful matter, in the sense of שמא, perhaps. עַל־אוּבַל אוּלָֽי (Daniel 8:2), by the stream Ulai, is a place name, its yud the last root letter in place of a heh.

Since the pasuk says וַתֵּט לְפָנַי, which means she turned off the road and stood before me, it says: had she turned away from me and gone on her way, גַּם־אֹֽתְכָה הָרַגְתִּי (Bamidbar 22:33), I would have killed you too. Radak does not know why the commentators explained אוּלַי there as לולי, unless; and besides, מִפָּנַי is the opposite of לְפָנַי, the mem showing what is far and the lamed what is near.

וַיֹּאמֶר י"י אֶל־אַבְרָם (Bereishis 12:1), and Hashem said to Avram, and the like, whose sense is known. In אֶֽל־יִדְרֹךְ, הַדֹּרֵךְ קַשְׁתֹּו וְאֶל ־יִתְעַל בְּסִרְיֹנֹו (Yirmiyahu 51:3), Radak takes אֶל as to: to the one who draws his bow, and to the one who rises up in his armour, the pasuk says, do not spare her young men. The commentators read אֶל there as אליה, to her, that is, against Bavel let the one who draws his bow draw it. Yonasan rendered it as though it were אַל, do not: לָא יִמְתַּח דִמְתַּח קַשְׁתֵּיהּ, let the one who draws his bow not draw it; but some copies of the Targum write it לה, with a heh, לה ימתח דמתח קשתיה ולה יסק בשרייניה, against her let the one who draws his bow draw it, and against her let him go up in his armour, which renders אל as אליה. It also stands for other words: for מן in לִשְׁבֹּר אֶל־יוֹסֵף (Bereishis 41:57), to buy from Yosef, though that may also be the order turned about, all the land came to Mitzrayim to Yosef to buy; for על in וַיַּךְ אֶת־הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי אֶל־מִצְחוֹ (Shmuel I 17:49), and he struck the Plishti on his forehead, and in מִי אַתָּה קָרָאתָ אֶל ־הַמֶּֽלֶךְ (Shmuel I 26:14), who are you that called over the king, since the one calling was calling not to the king but to Avner: who are you, that you called to me in a loud voice over the king, not afraid of waking him from his sleep by calling me; for עם in קִבְרוּ אֹתִי אֶל־אֲבֹתָי (Bereishis 49:29), bury me with my fathers; for a beis in הִנֵּה־הוּא נֶחְבָּא אֶל־הַכֵּלִֽים (Shmuel I 10:22), there he is, hidden among the baggage; for את in וַיִּרְדְּפוּ אֶל־מִדְיָן (Shoftim 7:25), and they pursued Midian; and for בעבור in וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אֶל־שָׂרָה אִשְׁתּוֹ (Bereishis 20:2), and Avraham said concerning Sarah his wife; and for a beis in the sense of with, in אִֽישׁ־טוֹב זֶה וְאֶל ־בְּשׂוֹרָה טוֹבָה יָבֽוֹא (Shmuel II 18:27), this is a good man, and he comes with good tidings.

Another word in this root points to many, as זה, this, points to one: הָֽאֲרָצֹת הָאֵל (Bereishis 26:3), these lands, and לָֽאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵל (Bereishis 19:8), these men. With a heh added, וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shemos 1:1), and these are the names of the sons of Yisrael, and אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים (Devarim 1:1), these are the words. It may be that this word has a quiescent middle letter, or that it is of two letters.

וַיֹּאמֶר אָרוּר כְּנָעַן (Bereishis 9:25), "and he said, cursed be Canaan", אֹרוּ אָרוֹר יֹשְׁבֶיהָ (Shoftim 5:23), "curse her inhabitants bitterly", and וְאָרוֹתִי אֶת־בִּרְכוֹתֵיכֶם (Malachi 2:2), "and I will curse your blessings".

אֲשֶׁר אֵרְרָהּ י"י (Bereishis 5:29), "which Hashem cursed", and הַמַּיִם הַמְאָרְרִים (Bamidbar 5:22), "the water that brings the curse".

Rabbi Yehudah wrote that אָרָה־לִּי (Bamidbar 22:6), "curse for me", is of the heavy form; Radak says it may be of the light one.

אֶת־הַמְּאֵרָה (Malachi 2:2), "the curse": by rule it would carry a dagesh but for the resh, on the pattern of מְחִתָּה and מְגִנָּה. It is a curse and a lack of good, the opposite of blessing, since a blessing is an addition of good and a מארה the lack of blessing.

