dig

כִּי חָפַרְתִּי אֶת הַבְּאֵר הַזֹּאת (Bereishis 21:30), that I dug this well, and חֲפָרוּהָ שָׂרִים (Bamidbar 21:18), princes dug it. On וְחָפַרְתָּ לָבֶטַח תִּשְׁכָּב (Iyov 11:18), you shall dig, and lie down in safety, he explains that you will need only to dig round your buildings and will not have to wall them or raise them up, since you will lie down in safety.

כִּי לַחְפֹּר אֶת כָּל הָאָרֶץ בָּאוּ (Yehoshua 2:2 in his edition), for they have come to search out the whole land, and מִשָּׁם חָפַר אֹכֶל (Iyov 39:29), from there it searches out food. It is searching and seeking, he says, because one who searches for a thing is like one who digs for it.

לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת (Yeshayahu 2:20) he takes as the name of a bird; Rabbi Yonah explained that it is called so for its much pecking at fruit, and Radak says that is right, since the pasuk names וְלָעֲטַלֵּפִים, and to the bats, beside it, and men made images of birds and bats to bow down to. It may also be read, Radak says, as two words meaning to dig diggings: men would come to dig holes to hide in, as bats hide by day in holes, and so the next pasuk says לָבוֹא בְּנִקְרוֹת הַצֻּרִים (Yeshayahu 2:21), to go into the clefts of the rocks.

וְחָפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה (Yeshayahu 24:23), the moon shall be ashamed, and וּבֹשׁוּ הַחֹזִים וְחָפְרוּ הַקֹּסְמִים (Michah 3:7), the seers shall be put to shame and the diviners ashamed. All of these, he says, are shame. הֶחְפִּיר לְבָנוֹן (Yeshayahu 33:9), Levanon is ashamed, is said by way of figure, after the manner of הַגֶּפֶן הוֹבִישָׁה (Yoel 1:12), the vine is put to shame.

וְגַם־יֶקֶב חָצֵב בּוֹ (Yeshayahu 5:2), and he also hewed out a winepress in it; וּבֹרֹת חֲצוּבִים (Devarim 6:11), hewn cisterns; כִּֽי־ חָצַבְתָּ לְּךָ פֹּה קָבֶר (Yeshayahu 22:16), that you have hewn yourself a grave here; and תַּחְצֹב נְחֽשֶׁת (Devarim 8:9), you may hew out copper. In the passive, לָעַד בַּצּוּר יֵחָֽצְבֽוּן (Iyov 19:24), that they be hewn in the rock forever, and הַבִּיטוּ אֶל־צוּר חֻצַּבְתֶּם (Yeshayahu 51:1), look to the rock you were hewn from.

עַל־כֵּן חָצַבְתִּי בַּנְּבִיאִים (Hoshea 6:5), therefore I have hewn by the prophets, is a figure: He spoke through them so much that it was as though He were beating them to pieces with His words.

In the heavy form, הַמַּחְצֶבֶת רַהַב (Yeshayahu 51:9), that hewed Rahav down. The noun is וְאַבְנֵי מַחְצֵב (Melachim II 12:13), and hewn stones. The sense of it all is cutting, of the kind done in carving.

בּוֹר כָּרָה וַיַּחְפְּרֵהוּ (Tehillim 7:16), he dug a pit and hollowed it out; כִּי יִכְרֶה אִישׁ בֹּר (Shemos 21:33), if a man digs a pit; כֹּרֶה שַּׁחַת (Mishlei 26:27), one who digs a pit. אָזְנַיִם כָּרִיתָ לִּי (Tehillim 40:7), ears You have dug for me, means You dug ears for me to hear, and burnt offering and sin offering You did not ask; it is in the way of הִנֵּה שְׁמֹעַ מִזֶּבַח טוֹב (Shmuel I 15:22), behold, to listen is better than sacrifice.

בְּקִבְרִי אֲשֶׁר כָּרִיתִי לִי (Bereishis 50:5), in my grave that I dug for myself: it may be that Yaakov Avinu dug and hollowed out his grave in his lifetime. Some take it from the sense of buying, the grave I bought for myself: though Avraham bought the place, it is as though Yaakov had bought it; or because Yaakov bought Esav's share for a pot of lentils.

וּמִכְרֵה מֶלַח (Tzefaniah 2:9), a pit of salt, and נְוֹת כְּרֹת רֹעִים (Tzefaniah 2:6), the place shepherds dig so that their flocks will be penned there. All of these are digging. וּמִכְרֵה מֶלַח can also be read as a mound of salt, like the word כרי that Chazal use for a heap of grain, in the blessing said by one who begins to measure it (Bava Metzia 42a): ברוך השולח ברכה בכרי הזה, blessed is He who sends blessing on this heap.

