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Coming is joining the boundary one is heading for, the opposite of going out (יציאה), which is parting from a boundary. It is a relative term, said only with respect to the boundary that is its end, and only where that boundary is fixed and stays in its place. Where it is not fixed, one cannot say of the one coming that his coming is complete: one may say that he drew near or approached (שקרב או נגש), but not that he came. Where it is fixed, בא is said even while he is still on the way, since he must reach it in the end: והנה עשו בא (Bereishis 33:1), and behold, Esav was coming, though he had not yet arrived; as he draws ever nearer to the fixed point, we see it as though the coming were already complete. And ביאה, coming, is said only of one who, having reached the boundary he sought, stops moving; of one who is still in motion it is not clear that the coming is complete.

So בא is said of the sun only at its setting, כי בא השמש (Bereishis 28:11), for the sun had come in, and not at its rising. From where we stand it would fit the sunrise better, since we are the boundary and the sun comes toward us; but after rising it is still in motion and does not rest, so ביאה, coming, does not apply to it. When it sets and we no longer see it moving, we may say כי באה, for it has come, as though it had found the point it sought on the western horizon and come to rest there.

The noun of place is מבוא, an entry: מבוא השמש (Devarim 11:30), the going in of the sun, and מבוא העיר (Shoftim 1:24), the entry of the city. In the language of Chazal it is מבוי, as מבוי שהוא גבוה (Eruvin), an alley that is high, on the pattern of ראוי, fit, and מצוי, found; in the plural מבואות, as שתופי מבואות (Eruvin 79b), the partnerships of the alleys. A מבוי, then, is the entry of the street: not the street itself, though it takes in both; what is meant is the open space of the street through which one comes into the houses and courtyards.

The verb of bringing is הביא, he brought, and מובא, brought: כי הובאו בית יוסף (Bereishis 43:18), that they had been brought into Yosef's house, that is, made to come by another. The verb is never found in the simple passive, so that it should not be confused with נביא, prophet, and נבואה, prophecy. It comes without its alef, ויבו ירבעם (Melachim I 12:12), and Yeravam came, and הנני מבי עליך (Melachim I 21:21), behold, I am bringing upon you; and with a tav added, תבואתה לראש יוסף (Devarim 33:16), let it come upon the head of Yosef, and תבואתך טובה (Iyov 22:21), good will come to you.

From the root comes תבואה, what the ground grows, grain and the fruit of trees alike: כתבואת גרן וכתבואת יקב (Bamidbar 18:30), as the yield of the threshing floor and as the yield of the winepress. It is named for the bringing forth that the earth brings. It is a noun of the verb, but not of the simple form, since it does not speak of coming; it is of the causative, which speaks of bringing. The sense is that of יבול, what the earth carries forth; see his explanation at the root בל. It is said also of the fruit of thought and deed: ותבואתי מכסף נבחר (Mishlei 8:19), and my yield is better than choice silver; תבואת רשע לחטאת (Mishlei 10:16), the yield of the wicked is for sin; תבואת שפתיו ישבע (Mishlei 18:20), with the yield of his lips he is sated.

ומי אוהב בהמון לא תבואה (Koheles 5:9), and whoever loves a crowd has no yield: the one who loves a crowd of workers to do his work, for some people love bustle and like their affairs run on a large scale. Such a man never makes a profit and gains nothing from the many hands, for ברבות הטובה רבו אוכליה (Koheles 5:10), when good increases, those who eat it increase, and his wage goes out in his loss: as the good grows with the number of workers, so grows the need to feed and keep them. The householder has no advantage כי אם ראות עיניו, but the sight of his eyes: many people reclining at his table and his house in a tumult. Better to have few workers and to work alongside them himself, for מתוקה שנת העובד (Koheles 5:11), sweet is the sleep of the worker, who enjoys the toil of his hands, whether much or little. Not so the rich man who slackens in the work because he relies on his many workers: though his provisions are plentiful, his sleep is confused and troubled.