אָרוּר אַפָּם כִּי עָז (Bereishis 49:7), "cursed be their anger for it was fierce", is a tefillah that their anger be made less.

וַאֲשֶׁר תָּאֹר יוּאָר (Bamidbar 22:6), "and whom you curse is cursed". בַּמְּאֵרָה אַתֶּם נֵאָרִים (Malachi 3:9), "you are cursed with the curse", may be from this root too, the vowel under the nun changed because the resh could not take a dagesh; Rabbi Yehudah set it under the root of נִאֵר מִקְדָּשׁוֹ (Eichah 2:7), He has spurned His Mikdash, and Radak says he will write of it there, im yirtzeh Hashem.

סִלּוֹן מַמְאִיר (Yechezkel 28:24), a brier that pains, whose sense is like מכאיב, one that causes pain; and so צָרַעַת מַמְאֶרֶת (Vayikra 13:51), a tzaraas that pains.

וְקַבֹּתוֹ לִי מִשָּֽׁם (Bamidbar 23:27), "and curse him for me from there", מָה אֶקֹּב לֹא קַבֹּה אֵל (Bamidbar 23:8), "how shall I curse whom Hashem has not cursed", and וְקָבְנוֹ ־לִי מִשָּֽׁם (Bamidbar 23:13), "and curse him for me from there": their sense is cursing.

וַיָּבֹא אַחַר אִישׁ־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־ הַקֻּבָּה (Bamidbar 25:8), "and he came after the man of Yisrael into the kubbah", which is like אל האהל, into the tent.

In the same pasuk it comes without the dagesh: וְאֶת־הָֽאִשָּׁה אֶל־ קֳבָתָהּ, and the woman into her kovah. Or קֳבָתָהּ may be of the sense of הַזְּרֹעַ וְהַלְּחָיַיִם וְהַקֵּבָֽה (Devarim 18:3), "the shoulder, the cheeks and the maw", as the Targum renders it, לִמְעָהָא, into her innards. Their sense is the pouch in the beast's innards where the milk of the suckling is gathered, said here by way of borrowing; or it is so in a person's innards too. Chazal explained (Sanhedrin 82b; Chullin 134b) קבתה as the place of ervah in a woman.

No root can be settled for קבה. Rabbi Yonah put it under the root קבה, on the weight of חֵמָה, wrath, and Radak has already written what is good and right at חֵמָה, that its root is יחם. From the way the Mishnah is read in the construct (Chullin 8:5), קיבת הנכרי, the maw of the gentile, with a tzeirei under the kuf, and with the possessive, a kosher animal that suckled from a tereifah, its maw is forbidden, it would seem the root is קוב. Then ואל האשה אל קבתה, and the woman into her kovah, is of another form, from the roots whose middle letter is weak, the separate form being קֹבָה, with a kamatz katan in place of the cholam when joined. Or it is from those whose last letter is weak, the separate form being קֹבֶת, on the weight of שֹׁקֶת, a trough.

הֵן קַלֹּתִי מָה אֲשִׁיבֶךָּ (Iyov 40:4), "behold I am of small account, what shall I answer You", וּנְקַלֹּתִי עוֹד מִזֹּאת (Shmuel II 6:22), "and I shall be yet lighter than this", וּבֹזַי יֵקָֽלּוּ (Shmuel I 2:30), "and those who despise Me shall be despised", and וַתֵּקַל גְּבִרְתָּהּ (Bereishis 16:4), "and her mistress was light in her eyes". So too וּמַדּוּעַ הֲקִלֹּתַנִי (Shmuel II 19:44), "and why have you made light of me", and לְהָקֵל כָּל־נִכְבַּדֵּי־אָֽרֶץ (Yeshayahu 23:9), "to make light of all the honoured of the earth": all of them, and those like them, carry the sense of contempt. עַל־ נְקַלָּה (Yirmiyahu 6:14), "lightly", he explains as על אמירה נקלה, by a slight saying.

קַל ־הוּא עַל־פְּנֵי־מַיִם (Iyov 24:18), "he is swift upon the face of the waters", and קַלִּים הָיוּ רֹדְפֵינוּ (Eichah 4:19), "our pursuers were swift": near in sense to the first. יִקַּלּוּ רֹֽדְפֵיכֶֽם (Yeshayahu 30:16), "your pursuers shall be swift", has a chirik under the yud and a dagesh in the kuf, to tell it apart from וּבֹזַי יֵקָֽלּוּ. הֵקַל אַרְצָה זְבֻלוּן (Yeshayahu 8:23), "he lightened the land of Zevulun", is of this sense too.

בַּלֶּחֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל (Bamidbar 21:5), "with the light bread", with the first root letter doubled: our Rabbis explained (Yoma 75b; Avodah Zarah 5a) that the mon was called so because it was absorbed in the limbs.

מִקֹּל זְנוּתָהּ (Yirmiyahu 3:9), "from the lightness of her harlotry", which he files under lightness; the Mesorah notes it as the only one written defective in the sense of lightness. Our Rabbis in the Yerushalmi (Challah, chapter 2, 58c) explain it as it sounds, "from the voice of her harlotry", and said that a woman's voice is ervah, bringing this very phrase as the reason.

אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ קִלֵּל (Vayikra 20:9), "he has cursed his father and his mother", וּמְקַלֵּל אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ (Shemos 21:17), "and one who curses his father and his mother", לֹֽא־ תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ (Vayikra 19:14), "do not curse the deaf", and וְקִלֵּל בְּמַלְכּוֹ (Yeshayahu 8:21), "and he curses his king". The passive is תְּקֻלַּל חֶלְקָתָם בָּאָרֶץ (Iyov 24:18), "their portion in the land is cursed", and the noun בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָֽה (Devarim 11:26), "blessing and curse". כִּֽי־ מְקַלְלִים לָהֶם בָּנָיו (Shmuel I 3:13), "for his sons were cursing themselves", stands here too, and he allows that it may be from contempt instead, his sons making themselves contemptible, as וּבֹזַי יֵקָֽלּוּ.

כִּֽי־קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים תָּלוּי (Devarim 21:23), "for the cursing of Elokim he is hanged", means he hangs for having cursed Hashem. It may also be taken from the first sense: the hanged man is a disgrace to Hashem, since whoever sees him says he hangs for having blasphemed. There are two reasons in the matter, he says, and they do not reach equally far: this one is the reason for the blasphemer and the idolater, who were the men hanged, and the other, וְלֹא תְטַמֵּא אֶת־אַדְמָתְךָ (Devarim 21:23), "and you shall not defile your land", is a reason for everyone hanged in Eretz Yisrael, since a body left unburied is tumah to the land.

So Yehoshua did with the king of Ai and the five kings, commanding that they be taken down at evening and a heap of stones made over them (Yehoshua 10:27); and so Yisrael are to do with the slain of Gog and Magog, וּקְבָרוּם בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמַעַן טַהֵר אֶת־הָאָרֶץ, "and the house of Yisrael shall bury them in order to cleanse the land": as long as the dead lie unburied, they are tumah to the land. As for the sons of Shaul, left from Nisan until Tishrei עַד נִתַּךְ־מַיִם עֲלֵיהֶם (Shmuel II 21:10), "until water was poured upon them", our Rabbis explained (Yevamos 79a) that though it is written לֹֽא־תָלִין נִבְלָתוֹ עַל־הָעֵץ (Devarim 21:23), "his body shall not remain overnight upon the tree", better one letter of the Torah be uprooted and Heaven's name sanctified in public, since passers-by asked what these were and were told they were kings' sons who laid hands on converts, and said no nation is fit to cleave to like this one.

קִלְקַל בַּֽחִצִּים (Yechezkel 21:26) and וְכָל־הַגְּבָעוֹת הִתְקַלְקָֽלוּ (Yirmiyahu 4:24), with the first root letter doubled as well. They are of the sense of קלקול in the words of our Rabbis, which is ruin and destruction, as they said (Shabbos 13:3; 108b) that all who spoil are exempt; read so, all the hills were ruined. Rabbi Yonah explained them as movement, in the sense of lightness, and Radak’s father wrote them so as well; read so, all the hills moved. Radak says what that comes to: קִלְקַל בַּֽחִצִּים is that he commanded the arrows be shot upward, and if the arrow falls toward Bnei Ammon he will go there. So Yonasan holds, rendering it קְשַׁת בְּגִרְרַיָא, "he shot with arrows".

נְחֹשֶׁת קָלָֽל (Yechezkel 1:7) means copper polished and bright, and from this וְהוּא לֹא־פָנִים קִלְקַל (Koheles 10:10), "and he has not burnished the face", that is, the face of the iron was not honed. Menachem joined קִלְקַל בַּֽחִצִּים to this sense, reading it, "he burnished the arrows".