Egypt
At a glance
In short
Mitzrayim is Egypt, and also the name of the man from whom the Egyptians descend. Patros is properly Upper Egypt, or the Patrusim who came from Mitzrayim. The paytanim use it for Egypt as a whole, as they use Ludim, Anamim, and Lehavim, and Rabbi Klein concludes that they seem to do so by poetic license, not because the words are synonyms. Rahav, a word meaning haughty, is a name for Egypt and for its heavenly minister. Eretz Cham, the Land of Cham, is Tehillim's name for Egypt.
Distinctions
Mitzrayim (מצרים)
First a person: a son of Cham (Bereishis 10:6, Divrei HaYamim I 1:8), father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehavim, Naftuchim, Patrusim, and Kasluchim, the last two of whom begot the Plishtim and Kaftorim (Bereishis 10:13 to 14). Then the land. Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms adds a sign: the pasuk of Makkas Bechoros (Shemos 12:23) holds every letter of the aleph-beis but tes, whose value is nine, for the nine families struck.
Patros (פתרוס), Ludim (לודים), Anamim (ענמים), Lehavim (להבים)
Patros appears seven times, five for the land of Egypt (Yeshayahu 11:11, Yirmiyahu 44:1 and 44:15, Yechezkel 29:14 and 30:14) and twice for the Patrusim (Bereishis 10:14, Divrei HaYamim I 1:12). Rabbi Aharon Marcus: in Egyptian, the land of the south, Upper Egypt, since the Nile flows northward, near the border with Nubia and Ethiopia. The Hungarian maskil Solomon Löwisohn and Shadal (to Bereishis 10:14) add that Patros, Pathyris in Greek, was a major city in Upper Egypt, and that the region took its name from the city, as in Greek times the region took the name Thebias from the city of Thebes while Aegyptus meant Lower Egypt in particular. Patros, then, is closely associated with Mitzrayim but not quite synonymous with it. It seems, Rabbi Klein concludes, that Yanai's Makkas Bechorei Pasros uses it for Egypt at large as a poetic way of naming Mitzrayim by a more obscure term; he reached that conclusion after consulting Professor Shulamit Elitzur, the world's expert in piyyutim, who confirmed that there is probably no deeper meaning in these substitutions. HaKallir does the same with Lud in the weekday Sukkos piyyut, and Yom L'Yabashah calls the Egyptians Anamim, as do many less popular piyyutim. The Ludim themselves appear five times (Bereishis 10:13, Yechezkel 27:10 and 30:5, Divrei HaYamim I 1:11, Yirmiyahu 46:9). Rashi (to 10:13, and possibly to Yeshayahu 13:8) presumes a connection between Lehavim and the root LAMED-HEI-BES, flame or blade, saying that their faces resembled a lahav without explaining what that means. Ibn Gabirol's Azharos reads "I desired you and loved, I redeemed you from Lahav", and in some versions "from Rahav".
Rahav (רהב), Matzor (מצור), and eretz Cham (ארץ חם)
Rahav as a name for Egypt: Rashi to Bereishis 40:23, Chizkuni to 43:32, Radak to Tehillim 87:4; in divrei Chazal Rahav is the sar of Egypt and of the sea (Bava Basra 74b, Bamidbar Rabbah 18:22, Zohar Terumah 170b, Zohar Chadash Bishalach 38b). The word means confident, strong, haughty, an apt description of the Egyptian mentality, and Rabbi Aharon Marcus surmises that it is a permutation of Lahav, lamed and reish interchanging. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Cheshek Shlomo) relates rahav, haughtiness, to the biliteral root of rav and harbeh, which he defines as quantitative increase: the conceited person has more self-pride than normal. Matzor is, for Radak (Sefer HaShorashim, and to Yeshayahu), a singular form of the name that Tanach sometimes uses (Melachim II 19:24, Yeshayahu 19:6, 37:25); in the same vein, the Arabic for Mitzrayim is Misr, which seems to be simply the singular form. Other meforshim read matzor there as the ordinary noun for narrow places. Eretz Cham is Tehillim's name (105:23, 105:27, 106:22), with admas bnei Cham in the weekday Maariv and malchus eglah in Maoz Tzur (see also Yirmiyahu 46:20); Kaftor (Amos 9:7, Yirmiyahu 47:4, Tzefaniah 2:5) is the Plishtim's homeland, a related place and not Egypt, which Shadal (to Bereishis 10:14) takes to be either Cyprus or Crete, also known as Kandia.
Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh (Eim LaMikra to Bereishis 6:10): Egypt was called Chamia or Chemia, related to the Arabic alchemy, the source of chemistry.
Where the English word "Egypt" comes from
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus claims that "copt" is a corruption of the Hebrew Kaftor, and that from that corruption came the Greek Aíguptos and the Latin Aegyptus, the eventual etymons of English "Egypt."
- Others argue that those antecedents derive instead from the native Egyptian phrase meaning "temple of the soul of Ptah," Ptah being the deity of the Egyptian city of Memphis, whose name the Greeks applied to the region as a whole.
Two early forms of the word turn up in Chazal: a language called Gipti (Shabbos 115a to 115b, Megillah 18a), which seems to be Coptic; and the parsing of totafos (Devarim 6:8, 11:18) as tot, two in Kapti, plus pat, two in Afriki (Sanhedrin 4b, Zevachim 37b, Menachos 34b), where the consensus takes Kapti for Coptic and Afriki for Phrygian. The Romani were once thought to have come from Egypt, hence "Gyptians" and eventually "Gypsies," though anthropologists now place their origin in South Asia.
Where the authorities disagree
Why Mitzrayim has a plural or dual ending.
- Radak (to Bereishis 10:13): unknown, perhaps something in the circumstances of his birth, and once Cham's son bore it he named his own sons the same way.
- Peirush HaRokeach and Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid (there): each of those nations came from a pair of twins whose families intermarried, which accounts for the sons' names but does not quite explain Mitzrayim's own.
- Bereishis Rabbah 37:5 notes that the sons' names all carry a yam ending; Maharzu, that they settled along the coast, and Ramban (to 10:13) places them all in Egypt's vicinity.
- Rabbeinu Bachya (to 10:13): the yud-mem hints that these family-nations were destined to drown at Krias Yam Suf.
- Many sources read the name as a portmanteau of meitzar, a narrow place, border or strait, and yam, sea, each explaining the connection its own way; the earliest Rabbi Klein found is Rabbi Chaim Vital, that Egypt places a limit on the Upper Seas, since its fecundity hinged on the Nile and it was not as reliant on rain as other countries, a state of affairs that could, chas v'shalom, lead people to forget Hashem in their pursuit of a crop, no longer feeling the need to look upward for rain (see Bereishis 13:10, Devarim 11:10).
- Sodei Semuchim, ascribed to Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms: it is the inflection Hebrew uses for paired things, and Egypt earned it as a nation assembled out of several of Cham's lines, like Yerushalayim, two cities joined.
- Ibn Ezra (to 10:13) reads the whole list as names of countries, not of men.
Whether "Mitzrayim" at the Yam Suf is the man. Midrash Sechel Tov (to Shemos 14:30): "Yisrael saw Mitzrayim dead on the seashore" means Grandfather Mitzrayim himself, revived to watch his wretched descendants destroyed; some baalei Tosafos had a tradition extending this to Shemos 14:10 and 14:25 (Ateres Zekeinim and Hadar Zekeinim to 14:10, Sefer Chassidim §607, Siddur Rokeach pp. 213 and 222, Peirush HaRokeach to 14:30).
Who the Luvim are. The Luvim come up four times in Tanach: countless of them march with Shishak against Yerushalayim (Divrei HaYamim II 12:3, in Rechavam's reign), again as soldiers a few generations later in Asa's day (16:8), and at Nachum 3:9 and Daniel 11:43.