From בא in the sense of bringing comes the noun נביא, prophet, on the pattern of נשיא, prince, and נזיר, nazirite. He is the messenger who brings the words of Hashem to the people and the words of the people to Hashem, and he is called נביא for this bringing of words, as it says והבאת אתה את הדברים אל האלהים (Shemos 18:19), and you shall bring the matters to Hashem. That is the chief condition of a prophet: that he stand so high that Hashem attends to him, makes him His messenger to tell the people His words, and receives the people's words through him. Working signs and wonders beyond nature, and knowing the future, are incidental to a prophet, for times when the hour requires them, and are not a necessary condition: many prophets prophesied of whom no miracles or foretelling became known. וידע כל ישראל כי נאמן שמואל לנביא (Shmuel I 3:20), and all Yisrael knew that Shmuel was established as a prophet, when he had not yet worked any wonder; they knew he was a prophet because Hashem had revealed Himself to him.

ואהרן אחיך יהיה נביאך (Shemos 7:1), and Aharon your brother shall be your prophet: the one who brings your words to Pharaoh, as a prophet brings the words of Hashem to the people, so that you are in My place and he in yours. And of the one who prophesied at the king's direction, הניבא על ידי המלך, it says הנבא על הודות והלל (Divrei HaYamim I 25:2-3), who prophesied in thanksgiving and praise: that is, who brought through songs the words of the king, and words of thanksgiving and praise to Hashem.

Telling the future is also called נבואה, prophecy, because it is found only among prophets and not among ordinary men. Hashem reveals His secret only to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7), and works signs and wonders only through them, so that it should be clear to every challenger that they are His messengers, or to warn the people and set them straight in His ways.

In time people made the secondary thing the main one, held that a prophet's chief distinction was to see what is to come, and called the prophet רואה, seer. This was in the days of the Judges, when over the years the principle the nation had received from of old was shaken: that the condition of a prophet is his mission and not foretelling. Thinking foretelling the main thing, they set aside the name נביא, which speaks of bringing the mission, and called him רואה, for the seeing of the future. So כי לנביא היום יקרא לפנים הרואה (Shmuel I 9:9), for the one now called a prophet was formerly called a seer. היום, today, refers to the time Shmuel wrote his book, at the end of his life, when the name רואה had fallen away again and נביא had been chosen again as at first. Writing then, Shmuel was saying: what I now call a prophet, by the true name it had in early days, was called before, in the days of the Judges and in the years of my youth as well, a seer.

In the word בא the only root letter is ב, and the alef is added: it is missing in the forms above and in ויכל מהתנבות (Shmuel I 10:13), and he finished prophesying. The letter ב in itself marks the cleaving of a quality (מקרה) to the thing that bears it (נושא), that is, the boundary it is in: בי, בהם, בכם, in me, in them, in you. Since there are many ways for a quality to cleave to its bearer, ב has many uses.

Some qualities cleave from the start, as heat to fire and wetness to water, from their creation: יהיה בו מום (Vayikra 21:17), who has a blemish in him, and או תבלול בעינו (Vayikra 21:20), or a film in his eye. Some arise anew, as flowing in water that is sometimes still and sometimes running: כי יהיה בו שבר רגל (Vayikra 21:19), who has a broken leg, for the break is not from his creation. What arises may come about in place, as flowing within the water itself: כי פשה הנגע בבית (Vayikra 14:48), that the plague has spread in the house; ושער שחור צמח בו (Vayikra 13:37), and black hair has grown in it; ויהי רעב בארץ (Bereishis 12:10), and there was famine in the land. Or it may come upon the bearer from outside, as warmth comes upon water: כאשר יתן מום באדם כן ינתן בו (Vayikra 24:20), as he put a blemish in a man so shall it be put in him; ורחץ במים (Vayikra 14:8), and he shall wash in water; ודבק באשתו (Bereishis 2:24), and he shall cleave to his wife. What comes from outside sometimes comes through a means, as rinsing is done by means of water: ומורק ושטף במים (Vayikra 6:21), it shall be scoured and rinsed in water; מיד האמורי בחרבי ובקשתי (Bereishis 48:22), from the hand of the Emori with my sword and my bow; and this is what is called the ב of the instrument.

