cutting

בָּקַע יָם וַיַּעֲבִירֵם (Tehillim 78:13), He split the sea and brought them across; יְבַקַּע צֻרִים בַּמִּדְבָּר (Tehillim 78:15), He splits rocks in the wilderness. Of men breaking into a camp or a city, וַיִּבְקְעוּ שְׁלשֶׁת הַגִּבֹּרִים בְּמַחֲנֵה פְלִשְׁתִּים (Shmuel II 23:16), the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Pelishtim, and in the passive הָבְקְעָה הָעִיר (Yirmiyahu 39:2), the city was breached. The noun is in וְהַבַּיִת הַקָּטֹן בְּקִעִֽים (Amos 6:11), and the small house into cracks, and וְאֵת בְּקִיעֵי עִיר־דָּוִד (Yeshayahu 22:9), and the breaches of the city of David; all of these are the sense of splitting.

נִבְקְעוּ כָּל מַעְיְנוֹת תְּהוֹם רַבָּה (Bereishis 7:11), all the springs of the great deep were split open; כִּי נִבְקְעוּ בַמִּדְבָּר מַיִם (Yeshayahu 35:6), waters broke open in the wilderness; אָז יִבָּקַע כַּשַּׁחַר אוֹרֶךָ (Yeshayahu 58:8), then your light will break open like the dawn.

In וּבָֽקְעָה וְדָֽגְרָה בְצִלָּהּ (Yeshayahu 34:15), and she hatches and broods in her shade, the splitting is the chick's coming out of the egg, and likewise בֵּיצֵי צִפְעוֹנִי בִּקֵּעוּ (Yeshayahu 59:5), they hatched adders' eggs.

בֶּקַע לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת (Shemos 38:26), a beka a head, is half a shekel, and carries the name because it is split off from the shekel.

יֹֽצְאִים בַּבִּקְעָה וּבָהָֽר (Devarim 8:7), going out in plain and hill; וְהָֽרְכָסִים לְבִקְעָֽה (Yeshayahu 40:4), the ridges made a plain; וַיִּמְצְאוּ בִקְעָה (Bereishis 11:2), they found a plain. It is a level place, as against the mountains, and these too are of the first sense.

וְאֶת־הַצִּפֹּר לֹא בָתָֽר (Bereishis 15:10), and the bird he did not divide; וַיְבַתֵּר אֹתָם בַּתָּוֶךְ (Bereishis 15:10), and he divided them in the middle. The noun: עַל־הָרֵי בָֽתֶר (Shir HaShirim 2:17), upon the mountains of division, and וַיִּתֵּן אִישׁ־בִּתְרוֹ (Bereishis 15:10), and he set each one's part; and the plural, וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ בֵּין בְּתָרָֽיו (Yirmiyahu 34:18), and they passed between its parts. The sense is חלק, a part.

גָּדַע בָּֽחֳרִי־אַף (Eichah 2:3), he cut off in fierce anger; וְגָֽדַעְתִּי אֶת־זְרֹֽעֲךָ (Shmuel I 2:31), I will cut off your arm; וְרָמֵי הַקּוֹמָה גְּדוּעִים (Yeshayahu 10:33), the tall of stature are hewn down.

נִגְדַּעְתָּ לָאָרֶץ (Yeshayahu 14:12), you were cut down to the ground; נִגְדְּעָה קֶרֶן מוֹאָב (Yirmiyahu 48:25), the horn of Moav is cut off; שִׁקְמִים גֻּדָּעוּ (Yeshayahu 9:9), sycamores were cut down.

וַֽאֲשֵֽׁירֵהֶם תְּגַדֵּעוּן (Devarim 7:5), you shall cut down their asheiros; וְכָל־קַרְנֵי רְשָׁעִים אֲגַדֵּעַ (Tehillim 75:11), all the horns of the wicked I will cut off. His sense for every one of these forms is cutting off.