- Rid and pseudo-Rasag (to Daniel 11:43), and Tosafos with Tosafos Chitzoniyos (in Shitah Mekubetzes to Bechoros 5b), state plainly that the Luvim are the Lehavim, probably because hei and vav interchange.
- Rabbeinu Tam (cited by Tosafos to Shabbos 51b, and see Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon to Shabbos 90b): the word simply means Egyptians.
- Rashi: Luvim donkeys were of especially high quality (Bechoros 5b), and they came from Luv, the land of the Luvim (Shabbos 51b, and see Rabbeinu Chananel there).
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus and Dr. Alexander Kohut postulate that Luv, the homeland of the Luvim and Lehavim, is Libya, west of modern Egypt.
- Rabbi Klein offers as an alternative of his own that Lehavim/Luvim may be another term for the Nubians, who lived just to Egypt's south, lamed and nun being often interchangeable.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
כ-פ-ת-ר
כַּפְתֹּר: on the menorah, knobs like apples bulging from its body; in Amos, the lintel over the doorposts, called so for the flowers and kaftorim figured on it.
The knobs of the menorah
וְכַפְתֹּר תַּחַת שְׁנֵי הַקָּנִים (Shemos 25:35), and a kaftor under two of the branches, and כַּפְתֹּֽרֵיהֶם וּקְנֹתָם (Shemos 25:36), their kaftorim and their branches: their meaning is apple, for they were like apples bulging out of the body of the menorah.
The lintel over the posts
הַךְ הַכַּפְתּוֹר וְיִרְֽעֲשׁוּ הַסִּפִּים (Amos 9:1), strike the kaftor and the posts will shake: the kaftor is the lintel that rests on the two posts, the סִפִּים, which are the doorposts. It is called kaftor because figures of flowers and kaftorim are made on it. So too בְּכַפְתֹּרֶיהָ יָלִינוּ (Tzefaniah 2:14), they will lodge in its kaftorim, on which the Targum has בְּפִתּוּחַ תַּרְעַיָא, in the carved work of the gates.
וְכַפְתֹּר תַּחַת שְׁנֵי הַקָּנִים (שמות כה ,לה), כַּפְתֹּֽרֵיהֶם וּקְנֹתָם (שמות כה, לו) פירושם תפוח ,שהיו כמין תפוחים בולטים מגוף המנורה. הַךְ הַכַּפְתּוֹר וְיִרְֽעֲשׁוּ הַסִּפִּים (עמוס ט, א), הכפתור הוא המשקוף הסומך על שתי הסיפים שהם המזוזות. וקראו כפתור לפי שעושים בו ציורי פרחים וכפתורים. וכן בְּכַפְתֹּרֶיהָ יָלִינוּ (צפניה ב ,יד). ואמר בו התרגום בְּפִתּוּחַ תַּרְעַיָא.
ל-ה-ב
A flame. The sword too is called lahav, since it looks like a flame as it blazes; and the לַהֶבֶת of a spear is its iron.
The flame
וַיְהִי בַעֲלוֹת הַלַּהַב (Shoftim 13:20), as the flame went up, and its plural in פְּנֵי לְהָבִים פְּנֵיהֶֽם (Yeshayahu 13:8), their faces are faces of flames; in the feminine לֶֽהָבָה מִקִּרְיַת סִיחֹן (Bamidbar 21:28), a flame from the city of Sichon, and in another form לַהֶבֶת שַׁלְהֶבֶת (Yechezkel 21:3), a blazing flame; its plural in אֵשׁ לֶהָבוֹת בְּאַרְצָֽם (Tehillim 105:32), fire of flames in their land, and in the construct לַֽהֲבוֹת אֵֽשׁ (Tehillim 29:7), flames of fire.