Some cleaving arises inside the bearer: והשוכב בבית (Vayikra 14:47), and one who lies in the house; בבית ובשדה (Bereishis 39:5), in the house and in the field; ובדרך לא היה (Bamidbar 9:13), and was not on the road. Some is by leaning on it: לא בקשתי אבטח (Tehillim 44:7), not in my bow do I trust; הנוגע בהר (Shemos 19:12), whoever touches the mountain. Some is by company: כי במקלי עברתי את הירדן (Bereishis 32:11), for with my staff I crossed the Yarden; בזאת יבא אהרן (Vayikra 16:3), with this shall Aharon come. Some is in time, either the time itself, בעת ההיא (Yehoshua 5:2), at that time, בימים ההם (Bereishis 6:4), in those days, ויכל אלהים ביום השביעי (Bereishis 2:2), and Hashem finished on the seventh day; or through some act in between, ובלכתך בדרך ובשכבך ובקומך (Devarim 6:7), and as you walk on the way, and as you lie down and as you rise, and ובמלאות ימי טהרה (Vayikra 12:6), and when the days of her purity are complete. The act in between may mark the time by chance, as בשכון ישראל (Bereishis 35:22), when Yisrael dwelt, וברדת הטל (Bamidbar 11:9), and when the dew came down, and בשבתך בביתך (Devarim 6:7), when you sit in your house; or be bound to the time necessarily, as ובשכבך ובקומך (Devarim 6:7), at the hour people lie down; בעלותך לראות (Shemos 34:24), when you go up to appear; באכלכם מלחם הארץ (Bamidbar 15:19), when you eat of the bread of the land; באין אלפים אבוס בר (Mishlei 14:4), where there are no oxen the trough is clean, that is, at a time when there are none; and התשחית בחמשה (Bereishis 18:28), will You destroy for the five, that is, at a time when five are lacking.

Some cleaving is a joining of things in imagination and thought: בכסף מלא יתננה לי (Bereishis 23:9), for full silver let him give it to me, an imagined joining of the act of giving to the receipt of full silver; והנותר בבשר ובלחם (Vayikra 8:32), and what is left of the flesh and of the bread, where being left over is attached to the flesh and bread by a relation in thought. So too ותדבר מרים ואהרן במשה (Bamidbar 12:1), and Miriam and Aharon spoke against Moshe; ויעבד ישראל באשה (Hoshea 12:13), and Yisrael served for a wife; כפלים בכל חטאותיה (Yeshayahu 40:2), double for all her sins; בך ארוץ גדוד (Shmuel II 22:30), by You I run against a troop; לדבקה בו (Devarim 11:22), to cleave to Him. All these, and many more, are the cleaving of a quality to its bearer: from the start or arising anew, from within the bearer itself or by coming from outside.

A quality that comes from outside must pass two stages. First the motion, in which it moves to cleave to its bearer: the preparation and the act before the attachment. Then the attachment itself, the point of time at which it takes hold and is complete, the outcome of the motion before it. The letter ל marks the motion that comes before, which the logicians call מאמר לו, the category of to it, motion toward some point, matter or state; the letter ב marks the attachment once complete, which they call מאמר בו, the category of in it. German says both with its word for in: of one walking in the city, געהט אין דער שטאט, geht in der Stadt, he walks in the city, and of one going to the city, געהט אין דיא שטאט, geht in die Stadt, he goes into the city; it tells the two apart by the article, die or der, the word der, which Rav Pappenheim labels genitive, meaning the inside of the city. So ב serves for the cleaving of a quality to its bearer, from within or from outside, and from its use for what comes from outside the language made the word בא, to come: the verb that gathers both stages. Before the joining is complete the one coming is in motion toward the boundary he heads for, in the category of to it; once he has cleaved to that boundary he passes out of the category of to it into the category of in it, and the verb that holds both is called בא.

בל is a noun, a verb and a particle, all of one sense. Its first sense is the loss of a thing's form (צורה) only, and not of the whole of it. The loss of the whole thing is כליון, destruction; a change from one form to another is השתנות, change; the loss that happens in the form itself is בל or בלה. A thing loses its form in two ways: from itself, when what upholds its form gives out and it falls to ruin; or from outside, when something comes upon it from without that spoils and confounds its form. The name בל covers both. Of the loss from within is בלה, wearing out and rot; of the loss from without, the verb בלל, mixing. Both are the loss and undoing of the thing's form, whether by its rotting or by its being mixed with other things.

בליה, wearing out, is the start of רקבון, rot: the power that upholds the thing (כח המעמיד) begins to fail, but it is not yet wholly lost, and the thing is still fit for some use. רקבון is the end of the loss of form: the upholding power is wholly gone, the form undone altogether, and the thing good for nothing; a moist thing such as meat or fruit goes soft and turns to liquid. כרקב יבלה (Iyov 13:28), it wears away like rot, does not make the two the same. They share a cause, the failing of the upholding power, and rot takes in wearing out, since what rots was first worn; but it would not be fine speech to use one word twice, כרקב ירקב, rotting like rot, or כבלוי יבלה, wearing like wear, so the pasuk says כרקב יבלה: it begins to wear, and the rot comes at the end.