גִּזְרוּ אֶת הַיֶּלֶד הַחַי (Melachim I 3:25), cut the living child, and לְגֹזֵר יַם סוּף לִגְזָרִים (Tehillim 136:13), to Him who cut the Yam Suf into pieces. The noun is בֵּין הַגְּזָרִים הָאֵלֶּה (Bereishis 15:17), between these pieces. The sense, he says, is cutting off and cutting.

אֶל אֶרֶץ גְּזֵרָה (Vayikra 16:22), to a land cut off, cut off from settlement and from growing things. The chamber called הַגִּזְרָה, in וְהַגִּזְרָה וְהַבִּנְיָה (Yechezkel 41:13), and the gizrah and the building, he explains as the chamber cut off from the house, and אֶל־פְּנֵי הַגִּזְרָה אֲשֶׁר עַל־אַֽחֲרֶיהָ (Yechezkel 41:15), facing the gizrah that is at its rear, the same way; though that one he also explains as the cut place, cut off and divided into dwelling places for Yisrael, for the kohanim and for the Levi'im. And סַפִּיר גִּזְרָתָם (Eichah 4:7), their cutting was sapphire, he reads as though they had been cut out of sapphire, so clear were they.

וּבְמַגְזְרֹת הַבַּרְזֶל (Shmuel II 12:31), and with the iron cutters: the saws with which wood is cut, or iron tools like them that cut.

Said of a firm thing that will not turn back: וְתִגְזַר אֹמֶר וְיָקָם לָךְ (Iyov 22:28), you shall decree a thing and it shall stand for you, and אֲשֶׁר נִגְזַר עָלֶיהָ (Esther 2:1), what had been cut concerning her, that is, the matter was cut through so that it would not turn back again.

Chazal made frequent use of this word, as in their saying (Zevachim 92b) חתיכה של בשר, a piece of meat, and במקום חתך, at the place of the cut, and many more besides these.

וַיִּכְרְתוּ בְרִית בִּבְאֵר שָׁבַע (Bereishis 21:32), they made a covenant at Be'er Sheva; הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי כֹּרֵת בְּרִית (Shemos 34:10), I am making a covenant; כְּרָת ־לָנוּ בְרִית (Shmuel I 11:1), make a covenant with us; and אָלוֹת שָׁוְא כָּרֹת בְּרִית (Hoshea 10:4), swearing falsely in making a covenant. Also וְכָתַב לָהּ סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת (Devarim 24:1), he writes her a bill of divorce, and its plural, וָאֶתֵּן אֶת־סֵפֶר כְּרִֽיתֻתֶיהָ אֵלֶיהָ (Yirmiyahu 3:8), I gave her her bill of divorce.

כָּרְתוּ יַעְרָהּ (Yirmiyahu 46:23) is read two ways. Some read it with kamatz chatuf and say it is a command, cut down her forest; others read it with the first vowel held, and so the accurate books have it, the kaf held with a ga'ya. That, he holds, is right, and it is then a past standing for a future, יִכְרְתוּ יַעְרָהּ, they will cut down her forest, as Scripture does in many places and very often in prophecy. נְאֻם, the declaration, is joined here to a past verb, though that is not the usual way in prophecy; יָֽרְדוּ לַטָּבַח (Yirmiyahu 48:15), they have gone down to the slaughter, is one like it, and so with a past verb in words of rebuke, כֻּלְּכֶם פְּשַׁעְתֶּם בִּי (Yirmiyahu 2:29), all of you have rebelled against Me.

וְנִכְרַת מֵֽעַמָּֽיו (Shemos 30:33), he is cut off from his people; וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא (Vayikra 7:20), that soul is cut off; הִכָּרֵת תִּכָּרֵת (Bamidbar 15:31), it is surely cut off; אַֽחֲרִית רְשָׁעִים נִכְרָֽתָה (Tehillim 37:38), the end of the wicked is cut off. Where another does the cutting, וְהִכְרַתִּי לְאַחְאָב (Melachim II 9:8), I will cut off from Achav, and לְהַכְרִית הַֽצְפַרְדְּעִים (Shemos 8:5), to cut off the frogs. וְלוֹא נַכְרִית מֵהַבְּהֵמָה (Melachim I 18:5) is that we not cut the city off from the beasts.