The sword's blade
Since the sword resembles a flame as it blazes, it too is called a lahav: וַיָּבֹא גַם־הַנִּצָּב אַחַר הַלַּהַב (Shoftim 3:22), the haft too went in after the blade. So the pasuk likens it to flame and to lightning together, וְלַהַב חֶרֶב וּבְרַק חֲנִית (Nachum 3:3), the flame of the sword and the lightning of the spear; and in the feminine, וְלַהֶבֶת חֲנִיתוֹ (Shmuel I 17:7), the lahevet of his spear, is the iron that is in the spear.
וַיְהִי בַעֲלוֹת הַלַּהַב (שופטים יג, כ). והקבוץ פְּנֵי לְהָבִים פְּנֵיהֶֽם (ישעיה יג, ח). ובילשון נקבה לֶֽהָבָה מִקִּרְיַת סִיחֹן (במדבר כא, כח). ומשקל אחר לַהֶבֶת שַׁלְהֶבֶת (יחזקאל כא, ג). והקבוץ אֵשׁ לֶהָבוֹת בְּאַרְצָֽם (תהלים קה, לב), בפלס בֶּֽהָרוֹת, ובסמוך לַֽהֲבוֹת אֵֽשׁ (תהלים כט, ז) ידוע, ולפי שהחרב דומה ללהב בהתלהט נקראת להב. וַיָּבֹא גַם־הַנִּצָּב אַחַר הַלַּהַב (שופטים ג, כב). וכן דמהו ללהב ולברק וְלַהַב חֶרֶב וּבְרַק חֲנִית (נחום ג, ג). ובלשון נקבה וְלַהֶבֶת חֲנִיתוֹ (שמואל א' יז, ז), הוא הברזל אשר בחנית.
מ-צ-ר
Straits, which he reads as fences on either side that leave no way to flee; in Chazal's words, a boundary. The mem may or may not be a root letter.
Hemmed in between fences
כָּל־רֹדְפֶיהָ הִשִּׂיגוּהָ בֵּין הַמְּצָרִֽים (Eichah 1:3), all her pursuers overtook her between the straits, that is, between the fences, a fence on this side and a fence on that, so that she cannot flee one way or the other. In the construct, וּמְצָרֵי שְׁאוֹל מְצָאוּנִי (Tehillim 116:3), the straits of the grave found me.
Where the word comes from
The singular of them may be מִן־ הַמֵּצַֽר (Tehillim 118:5), out of the strait, so that מֵצַר gives מְצָרִים, straits, as עֵנָב, a grape, gives עֲנָבִים, grapes, except that this one is of the words with a dagesh. Or מִן־הַמֵּצַֽר may be from another root, יָצַר or צָרַר, as he wrote at the root יָצַר.
A boundary, in Chazal's words
So too in the words of Chazal, אילן הסמוך למצר (Bava Basra 26b), a tree close to the boundary, and מצרים הרחיב לו (Bava Basra 61b), he widened the boundaries for him. It seems that they hold the mem to be a letter of the root, since they said (Bava Basra 62a) מצר לו מצר ראובן מצר אחד, he set him a boundary, Reuven's boundary, one boundary. It may also be that the root of מצרים is צָרַר, and וּמְצָרֵי שְׁאוֹל מְצָאוּנִי then stands in the pattern of מְמַדֵּי, the measures of, from מִי־שָׂם מְמַדֶּיהָ (Iyov 38:5), who set its measures.