עירוב, intermixing, is said of things that keep their form after they are mixed and lose nothing of it, like wheat mixed with legumes, where each stays as it was and is only joined to what is not its kind. בלילה, blending, is said of things that lose their form through the mixing, like wine in water, where the wine and the water each lose their form. בלל is used mostly of a mixture with something moist in it, moist with moist or moist with dry, since wherever there is moisture the mixing also spoils form: בלולות בשמן (Shemos 29:2), mixed with oil, and בלותי בשמן רענן (Tehillim 92:11), I am mixed with fresh oil.

אפרים בעמים הוא יתבולל (Hoshea 7:8), Efraim blends himself among the nations, does not speak of Efraim's disgrace and the ruin of its traits, but of its misfortune: it was blended among the nations and lost its form as a nation. Not so ויתערבו בגוים וילמדו מעשיהם (Tehillim 106:35), they mingled among the nations and learned their deeds, which speaks of the disgrace of individuals. בלילה and loss of form would not be right of them, since a man who mixes with other men does not lose his form by it; so the pasuk says תערובת, mingling, the mingling of traits and opinions and their coming together into one relation.

The verb מלח is not mixing but stirring (הגסה): ממולח טהור קדש (Shemos 30:35), well stirred, pure, holy, means that it is stirred thoroughly, so that the bottom comes up and the top goes down. So וייראו המלחים (Yonah 1:5), the sailors were afraid: the מלחים are those who stir the water with oars, as one stirs a pot. It is not mixing, since mixing applies only to a kind with what is not its kind, and not to a kind with its own kind, like water, which is all one even body. Of such things one says stirring, the movement of their parts from place to place.

אחרי בלותי היתה לי עדנה (Bereishis 18:12), after I have worn out, shall I have smoothness: בלותי is an infinitive of the light form, like אחרי ראותי את פניך (Bereishis 46:30), after my seeing your face, and it means after the power that upholds a woman's form for bearing children has gone from me. Of this sense is יבלו בטוב ימיהם (Iyov 21:13), they wear out their days in good: their days of ease run on in good. Likewise נבול תבול (Shemos 18:18), you will surely wither away; ועלהו לא יבול (Tehillim 1:3), and its leaf does not wither; נבלה הארץ (Yeshayahu 24:4), the earth withers; נובלת עליה (Yeshayahu 1:30), whose leaf withers; וציץ נובל (Yeshayahu 28:1), and the withering bloom.

שמלתך לא בלתה (Devarim 8:4), your garment did not wear out; שקים בלים, worn sacks, and ונעלות בלות, worn shoes (Yehoshua 9:4-5); בלויי סחבות (Yirmiyahu 38:11), worn-out rags; לבול עץ אסגוד (Yeshayahu 44:19), shall I bow down to a worn-out piece of wood, that is, לעץ בלוי, to wood that is worn, like בגדול זרועך (Shemos 15:16), by the greatness of Your arm; and בול is on the pattern of עול in עול ימים (Yeshayahu 65:20), an infant of days.

The month of Cheshvan is called בול, בירח בול (Melachim I 6:38), in the month of Bul, because in it the plants in the ground wear out and the leaves wither (נובלים) off the trees.

From the same sense a dead creature is called נבלה, for the loss of its living form: a man, as לא תלין נבלתו על העץ (Devarim 21:23), his body shall not remain overnight on the tree; and other creatures, as בנבלת חיה טמאה או בנבלת בהמה טמאה או בנבלת שרץ טמא (Vayikra 5:2), the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing. In the sense the language was coined with, every creature that has lost its living form is נבלה. The Lawgiver calls נבלה, for the prohibition of eating, clean cattle, beasts and fowl that died by themselves or were made unfit in their slaughter; and for the tumah of touching and carrying, unclean creatures, whether slaughtered or dead of themselves, and clean ones that died of themselves or were made unfit in slaughter. Clean creatures slaughtered properly do not make tamei as נבלה, even if they are found treifah.