וּכְרוּת שָׁפְכָה (Devarim 23:2) is one whose member has been cut, so that it no longer shoots the stream of seed like an arrow but pours and dribbles, and he does not beget.

וְהַכְּרֵתִי וְהַפְּלֵתִי (Melachim I 1:38), the Kereisi and the Peleisi, were two families in Yisrael whose name was so, and Targum Yonasan renders them as archers and slingers. But נֶגֶב הַכְּרֵתִי (Shmuel I 30:14), the Negev of the Kereisi, is of the Pelishtim, as it says of them גּוֹי כְּרֵתִים (Tzefaniah 2:5), the nation of the Kereisim.

כְּרֻתֹת אֲרָזִֽים (Melachim I 6:36), which he explains as beams of cedar, cut and well hewn; and כִּרְתוּ עֵצָה (Yirmiyahu 6:6), cut down timber, has a chirik under its first root letter.

וּמַלְתֶּם אֵת עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם (Devarim 10:16), circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and וַיָּמָל אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yehoshua 5:3), he circumcised the children of Yisrael. The form that is done to a man: וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי יִמּוֹל בְּשַׂר עָרְלָתֽוֹ (Vayikra 12:3), on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

עַל־כָּל־ מוּל בְּעָרְלָֽה (Yirmiyahu 9:24) he reads as two things at once: upon everyone circumcised and upon everyone who is in his foreskin, that is, upon Yisrael who are circumcised and upon those who are not.

יְמוֹלֵל וְיָבֵֽשׁ (Tehillim 90:6), it is cut down and dries up, is either an intransitive verb or one whose doer is left unsaid, the wind, as in רוּחַ עָֽבְרָה־בּוֹ וְאֵינֶנּוּ (Tehillim 103:16), the wind passes over it and it is gone. So too כְּמוֹ יִתְמֹלָֽלוּ (Tehillim 58:8), as though they were cut off. The sense of all of them is cutting. It can be read that קוֹל הֲמֻלָּה (Yechezkel 1:24), the sound of a הֲמֻלָּה, is from this root as well; he gives it no gloss here, having written of it at the root הָמַל, and says he will write of it again at מָלַל.

מוּל means over against: מוּל הָֽאֱלֹהִים (Shemos 18:19), which he glosses as facing Hashem, and וַיִּסֹּב מֵֽאֶצְלוֹ אֶל־ מוּל אַחֵר (Shmuel I 17:30), he turned away from him toward another, which he reads as toward another place. It comes with a cholam in place of the shuruk, מוֹל סוּף (Devarim 1:1), over against Suf, and with a quiescent alef after the vav, הַֽהוֹלֶכֶת לְמוֹאל (Nechemiah 12:38), that went over against. The sense of all of them is facing and over against.

וַֽיְנַתְּחֶהָ לַעֲצָמֶיהָ לִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר נְתָחִים (Shoftim 19:29), and he cut her up by her bones into twelve limbs; תְּנַתֵּחַ לִנְתָחָיו (Shemos 29:17), you shall cut it into its limbs; אֱסֹף נְתָחֶיהָ אֵלֶיהָ (Yechezkel 24:4), gather its limbs into it.

כָּל־ נֵתַח טוֹב (Yechezkel 24:4), every good limb, has the nun with a segol, and there are books that have it with a tzere.

פֹלֵחַ וּבֹקֵעַ (Tehillim 141:7), splitting and cleaving; וַיְפַלַּח אֶל־סִיר הַנָּזִיד (Melachim II 4:39), and he split them into the pot of stew; יְפַלַּח כִּלְיוֹתַי (Iyov 16:13), he splits my kidneys. Their sense is splitting.