כָּל־רֹדְפֶיהָ הִשִּׂיגוּהָ בֵּין הַמְּצָרִֽים (איכה א, ג), כלומר בין הגדרים, גדר מזה וגדר מזה שלא תוכל לנוס אנה ואנה. ובסמוך וּמְצָרֵי שְׁאוֹל מְצָאוּנִי (תהלים קטז, ג), כמו מזְמַנִּים זְמַנִּי. ואפשר שיהיה הנפרד מהם מִן־הַמֵּצַֽר (תהלים קיח, ה), ויאמר מן מֵצַר מְצָרִים כמו מן עֵנָב עֲנָבִים אלא שזה מן הדגושים. או יהיה מִן־הַמֵּצַֽר שרש אחר יָצַר או צָרַר כמו שכתבנו בשרש יָצַר. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (בבא בתרא כו, ע"ב), אילן הסמוך למצר. מצרים הרחיב לו (בבא בתרא סא, ע"ב). ודומה כי דעתם שהמ"ם שרש כי אמרו (בבא בתרא סב, ע"א), מצר לו מצר ראובן מצר אחד. ויתכן להיות שרש מצרים צָרַר. וכן וּמְצָרֵי שְׁאוֹל מְצָאוּנִי בפלס מְמַדֵּי מן מִי־שָׂם מְמַדֶּיהָ (איוב לח, ה).
ר-ה-ב
To grow strong and haughty, as a youth against an elder; Rahav, which is Egypt, so called for its strength and pride; and to strengthen another, putting might in him.
Growing strong and haughty
יִרְֽהֲבוּ הַנַּעַר בַּזָּקֵן (Yeshayahu 3:5), the youth will grow strong and haughty against the elder: יתחזקו ויתגאו, they will strengthen themselves and grow proud. The infinitive is וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן (Tehillim 90:10), and their strength is toil and trouble, which stands on the pattern of בְּשָׁמְרָם עֵקֶב רָֽב (Tehillim 19:12), in keeping them there is great reward; or else it is a noun.
Strengthening your fellow
לֵךְ הִתְרַפֵּס וּרְהַב רֵעֶֽיךָ (Mishlei 6:3), go, humble yourself and strengthen your fellow, he reads as: bow before him and strengthen him with words of appeasement. Although רעיך is written with a yud and the Mesorah marks it the only one written full, the yud is either added or the word is from a root whose last letter is a heh, the yud being of the root. It can also be read as a plural with a bet missing, ברעיך, that you should set many friends upon him.
Rahav, which is Egypt
רַהַב הֵם שָֽׁבֶת (Yeshayahu 30:7) he glosses החוזק שלהם ישבת ויבטל, their strength will cease and come to nothing, and it is said of Egypt, for it is their strength; he gave it another reading at the root יָשַׁב. אַזְכִּיר רַהַב וּבָבֶל (Tehillim 87:4), I will make mention of Rahav and Bavel, is Egypt too, called so because the Egyptians were possessed of strength and pride.
Strength and might elsewhere
הַמַּחְצֶבֶת רַהַב (Yeshayahu 51:9), that hewed Rahav, and מָחַץ רָֽהַב (Iyov 26:12), He smote Rahav, are all of strength and might. וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן (Tehillim 90:10) he takes as: their vigor is emptiness, since it soon passes away. And וְֽלֹֽא־פָנָה אֶל־ רְהָבִים, and he has not turned to the רְהָבִים, is to those who have strength and pride.
Chayuj on a word in Yeshayahu
Radak wonders at what he found in the book of pointing of Rabbi Yehudah Chayuj, who wrote וּפָחַד וְרָחַב לְבָבֵךְ (Yeshayahu 60:5), your heart shall throb and swell, with a heh, and said that the resh is kamatz and the heh patach, so as to keep it apart from רַהַב, which is patach throughout. Radak answers that we have received the reading וְרָחַב with a ches, and that Rabbi Yonah wrote it with a ches as well.
Strengthening a man
תַּרְהִבֵנִי בְנַפְשִׁי עֹֽז (Tehillim 138:3), You strengthen me with might in my soul, Radak glosses החזקני, strengthen me, that You put might in my soul to strengthen myself for Your service. שֶׁהֵם הִרְהִיבֻנִי (Shir HaShirim 6:5), for they have strengthened me, is חזקו חשקי ואמצוני עליו, they strengthened my desire and emboldened me over it.