From נבלה a leather vessel for liquids is called נבל: נבל יין (Shmuel I 1:24), a skin of wine, and ושנים נבלי יין (Shmuel I 25:18), and two skins of wine. It is named for being made from the hide of a נבלה; and once it is filled it also has the shape of the carcass's body. It is no wonder so ugly a name was lent to a vessel for drink, since in the sense the language was coined with נבלה carries no ugliness: to the one who set the language, even a kosher animal properly slaughtered for eating is נבלה once it is not alive. Had the word held any disgrace, the body of a prophet who died would not be called by it, as it is: והאריה עומד אצל הנבלה (Melachim I 13:24), and the lion standing beside the body, and נבלת איש האלהים, the body of the man of Hashem. There are also נבלים of a potter's making, named for being made in the likeness of a leather נבל; these are never called plain נבל, only נבל יוצרים (Yeshayahu 30:14), a potters' jar, and נחשבו לנבלי חרש (Eichah 4:2), they are counted as earthen jars. Plain נבל is the one made of leather.

A musical instrument too is called נבל, בנבל וכנור (Tehillim 150:3), with lyre and harp: either because it was made of leather like a נבל, as an instrument of leather still found today is pressed to bring out a sound; or because it was shaped like a נבל, though made of wood or some other stuff, with strings upon it.

ונבלי שמים מי ישכיב (Iyov 38:37), and the flasks of heaven, who lays them down: a name for rain clouds that empty out their water. ישכיב is as in השכב אותם ארצה (Shmuel II 8:2), laying them on the ground, and the clouds are called נבלים because they are full of water as skins are full of drink. Or ישכיב is ordering: who arranges the rain clouds to pour rain over a given stretch of the earth. Or נבלי שמים are clouds full of wind, like a leather נבל, and מי ישכיב is a stilling, so that they do not let the wind out all at once and lay waste the earth and all that fills it.

As נבלה is said of the loss of the power that upholds the bodily form, so נבלה and נבל are said of the loss of the spiritual form: deeds that ruin the form of a man's glory. Either a man ruins his own honour by his deeds: עם נבל ולא חכם (Devarim 32:6), a base people and unwise; ונבל כי ישבע לחם (Mishlei 30:22), and a base man when he is sated with bread; לא יקרא לנבל נדיב (Yeshayahu 32:5), the base man shall not be called generous; על הנביאים הנבלים (Yechezkel 13:3), concerning the base prophets. Or by his deeds he blemishes and debases the honour and worth of others, and then the word comes in the heavy form: וינבל צור ישועתו (Devarim 32:15), he disgraced the Rock of his salvation, their deeds ruining the form of His honour; אל תנבל כסא כבודך (Yirmiyahu 14:21), do not disgrace the throne of Your glory, do nothing by which its glory would be blemished; בן מנבל אב (Michah 7:6), a son disgraces a father, debasing his father's honour by his deeds. The noun is נבלה, כי נבלה עשה בישראל (Bereishis 34:7), for he had done a vile thing in Yisrael. Whoever ruins his own worth or that of others is called נבל.

A blemish in man and beast is called יבלת, או חרוץ או יבלת (Vayikra 22:22), or cut, or with a wart: a growth of worn flesh on the skin. It is not the שומא the Talmud speaks of, which is also a wart growing on the skin: the flesh of a שומא is not worn but healthy like the rest of the flesh, and it counts as a blemish only in women and kohanim, if hair grows on it, while the יבלת of the pasuk is worn flesh and disqualifies an animal too, as a blemish for a korban. Or יבלת is named for its end, that it will wear away and drop from the skin, as in כנבול עלה מגפן (Yeshayahu 34:4), as a leaf drops from the vine. It is a passing blemish that may be cut off, as it is said, חותכין יבלת במקדש (Eruvin 103a), a wart may be cut off in the Mikdash; but as long as it is on the skin it is a blemish.

The lower world is called תבל, תבל ומלואה (Tehillim 50:12), the world and all that fills it, and תבל ויושבי בה (Tehillim 24:1), the world and those who dwell in it, for its wearing out and decay: nothing in the lower world endures, unlike the heavenly bodies, which stand enduring as individuals (קיימים עומדים באיש) and have not lost their form from the six days of creation until today. The globe of the earth itself does endure as an individual, without loss of form, as it says אף תכון תבל בל תמוט (Tehillim 93:1), the world stands firm, it shall not falter; yet it is called תבל for what is upon it, which wears away and is consumed. Everything on the earth comes to be and passes away, and nothing in the host of heaven is like it.

