forgetting

וְכִחֵשׁ בַּֽעֲמִיתוֹ (Vayikra 5:21), he deals falsely with his fellow; וַתְּכַחֵשׁ שָׂרָה (Bereishis 18:15), and Sarah denied it; אָלֹה וְכַחֵשׁ (Hoshea 4:2), swearing and lying. The adjective is בָּנִים כֶּֽחָשִׁים (Yeshayahu 30:9), sons who deal falsely, and the noun is in סְבָבֻנִי בְכַחַשׁ (Hoshea 12:1), they have ringed me round with falsehood, and וּבְכַֽחֲשֵׁיהֶם שָׂרִֽים (Hoshea 7:3), and the princes with their lies. All of them mean denial and falsehood.

כִּחֵשׁ מַֽעֲשֵׂה־זַיִת (Chavakuk 3:17), the work of the olive has lied, is a borrowed use: it belies the hope of those who wait on it. So too וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּֽהּ (Hoshea 9:2), and the new wine will lie to her, that is, it will belie their hope. The last word is one of two where one would suppose בָּם and the Mesorah has it read בָּהּ.

In another sense the word means lean: וּבְשָׂרִי כָּחַשׁ מִשָּֽׁמֶן (Tehillim 109:24), my flesh has grown lean and lost its fat, and so Chazal speak of a בהמה כחושה, a lean animal (Bava Kamma 65b). The noun is וַיָּקָם בִּי כַֽחֲשִׁי (Iyov 16:8), my leanness rises up against me; and וְיִכָּֽחֲשׁוּ אֹֽיְבֶיךָ לָךְ (Devarim 33:29) means your enemies will be lean and poor and humbled before you.

בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִתְכַּֽחֲשׁוּ ־לִי (Shmuel II 22:45) he leaves open between the two senses. It may belong with the lean and the humbled, strangers who grow lean and submit before me; or it may be from the first sense, as he wrote above, that out of great dread they will deny what they did and the evil they did, and say they never did it.

נָשִׁיתִי טוֹבָה (Eichah 3:17), I have forgotten good, and צוּר יְלָדְךָ תֶּשִׁי (Devarim 32:18), the Rock that bore you, you forgot. יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא תִנָּשֵׁנִי (Yeshayahu 44:21), Yisrael, you will not be forgotten, he explains לא תנשה ממני, you will not be forgotten by Me. From this sense is בְּאֶרֶץ נְשִׁיָּה (Tehillim 88:13), in the land of forgetting, which is the place of the dead, for they are forgotten. כִּי־נַשַּׁנִי אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 41:51), for Hashem has made me forget, he has already treated under the root נָשַׁשׁ; some say it is of this root, in the doubled form, with a patach in place of a chirik.

Another sense: לֹא־נָשִׁיתִי וְלֹא־נָשׁוּ־בִי (Yirmiyahu 15:10) is a doubled saying, either I asked nothing of them and they gave me nothing of themselves, or I did not lend to them and they did not lend to me, the verb of the lender being bound with a bet and that of the borrower without one. So כַּנֹּשֶׁה כַּֽאֲשֶׁר נֹשֶׁא בֽוֹ (Yeshayahu 24:2), as the borrower so the one who lends to him. It is said after כַּמַּלְוֶה כַּלּוֶֹה (Yeshayahu 24:2), as the lender so the borrower, because one pair means a loan of money and the other a loan of food.

It is not far-fetched, he says, that נושה should name both the borrower and the lender, since the bond of the bet tells them apart, and where the bond is missing the context shows which is meant; so שובר is said of the buyer and of the seller, the bond and the context telling them apart. The word comes without the bet in וְכָל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ נֹשֶׁא (Shmuel I 22:2), and every man who had a creditor; and of the lender without it, the context showing which is meant, in וְהַנֹּשֶׁה בָּא לָקַחַת (Melachim II 4:1), and the creditor has come to take, and in אוֹ מִי מִנּוֹשַׁי (Yeshayahu 50:1), or which of my creditors, which he explains מנושים בי, those who hold a debt against me. In the Targum's view the adjective from this root is נָשָׁה, and in the plural נָשִׁים, since it renders וְנָשִׁים מָשְׁלוּ בוֹ (Yeshayahu 3:12) as וּכְמָרי חוֹבָא שַׁלִיטוּ בֵּיהּ, and like masters of debt they ruled over him.