כְּפֶלַח תַּחְתִּֽית (Iyov 41:16), like the lower millstone, is the lower of the pair, since the two millstones look as though one had been split off from its fellow; פֶּלַח רֶכֶב (Shoftim 9:53) is a piece of the upper millstone, the one called רֶכֶב (Devarim 24:6).

פֶלַח דְּבֵלָה (Shmuel I 30:12) is a piece of pressed figs, and כְּפֶלַח הָֽרִמּוֹן (Shir HaShirim 4:3), like a split piece of the pomegranate.

וּבְגָדָיו לֹא יִפְרֹֽם (Vayikra 21:10), he shall not tear his garments; וּבִגְדֵיכֶם לֹֽא־ תִפְרֹמוּ וְלֹא תָמֻתוּ (Vayikra 10:6), do not tear your garments and you will not die; בְּגָדָיו יִהְיוּ פְרֻמִים (Vayikra 13:45), his garments shall be torn. The sense is tearing.

Chazal say (Sotah 1:5) ואוחז בבגדיה אם נקרעו נקרעו ואם נפרמו נפרמו, he takes hold of her garments, if they tear they tear and if they come apart they come apart. Since they said so, it appears to Radak that there is a difference between קריעה, tearing, and פרימה: קריעה is in the body of the garment, away from the seam, and פרימה is at the seam.

פָּתוֹת אֹתָהּ פִּתִּים (Vayikra 2:6), break it into pieces, is a sense of cutting and breaking, and so פַת ־לֶחֶם (Bereishis 18:5), a piece of bread, וְאֹכַל פִּתִּי לְבַדִּי (Iyov 31:17), that I ate my morsel alone, and מִפִּתּוֹ תֹאכַל (Shmuel II 12:3), it would eat of his morsel.

מַשְׁלִיךְ קַֽרְחוֹ כְפִתִּים (Tehillim 147:17), casting His ice like morsels, is like a thing broken up into bits; the word in its fuller form is וּבִפְתוֹתֵי לֶחֶם (Yechezkel 13:19), for scraps of bread.

Rabbi Yehudah records another sense in this root, for the heavy form וַֽהֲפִתִּיתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶֽיךָ (Mishlei 24:28), whose regular form would be הֲפִתּוֹתָ, with a cholam. Radak takes it up again under the root פָּתָה, in its proper form. It may also be from the sense given here, breaking and cutting, as suits the pasuk, אַל־תְּהִי עֵֽד־חִנָּם בְּרֵעֶךָ (Mishlei 24:28), be not a witness against your fellow without cause: if you are a witness against him without cause, you break him and strike him with your lips. On that reading, וַֽהֲפִתִּיתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶֽיךָ means and you would break him with your lips.

וְקֶטֶב מְרִירִי (Devarim 32:24), and bitter deadly sickness, and מִקֶּטֶב יָשׁוּד צָהֳרָֽיִם (Tehillim 91:6), from the deadly sickness that ravages at noon; on another pattern, אֱהִי קָֽטָבְךָ שְׁאוֹל (Hoshea 13:14), I will be your deadly sickness, O grave.

This too carries the sense of cutting off, and what is meant by it is the illness that falls on a man of a sudden and kills him.

The Targum Yerushalmi renders לַחְטֹב עֵצִים (Devarim 19:5), to hew wood, as לְמִקְטוֹעַ קֵיסִין, to cut logs.

אֵת רֹאשׁ יְנִֽיקוֹתָיו קָטָף (Yechezkel 17:4), he cut off the top of its young shoots; וְקָֽטַפְתָּ מְלִילֹת (Devarim 23:26), and you may cut off ears of grain; מֵרֹאשׁ יֹֽנְקוֹתָיו רַךְ אֶקְטֹף (Yechezkel 17:22), from the top of its shoots I will cut off a tender one; and in the passive עֹדֶנּוּ בְאִבּוֹ לֹא יִקָּטֵף (Iyov 8:12), while it is still in its greenness it is not cut off. Of all of them: ענינם ענין כריתה, their sense is a sense of cutting.