For the same reason what the earth puts forth of plants and fruit is called יבול or בול: ונתנה הארץ יבולה (Vayikra 26:4), and the earth will give its produce; ואין יבול בגפנים (Chavakuk 3:17), and there is no produce on the vines; כי בול הרים ישאו לו (Iyov 40:20), for the mountains bring him produce. They are named for wearing out and rot because plants are more prone to them than the rest of what the earth yields, metals and stones, which endure for generation after generation.

In the sense of mixing: ונבלה שם שפתם (Bereishis 11:7), and confound their language there, a confounding such that their tongue keeps no form of speech and language. בלותי בשמן רענן (Tehillim 92:11), I am mixed with fresh oil, is a past verb of the heavy form. The doubled form shows the strength of the mixing: סלת בלולה בשמן (Vayikra 2:5), fine flour mixed with oil, and בלול, as in בעמים הוא יתבולל (Hoshea 7:8), he blends himself among the nations.

Fodder for animals is called בליל, from mixing: בליל חמיץ יאכלו (Yeshayahu 30:24), they shall eat seasoned fodder; אם יגעה שור על בלילו (Iyov 6:5), does an ox low over its fodder; ויבל לחמורים (Shoftim 19:21), and he gave fodder to the donkeys. It is flour or bran mixed with water.

A blemish in a man is called תבלול, או תבלל בעינו (Vayikra 21:20), or a blending in his eye: the white fluid of the eye blended with the black.

So too the noun תבל: תבל הוא (Vayikra 18:23), it is a confounding; תבל עשו דמיהם בם (Vayikra 20:12), they have done a confounding, their blood is upon them; and ואפי על תבליתם (Yeshayahu 10:25), and My anger upon their confounding: all from blending and jumbling. In lying with an animal there is a mixing of a kind with what is not its kind; in lying with a daughter-in-law, a confounding of the father's seed with the son's. The word is not used of lying with a father's wife, because with the daughter-in-law the mixing is more common, since she is somewhat subject to her father-in-law and heeds him whenever he wishes.

In the language of the Chachamim the sharp seasonings put into dough and into cooked food, onions, garlic and other pungent spices, are called תבלין, from blending: their sharpness makes the taste of the dish come out and blend thoroughly.

A kind of tract of land is called אבל: אבל השטים (Bamidbar 33:49), the tract of Shittim; אבל מחולה (Shoftim 7:22), the tract of Mecholah; ועד אבל כרמים (Shoftim 11:33), and as far as the tract of vineyards; ועד אבל הגדולה (Shmuel I 6:18), and as far as the great tract. To all appearance it is a tract with its borders confused, belonging to many people, where one man's border runs into and mixes with his neighbour's. Or it is a waste and desolate tract that grows no plants, in the sense of אבלה הארץ (Yirmiyahu 23:10), the land mourns, and כי אבלה אדמה (Yoel 1:10), for the ground mourns.

בל is said also of confusion of the spirit and of thought, and with an alef added it is אבל, mourning. אבל is not grief and lament, as it is commonly explained, but confusion and derangement of mind: the mourner's mind is unsettled and he does not know what to do, much as in מבוכה, perplexity. But in perplexity a man wants to get out of it and finds no way out, as explained earlier, while in mourning he does not try to leave his state, since the deed is done and cannot be undone; only his thoughts are confused and lack their proper order. Because wherever there is mourning there is grief, and the reverse, אבל sometimes stands for grief: נהפך לאבל מחולנו (Eichah 5:15), our dancing is turned to mourning; ומאבל ליום טוב (Esther 9:22), and from mourning to a festive day; והפכתי אבלם לששון (Yirmiyahu 31:12 in his edition), I will turn their mourning to joy. In essence תוגה, grief, and אבל are apart: grief is the work of the heart, mourning the work of thought.

Hence אבל comes mostly in the reflexive: ויתאבל על בנו (Bereishis 37:34), he mourned for his son; וישמע העם את הדבר הרע הזה ויתאבלו (Shemos 33:4), the people heard this evil word and they mourned; ויתאבלו העם מאד (Bamidbar 14:39), the people mourned greatly. The mourner brings this confusion on himself, picturing what befell him again and again and confusing his thoughts by it; were he not to keep recalling it, his mind would settle and his images return to their order. Sometimes he cannot help recalling it, the evil that has come on him being so heavy that all his hope is lost and he sees no cure for his breach, and then it comes in the light form: אבלו הכהנים (Yoel 1:9), the kohanim mourn; ואבלו נאות הרועים (Amos 1:2), the shepherds' pastures mourn; ואבל כל יושב בה (Amos 8:8), and all who dwell in it mourn. Since what they live and are fed by is lost to them, mourning comes upon them against their will, and they must mourn.