The heavy form is כִּי־תַשֶּׁה בְרֵעֲךָ מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה (Devarim 24:10), when you lend your fellow a loan of anything. One can explain from this sense כִּי־יַשֶּׁה לְךָ אֱלוֹהַ מֵעֲוֹנֶךָ (Iyov 11:6), which Radak also sets under forgetting, as Hashem holding you liable for your iniquity. And וְנָשָׁא־בוֹ אָלָה (Melachim I 8:31) is that the judge lays an oath on him. לֹא־יַשִּׁא אוֹיֵב בּוֹ (Tehillim 89:23) is that no enemy will be to him as a creditor who takes his money, and likewise יַשִּׁי מות (Tehillim 55:16), let death be to them as a creditor who takes them.

The noun is נשי, a debt, in וְשַׁלְּמִי אֶת־נִשְׁיֵכְי (Melachim II 4:7), and pay your debt, the word being read נִשְׁיֵךְ. Another form is מַשָּׁא: וּמַשָּׁא כָל־יָֽד (Nechemiah 10:32), and the debt of every hand; מַשָּׁא אִֽישׁ־בְּאָחִיו (Nechemiah 5:7), a debt each man holds against his brother; and נַֽעַזְבָה־נָּא אֶת־הַמַּשָּׁא הַזֶּֽה (Nechemiah 5:10), let us now leave off this debt. In the feminine it is מַשַּׁאת, as in מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה (Devarim 24:10), a loan of anything, and in the plural בַּעֹֽרְבִים מַשָּׁאֽוֹת (Mishlei 22:26), among those who stand surety for loans. It may be that כָּל־בַּעַל מַשֵּׁה יָדוֹ (Devarim 15:2), every holder of a loan of his hand, is a noun as well, on the pattern of מַטֶּה.

גִּיד הַנָּשֶׁה (Bereishis 32:33): Chazal said it is called so because it slipped from its place and went up (Chullin 91a); that is, Radak explains, as though it forgot its place and turned away from it. It would be right, Radak says, to explain it as the sinew that is severed, from נָשְׁתָה גְבוּרָתָם (Yirmiyahu 51:30), their might has failed, and then that too would be of this root; but it is better to join נָשְׁתָה גְבוּרָתָם with וְנִשְּׁתוּ־מַיִם (Yeshayahu 19:5), and the waters shall fail, under the root נָשַׁת.

נָשִׁים, women, and נְשֵׁיהֶם, their women, are not treated here but under the root אָנַשׁ.

וְשָׁכַחְתָּ עֹמֶר בַּשָּׂדֶה (Devarim 24:19), and you forget a sheaf in the field; שְׁכֵחֻנִי עַמִּי (Yirmiyahu 18:15), My people have forgotten Me; בִּינוּ נָא זֹאת שֹׁכְחֵי אֱלוֹהַּ (Tehillim 50:22), understand this, you who forget God; and in the passive כִּי נִשְׁכַּח זִכְרָם (Koheles 9:5), for their memory is forgotten, with נִשְׁכַּחְתִּי כְּמֵת מִלֵּב (Tehillim 31:13), I am forgotten like a dead man out of mind. The adjective is שָׁכֵחַ, formed like שָׂמֵחַ, glad, found in the plural: הַשְּׁכֵחִים אֶת־הַר קָדְשִׁי (Yeshayahu 65:11), who forget My holy mountain, and כָּל־גּוֹיִם שְׁכֵחֵי אֱלֹהִים (Tehillim 9:18), all the nations forgetful of God. It is said of making forgotten too: שִׁכַּח י"י בְּצִיּוֹן (Eichah 2:6), Hashem has made forgotten in Tzion, and לְהַשְׁכִּיחַ אֶת עַמִּי שְׁמִי (Yirmiyahu 23:27), to make My people forget My name.

תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי (Tehillim 137:5), let my right hand forget, has its object missing, and the object is the playing, since the right hand moves the strings of the harp. The pasuk means: when the men of Bavel told them to sing they would answer, how shall we sing, and each of the singers would say, if I forget you, Yerushalayim, and play while you lie in ruin, let my right hand forget the playing.

וְיִשְׁתַּכְּחוּ בָעִיר אֲשֶׁר כֵּן עָשׂוּ (Koheles 8:10), and those who had done right make themselves forgotten in the city, he reads of the righteous. When the wicked die others come in their place, as it says וּמֵעָפָר אַחֵר יִצְמָחוּ (Iyov 8:19), and from the dust others will spring up; those who are from a holy place, the righteous, go off and are driven away, so as not to be seen before the wicked, because of the violence done to them; and the men who did what was true and upright hide from them and make themselves forgotten and hidden.