וַיִּכְרֶה לָהֶם כֵּרָה גְדוֹלָה (Melachim II 6:23), and he made them a great meal, and יִכְרוּ עָלָיו חַבָּרִים (Iyov 40:30), companions make a meal over him: their sense is eating. לְהַכְרוֹת אֶת־דָּוִד (Shmuel II 3:35), to give David to eat, is written so with a kaf but read לְהַבְרוֹת, with a beis, and so Chazal say (Sanhedrin 20a): it is written לְהַכְרוֹת and read לְהַבְרוֹת, at first להברותו and at the end להכרותו. Menachem ben Saruk wrote that the kaf is what is written, and so did Rabbi Yehudah; but Radak found it so in none of the accurate sefarim he had seen, and Rabbi Yonah wrote that he found להכרות written in no accurate sefer, nor in the Mesorah. Radak's father writes in Sefer HaGalui that כָּרָה is a large meal and בָרָה a small one, and on this Chazal's words are explained: at first they pressed him to eat a little, which is להברותו, as in וְאֶבְרֶה מִיָּדָהּ (Shmuel II 13:6), and I will eat from her hand, the little a man eats when he is sick; and at the end להכרותו, to make him eat much once he had begun to eat a little.

וְגַם מַיִם תִּכְרוּ מֵאִתָּם (Devarim 2:6), and water too you shall buy from them, and וָאֶכְּרֶהָ לִּי (Hoshea 3:2), so I bought her for myself; the nouns are וְנָתַתִּי מִכְרָם (Bamidbar 20:19), I will give their price, and וְרָחֹק מִפְּנִינִים מִכְרָהּ (Mishlei 31:10), her price is far above pearls. Their sense is acquiring. עַל מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק (Amos 2:6), for their buying the righteous for silver, may be from this too, as it says elsewhere לִקְנוֹת בַּכֶּסֶף דַּלִּים (Amos 8:6), to buy the poor for silver.

וְלֹא נִכַּר ־שׁוֹעַ לִפְנֵי־דָל (Iyov 34:19), and the noble is not recognized before the poor; לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּחוּצוֹת (Eichah 4:8), they were not recognized in the streets. וְלֹא הִכִּירוֹ כִּֽי־הָיוּ יָדָיו (Bereishis 27:23), he did not recognize him because his hands were so; וְאֵינָם מַכִּירִים לְדַבֵּר יְהוּדִית (Nechemiah 13:24), they did not know how to speak Yehudis; לֹֽא־ תַכִּירוּ פָנִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט (Devarim 1:17), you shall not recognize faces in judgment, and הַֽכֵּר ־פָּנִים לֹֽא־טוֹב (Mishlei 28:21), recognizing faces is not good. The noun is הַכָּרַת פְּנֵיהֶם עָנְתָה בָּם (Yeshayahu 3:9), the recognition of their faces testifies against them. Of all this he says ענין ההכרה ידוע, the sense of recognizing is known.

גַּם בְּמַֽעֲלָלָיו יִתְנַכֶּר ־נָעַר (Mishlei 20:11), even by his doings a lad makes himself known, stands among the forms of recognizing. His father explained it as the reverse of recognizing, which Radak spells out: by his doings the lad makes himself a stranger, for if what he does is clean and upright, people say this is no lad's doing.

The second sense, the opposite of the first: בְּיוֹם נָכְרוֹ (Ovadiah 1:12), on the day of his estrangement, an infinitive; וַֽיְנַכְּרוּ אֶת־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה (Yirmiyahu 19:4), they made this place strange; פֶּן־ יְנַכְּרוּ צָרֵימוֹ (Devarim 32:27), lest their foes deny it; וַיִּתְנַכֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם (Bereishis 42:7), he made himself a stranger to them; וְהִיא מִתְנַכֵּרָֽה (Melachim I 14:5), and she was making herself a stranger. The sense is ענין ההכחשה והזרות, denial and strangeness.

From this sense, the adjective: כָּל־בֶּן־ נֵכָר (Shemos 12:43), any foreigner; אֱלֹהֵי נֵֽכַר ־הָאָרֶץ (Devarim 31:16), the gods of the foreigners of the land; and with a yud, אִישׁ נָכְרִי (Devarim 17:15), a foreign man, מַלְבּוּשׁ נָכְרִֽי (Tzefaniah 1:8), foreign clothing, הֲלוֹא נָכְרִיּוֹת נֶחְשַׁבְנוּ לוֹ (Bereishis 31:15), are we not reckoned to him as strangers. The right account, he holds, is that נֶכֶר is both a noun and an adjective: in לְאֵל נֵכָֽר (Tehillim 81:10), to a foreign god, it is an adjective, and so in כָּל־בֶּן־נֵכָר; those upon which the construct falls are nouns, as וּבְנֵי הַנֵּכָר (Yeshayahu 56:5 in his edition), and the sons of the foreigner, and אֱלֹהֵי הַנֵּכָר (Bereishis 35:2), the gods of the foreigner.

נִכַּר אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים בְּיָדִי (Shmuel I 23:7), Elokim has handed him over into my hand, which he glosses מסר והסגיר, gave him over and delivered him up.