This kind of mourning falls on animals too, when they sense their food is gone and see nothing to live on: their senses are confounded and they go about witless, as in ואבל כבנות יענה (Michah 1:8), and mourning like the ostriches. From the mourning of animals the word is lent to things with no breath of life: when a thing stops yielding the benefit and pleasantness it was made for, it is said to mourn, as though it were confounded and did not know what to do, no longer yielding what it is fit for. So אבלה נבלה הארץ (Yeshayahu 24:4), the earth mourns, it withers: it is confounded from doing its work, and it also withers, תבול, loses its form from within, as explained above. And דרכי ציון אבלות (Eichah 1:4), the roads of Tzion mourn: they no longer give road and passage to those coming to the festivals, which is what they were made for.

That is why אבל is mostly joined with ואומלל, cut off, or יבש, dry, which are close to it in sense: אבלות is the confounding of a thing's makeup, אמילות its being cut off, and יבש is as it sounds, drying up. What they share is that the thing stops yielding what it has to yield: אבל תירוש אומללה גפן (Yeshayahu 24:7), the new wine mourns, the vine is cut off; אבל אומללה ארץ (Yeshayahu 33:9), the land mourns, it is cut off; עד מתי תאבל הארץ, ועשב כל השדה ייבש (Yirmiyahu 12:4), how long will the land mourn and the grass of every field dry up; אבלה הארץ יבשו נאות מדבר (Yirmiyahu 23:10), the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; ויאבל חל וחומה יחדיו אומללו (Eichah 2:8), rampart and wall mourn, together they are cut off.

From בל as confusion comes בלהה, in the sense of alarm: לעת ערב והנה בלהה (Yeshayahu 17:14), at evening, and behold, terror; ספו תמו מן בלהות (Tehillim 73:19), they are swept away and finished by terrors; בעתוהו בלהות (Iyov 18:11), terrors frighten him. It is what meets a man suddenly, a thing jumbled of differing matters, so that he cannot make of it a proper and ordered picture. At first sight he is startled by such a perception when it comes on him suddenly; and when it stays with him and keeps on before him, there is no anguish greater, and it brings madness, derangement of mind and other evil illnesses, may we be spared.

ותצעידהו למלך בלהות (Iyov 18:14), and it marches him to the king of terrors: a name for the king of the demons, who, as the common people have it, busies himself wholly with jumbled and tangled things to trouble men. Just before, the pasuk says יאכל בדיו בכור מות (Iyov 18:13), the firstborn of death devours his limbs, a name for the prince of death, as in אף אני בכור אתנהו (Tehillim 89:28), I too will make him a firstborn; or he is called firstborn relative to those put to death by him, being of necessity first and before them in time.

It may be that בהל, which also means alarm, is from blending and confusion too, and the two are one in sense, as with כבש and כשב, a lamb, and שמלה and שלמה, a garment. Or they are two senses, and to set it apart from בלהה the heh stands in the middle of the word as an added letter, like the heh of צהל, a ringing cry, from צלצול, ringing, and of רהב, pride, from רב, much, and the other hehs added in the middle of a word, explained in their places; so in the language of the Talmud, נולד כשהוא מהול (Shabbos 135a), born circumcised, from מילה, circumcision; and ולא כהלין כתבא למקרא (Daniel 5:8), and they could not read the writing, from יכול, able.

בלהה is confusion in the thing perceived, which comes as a jumble; בהלה is confusion in the one who receives it, whose thought is confounded when the thing comes on him suddenly. In בהלה the thing itself is not jumbled, but one who meets it suddenly and unprepared is at first sight thrown in his thinking, and then he settles at once. ומבלהים אותם (Ezra 4:4), and they were confounding them, is from בלהה: they fed them mixed-up reports from which they could form no true picture nor get to the substance, to keep them from the building. Against it, ויקראו בקול גדול ליראם ולבהלם (Divrei HaYamim II 32:18), they called out with a loud voice to frighten them and to alarm them, is from בהלה: the call itself was plain and ordered, but it was enough to alarm those who heard it suddenly and keep their minds from settling on whether there was anything in their words, and meanwhile they would hand over the city.

