dust

אָבָק וְעָפָר (Devarim 28:24), dust and earth, and וּפִרְחָם כָּאָבָק יַּעֲלֶה (Yeshayahu 5:24), and their blossom shall go up like dust. Fine earth, Radak says, is called אבק.

Radak says כָּאָבָק of Yeshayahu 5:24 is wholly with kamatz and is not in the construct, against what the sage Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra wrote there, and that Ibn Ezra confused it with כְּאָבָק דַּק (Yeshayahu 29:5), like fine dust, which in some books has the alef with sheva and patach and is in the construct; כאבק there is said of fine things, since it does not mean earth alone.

In most books, Radak says, that word too has a kamatz under the alef but the kaf with sheva, and the Mesorah notes on it לית, that it is unique. Radak found another note, on וְהָיָה לְאָבָק (Shemos 9:9), and it shall become dust, which says כל אבקא קמץ, every אבקא has a kamatz; and it forgot, he says, וְעָנָן אֲבַק רַגְלָיו (Nachum 1:3), and the cloud is the dust of His feet, unless perhaps it reckoned the word together with its prefixed letter.

Spices ground fine are called so too: מִכֹּל אַבְקַת רוֹכֵל (Shir HaShirim 3:6), of all the powders of the merchant. And וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ (Bereishis 32:25), and a man raised dust with him, means that they raised dust with their feet as each strove with the other.

וְאָֽנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵֽפֶר (Bereishis 18:27), and I am dust and ash: pointed with five dots, a tzeirei and a segol, its sense is דשן, ash.

וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ בָּֽאֲפֵר (Melachim I 20:38), he disguised himself בצעיף, with a veil; the word has the letters of the פאר of וְאֶת־פַּֽאֲרֵי הַמִּגְבָּעֹת (Shemos 39:28), and the headgear of the caps, turned about.

וְאֶת־ אוֹפִר וְאֶת־חֲוִילָה (Bereishis 10:29), Ofir and Chavilah, are men's names, Radak says, and their places were called after them. They are the places of the gold, as it says, אֵת כָּל־אֶרֶץ הַֽחֲוִילָה אֲשֶׁר־שָׁם הַזָּהָֽב (Bereishis 2:11), all the land of Chavilah where the gold is, and so it is written, זָהָב מֵֽאוֹפִיר (Melachim I 10:11), gold from Ofir. In וּבְצוּר נְחָלִים אוֹפִֽיר (Iyov 22:24), and Ofir among the rocks of the streams, אוֹפִיר means the gold of Ofir.

וְאָכַל וְשָׂבַע וְדָשֵׁן (Devarim 31:20), and he will eat and be full and grow fat, he marks as a verb, and וְהָיָה דָשֵׁן וְשָׁמֵן (Yeshayahu 30:23), and it will be rich and fat, as an adjective; so too דְּשֵׁנִים וְרַֽעֲנַנִּים יִהְיֽוּ (Tehillim 92:15), they will be full of sap and fresh. The noun is in וְתִתְעַנַּג בַּדֶּשֶׁן נַפְשְׁכֶֽם (Yeshayahu 55:2), and your soul shall delight in fatness.

דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי (Tehillim 23:5), You have made my head rich with oil, and שְׁמוּעָה טוֹבָה תְּדַשֶּׁן ־עָֽצֶם (Mishlei 15:30), good news puts fat on the bone. Where the doer is not named, נֶֽפֶשׁ־בְּרָכָה תְדֻשָּׁן (Mishlei 11:25), a soul of blessing will be made fat, and וַֽעֲפָרָם מֵחֵלֶב יְדֻשָּֽׁן (Yeshayahu 34:7), their dust will be made fat with fat.

In another sense, אֶל־שֶׁפֶךְ הַדֶּשֶׁן (Vayikra 4:12), to the place where the דֶּשֶׁן is poured out, pointed with six points, is the ash, and so וְכָל־הָעֵמֶק הַפְּגָרִים וְהַדֶּשֶׁן (Yirmiyahu 31:39 in his edition), and all the valley of the corpses and of the ash. That is the place where the ash was poured out, which lay outside Yerushalayim, and the pasuk says that place will be added to the city in time to come: the whole valley will be an addition to the city, and all the fields up to Nachal Kidron.

Targum Yonasan renders וְכָל־הָעֵמֶק הַפְּגָרִים, and all the valley of the corpses, as the plain where the corpses of the camp of Ashur fell. Radak says Yonasan either did not render וְהַדֶּשֶׁן, and the ash, at all, or rendered it by משרית אתורא, the camp of Ashur, since they were fat and rich, as it says of him וּמִשְׁמַן בְּשָׂרוֹ יֵרָזֶֽה (Yeshayahu 17:4), and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

וְדִשְּׁנוּ אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ (Bamidbar 4:13), which Radak glosses יסירו דשנו, they shall take away its ash, and וְעָשִׂיתָ סִּֽירֹתָיו לְדַשְּׁנוֹ (Shemos 27:3), and you shall make its pots for clearing away its ash. וְעוֹלָתְךָ יְדַשְּׁנֶה סֶֽלָה (Tehillim 20:4), and your burnt offering He will make ash, selah, he reads as ישימה דשן, He will turn it to ash: that is, He will send His fire down from heaven to consume it and to accept it with favour.

עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה (Bereishis 2:7), dust from the ground; עַד אֲשֶׁר־דַּק לְעָפָר (Devarim 9:21), until it was ground fine as dust. וְעַפְרֹת זָהָב לֽוֹ (Iyov 28:6), and it has dusts of gold, means the dusts out of which the gold is taken; or else the ground gold is itself called dust, as it is written וָֽאַשְׁלִךְ אֶת־ עֲפָרוֹ (Devarim 9:21), and I cast away its dust, and as Chazal said (Avodah Zarah 44a). Ash too is called dust, מֵֽעֲפַר שְׂרֵפַת הַֽחַטָּאת (Bamidbar 19:17), from the dust of the burning of the chatas.

The four are of one sense and are set beside one another, as עַפְרוֹת תֵּבֵל, the dusts of the world, אַדְמַת־עָפָר (Daniel 12:2), the ground of dust, and עַל־ עֲפַר ־אֶרֶץ (Amos 2:7), on the dust of the earth; yet Radak says there is a small difference between them. עפר is mostly said of what is fine, and so is אדמה, as וַֽאֲדָמָה עַל־רֹאשֽׁוֹ (Shmuel I 4:12), and earth upon his head, though אדמה is seldom said of the fine. Between ארץ and תבל too there is a small difference: ארץ takes in the whole, settled land and wilderness together, and תבל takes in the settled part only.

Radak says fine things are named by dust: וַיָּדֶק לְעָפָר (Melachim II 23:6), he ground it to dust, and וְנָשָׂא אֶת־ עֲפָרָם (Melachim II 23:4), he carried away their dust. The heavy verb taken from it is וְעִפַּר בֶּעָפָֽר (Shmuel II 16:13), and he dusted with dust.

צָֽלֲלוּ כַּֽעוֹפֶרֶת (Shemos 15:10), they sank like lead, is the metal אבר, as the Targum has it. It is rightly named על שם האפר, after the ash, since dust eats away all metals and lessens them while they lie in it, but lead gains in dust. And לְעֹפֶר הָֽאַיָּלִים (Shir HaShirim 2:9), to a young hart, and כִּשְׁנֵי עֳפָרִים (Shir HaShirim 4:5), like two young ones: the עֹפֶר is the young of the hart or of the deer.