וְקַצֹּתָה אֶת־כַּפָּהּ (Devarim 25:12), you shall cut off her hand; קִצֵּץ עֲבוֹת רְשָׁעִים (Tehillim 129:4), He cut the cords of the wicked; וְקִצֵּץ פְּתִילִם (Shemos 39:3), and he cut it into threads; בְּהֹנוֹת יְדֵיהֶם וְרַגְלֵיהֶם מְקֻצָּצִים (Shoftim 1:7), the thumbs of their hands and the big toes of their feet cut off; וַיְקַצְּצוּ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם וְאֶת־רַגְלֵיהֶם (Shmuel II 4:12), they cut off their hands and their feet. It is the sense of cutting and severing.

From this root and this sense come בָּא הַקֵּץ (Yechezkel 7:6), the end has come, and קֵץ כָּל־בָּשָׂר (Bereishis 6:13), the end of all flesh: the close of a stretch of time, as though it were a place of cutting.

מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע־שָׁנִים תַּעֲשֶׂה שְׁמִטָּה (Devarim 15:1), at the end of seven years you shall make a release: though it is an end for the release of monies, it is a beginning for the release of land and the sending out of servants. So too מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים תְּשַׁלְּחוּ (Yirmiyahu 34:14), at the end of seven years you shall send out, is the start of the seventh year, for both head and end are called קצה.

וְעַל כָּל־קְצוּצֵי פֵאָה (Yirmiyahu 9:25), and upon all who are clipped at the corner, is of cutting; and it may be of the sense of the end, meaning those who dwell at the end of the settled world, at its edge.

עַד־אָנָה תְּשִׂימוּן קִנְצֵי לְמִלִּין (Iyov 18:2), how long will you set ends to words, has a nun standing in for the doubling. Some of the grammarians read כִּי לֹא־תָמְנוּ (Eichah 3:22), for we are not consumed, the same way, as though it were תממו. Or it may be that קִנְצֵי and קֵץ have the root קָנַץ, and it is for the missing nun that קֵץ takes a dagesh when joined to a suffix: קִצּוֹ, its end, קִצִּי, my end.

קָרַע י"י אֶת־מַמְלְכוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shmuel I 15:28), Hashem has torn the kingdom of Yisrael away, and וְקָרַע אֹתוֹ מִן־הַבֶּגֶד (Vayikra 13:56), he shall tear it out of the garment; ויקרע את בגדיו (Bereishis 37:29), he rent his garments; קרעו בגדיהם (Bamidbar 14:6), they rent their garments; קרוע כתנתו (Shmuel II 15:32), his coat rent, which comes with a kamatz in the construct like לבש הבדים (Yechezkel 9:11), clothed in linen; קרועי בגדים (Yeshayahu 36:22), with garments rent, after the manner of נֹבֶלֶת עָלֶהָ (Yeshayahu 1:30), whose leaf withers, and the like of these are treated at the root נבל; יקרעה בתער הספר (Yirmiyahu 36:23), he would cut it with the scribe's knife.

In the passive, והמזבח נקרע (Melachim I 13:5), and the altar was rent, and לא יקרע (Shemos 28:32), that it not be torn: the sense of all of them is splitting and cutting.

קרעו ולא דמו (Tehillim 35:15), they tore and did not keep still, is of this sense: as though they tore my flesh by how they kept on speaking against me. So too כי תקרעי בפוך עיניך (Yirmiyahu 4:30), that you tear your eyes with paint, as though she tears her eyes by how she keeps on painting them. Or קרעו ולא דמו may fall on the cutting of the tongue in words, or on the wide opening of the mouth in laughter; and Radak says that is the correct reading.

וקרע לו חלוני (Yirmiyahu 22:14), and he cuts out windows for himself: Yonasan renders it ופצים ליה חרכין, that is, as Radak explains, he opened openings for himself. So too לוא קרעת שמים (Yeshayahu 63:19), if only You would tear open the heavens: a sense of opening.