ויבהל את תמרוקיה ואת מנותיה (Esther 2:9), and he hastened her cosmetics and her portions: he ordered her gifts given suddenly, when she was not prepared for them, so that they would bring her the greater joy, as a happy thing that comes unlooked for does. נבהל להון איש רע עין (Mishlei 28:22), the man of grudging eye rushes after wealth: besides his grudging eye he has the bad trait of rushing after wealth, and that brings him to want and loss without his sensing it. One who rushes to profit until his mind is confused, how will he gain quickly? And with his eye grudging toward what is others', he is easily drawn into bad dealings that cost him money, for brokers and merchants rush him, saying there is great profit in it and he must not delay lest another get there first, and so he falls unawares into the snare of ruin.

From blending comes יובל. The Jubilee year is called יובל for the blending and mixing of men's ranks, so that no one is left with an advantage over another, in wealth or in land: the man who yesterday was poor in property is rich today, his fields returning to him free in the Yovel, and the man who yesterday was a slave is today his own master.

The horn of the shofar blown to proclaim that the Yovel has come is called יובל after it, since it announces the Yovel: במשוך היובל המה יעלו בהר (Shemos 19:13), when the horn sounds long, they may go up the mountain. It is also called קרן היובל, the horn of the Yovel, as במשוך בקרן היובל (Yehoshua 6:5), when they sound long on the horn of the Yovel; or שופר היובל, the shofar of the Yovel, as שופרות היובלים (Yehoshua 6:13), the shofars of the yovelim, where the plural of יובלים goes back to the shofars, each one a shofar of Yovel.

As יובל is given to the Jubilee year for the mixing of ranks, so it is given to bringing: יובל שי לה׳ צבאות (Yeshayahu 18:7), a gift shall be brought to Hashem of hosts; לך יובילו מלכים שי (Tehillim 68:30), kings shall bring You a gift; לרקמות תובל למלך (Tehillim 45:15), in embroidered garments she is brought to the king. This too is from mixing, the mixing of domains and borders: when one of two things in two domains is brought to the other, its border mixes with the other's and they become one border, as explained under אתא. The difference between בא and אתא, both coming, is the very difference between הבאה, bringing, and הובלה, conveying. הבאה applies also to a bringing not yet complete, as ולמה ה׳ מביא אותנו (Bamidbar 14:3), and why is Hashem bringing us, that is, in the course of bringing, and as והנה עשו בא (Bereishis 33:1), and behold, Esav was coming, in the course of coming. מוביל, conveying, applies only to a bringing already complete, when the thing conveyed has actually reached the border it was going to and the two borders have mixed and become one, like the word אתא, which also means a completed coming.

יבול may also be from הובלה, conveying: what the earth conveys, as in ונתנה הארץ יבולה (Vayikra 26:4), and the earth will give its produce, and ואין יבול בגפנים (Chavakuk 3:17), and there is no produce on the vines, just as תבואה, produce, is from הבאה, bringing, what the earth brings. The difference between them: יבול takes in all that the earth grows, grain and greens and grasses alike, as it says ותאכל ארץ ויבולה (Devarim 32:22), and it consumes the earth and its produce, that is, all that it yields. תבואה, said plainly, means specifically the five kinds of grain; but joined to שדה, field, as in וכל תבואת שדה (Divrei HaYamim II 31:5), and all the produce of the field, it takes in also the other plants sown for people to eat, as Chazal say (Nedarim 55a).

יבל also means a river: ועל יובל ישלח שרשיו (Yirmiyahu 17:8), and by a stream it sends out its roots; פלגים יבלי מים (Yeshayahu 30:25), brooks, streams of water; כערבים על יבלי מים (Yeshayahu 44:4), like willows by streams of water; על אובל אולי (Daniel 8:2), by the stream of Ulai. This too is from confusion: a river that rushes hard, its waters chasing along in a jumble, one part overtaking another; the opposite of מי השלוח ההולכים לאט (Yeshayahu 8:6), the waters of the Shiloach that go gently, whose water flows in its order.

From all these senses of בל comes מבול: הנני מביא את המבול (Bereishis 6:17), behold, I am bringing the Flood. It is called מבול from wearing out and rot, for it wore everything out; from blending, for it confounded everything; from יובל, for it carried everything off; and from נבלי שמים (Iyov 38:37), the flasks of heaven, and from יבלי מים (Yeshayahu 44:4), streams of water, as the aggadah expounds.