יִרְֽהֲבוּ הַנַּעַר בַּזָּקֵן (ישעיה ג, ה), פירוש יתחזקו ויתגאו. והמקור וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן (תהלים צ, י), בפלס בְּשָׁמְרָם עֵקֶב רָֽב (תהלים יט, יב), או הוא שם. והיוצא לֵךְ הִתְרַפֵּס וּרְהַב רֵעֶֽיךָ (משלי ו, ג), כלומר הכנע לפניו וחזקהו בדברי רצוי. ואף על פי שמלת רעיך כתוב ביו"ד והמסורת עליו לית מלא, תהיה היו"ד נוספת או יהיה מנחי הלמ"ד, והיו"ד הפעל. ויש לפרשו לשון רבים ויהיה חסר בי"ת ברעיך כלומר שתרבה עליו רעים. והשם רַהַב הֵם שָֽׁבֶת (ישעיה ל, ד), כלומר החוזק שלהם ישבת ויבטל. ואומר זה בעבור מצרים כי הוא החוזק שלהם. וכבר פירשתי בו פירוש אחר בשרש יָשַׁב. אַזְכִּיר רַהַב וּבָבֶל (תהלים פז, ד), הוא מצרים. ולפי שהיו מצרים בעלי חוזק וגאוה קראם כן. הַמַּחְצֶבֶת רַהַב (ישעיה נא, ט), וּבִתְובנָתוֹ [וּבִתְבוּנָתוֹ] מָחַץ רָֽהַב (איוב כו, יב), כלם ענין חוזק ואומץ. וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן (תהלים צ, י), פירוש התוקף שלהם הבל הוא כי במהרה גז (שם). וְֽלֹֽא־פָנָה אֶל־רְהָבִים מ, ה) אל בעלי החוזק והגאוה. ותמה אני ממה שמצאתי בספר הנקוד לרבי יהודה חיוג שכתב וּפָחַד וְרָחַב לְבָבֵךְ (ישעיה ס, ה), בה"א ואמר כי הרי"ש קמוצה והה"א פתוחה להפריש בינו ובין רַהַב ובבל שהוא פתוח כולו. ואנחנו קבלנו קריאתו וְרָחַב בחי"ת וכן כתבו רבי יונה בחי"ת. והפעל הכבד [הִפְעִיל] תַּרְהִבֵנִי בְנַפְשִׁי עֹֽז (תהלים קלח, ג), פירוש החזקני שתתן עוז בנפשי להתחזק על עבודתך. שֶׁהֵם הִרְהִיבֻנִי (שיר השירים ו, ה), חזקו חשקי ואמצוני עליו.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Tzav-Pesach: Escape from Patros," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 April 2023.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Chukas: Out in Public," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 13 July 2024.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Escape from Patros," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 10:6, 10:13 to 14, 13:10, 40:23, 43:32; Divrei HaYamim I 1:8, 1:11 to 12; Divrei HaYamim II 12:3, 16:8; Shemos 12:23, 14:10, 14:25, 14:30; Devarim 6:8, 11:10, 11:18; Yeshayahu 11:11, 13:8, 19:6, 37:25; Yirmiyahu 44:1, 44:15, 46:9, 46:20, 47:4; Yechezkel 27:10, 29:14, 30:5, 30:14; Amos 9:7; Nachum 3:9; Tzefaniah 2:5; Tehillim 87:4, 105:23 to 27, 106:22; Daniel 11:43; Melachim II 19:24; Bereishis Rabbah 37:5 with Maharzu; Bamidbar Rabbah 18:22; Zohar Terumah 170b and Zohar Chadash Bishalach 38b; Bava Basra 74b; Bechoros 5b; Shabbos 51b, 90b, 115a to 115b; Megillah 18a; Sanhedrin 4b; Zevachim 37b; Menachos 34b; Sefer Chassidim §607; Siddur Rokeach pp. 213 and 222; Solomon Löwisohn and Shadal to Bereishis 10:14; Dr. Alexander Kohut; Professor Shulamit Elitzur; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo; Benamozegh, Eim LaMikra to Bereishis 6:10.