gold

לֹא תִבְצֹר (Vayikra 25:5), you shall not pluck, כִּי תִבְצֹר כַּרְמְךָ (Devarim 24:21), when you pluck your vineyard, and כְּבוֹצֵר עַל־סַלְסִלּוֹת (Yirmiyahu 6:9), like one plucking over the baskets. The noun is בָּצִיר, the vintage: וְהִשִּׂיג לָכֶם דַּיִשׁ אֶת־בָּצִיר (Vayikra 26:5), your threshing shall reach the vintage, and מִבְצִיר אֲבִיעֶזֶר (Shoftim 8:2), than the vintage of Aviezer, where the beis is soft though it ought to carry a dagesh. All of them are plucking.

כִּי יָרַד יַעַר הַבָּצוּר (Zecharyah 11:2), read הַבָּצִיר, for the forest has come down. It may be read from the plucking, the forest of the vintage, as a figure for the great men of Yisrael: the pasuk likens them to a forest because forest trees are tall and many, and joins them to the vintage, meaning that they give fruit, which forest trees do not. It may also be read from the sense of strength.

וְהֶעָרִים בְּצֻרוֹת (Bamidbar 13:28), and the cities are fortified, לְחוֹמַת נְחֹשֶׁת בְּצוּרָה (Yirmiyahu 15:20), a fortified wall of copper, and וְאַגִּידָה לְּךָ גְּדֹלוֹת וּבְצֻרוֹת לֹא יְדַעְתָּם (Yirmiyahu 33:3), and I will tell you great things and fortified things you have not known. The verb makes strong: וַתִּתְצוּ הַבָּתִּים לְבַצֵּר הַחוֹמָה (Yeshayahu 22:10), you pulled the houses down to fortify the wall, and וְכִי תְבַצֵּר מְרוֹם עֻזָּהּ (Yirmiyahu 51:53), though she fortify the height of her strength. The nouns are שׁוּבוּ לְבִצָּרוֹן (Zecharyah 9:12), return to the stronghold, which he reads as the cities of strength, עָרֵי הַמִּבְצָר (Yehoshua 10:20), the fortified cities, הַבְּמַחֲנִים אִם בְּמִבְצָרִים (Bamidbar 13:19), whether in camps or in strongholds, and עִיר מִבְצָרוֹת (Daniel 11:15), a city of strongholds. All of them are strength.

יִבְצֹר רוּחַ נְגִידִים (Tehillim 76:13) he reads from the strength: He will raise it up and make it strong. It can also be read from the plucking: He will pluck and bring the spirit of princes low from its pride, which fits what comes after it, נוֹרָא לְמַלְכֵי־אָרֶץ, feared by the kings of the earth.

וְעַתָּה לֹא־יִבָּצֵר מֵהֶם (Bereishis 11:6), now nothing will be withheld from them, and וְלֹא־יִבָּצֵר מִמְּךָ מְזִמָּה (Iyov 42:2), no purpose is withheld from You: their sense is not being kept back. In this sense are וּבִשְׁנַת בַּצֹּרֶת לֹא יִדְאָג (Yirmiyahu 17:8), in a year of drought he will not worry, and עַל־דִּבְרֵי הַבַּצָּרוֹת (Yirmiyahu 14:1), concerning the droughts, which is the withholding of the rains and their being held back. Some read לְעִתּוֹת בַּצָּרָה (Tehillim 9:10) from this too, for times of withholding, taking the beis as a root letter. It may be said, Radak adds, that the fortified city and this sense lie close together, since a thing great and strong is withheld from a man's reaching it.

וְשִׁית־עַל־עָפָר בָּצֶר (Iyov 22:24), and lay gold upon the dust, and the plural בצרים in וְהָיָה שַׁדַּי בְּצָרֶיךָ (Iyov 22:25), and the Almighty will be your gold. There are careful books with no yud, and then it is singular, the resh taking a segol for the esnachta; and it may still be plural even with the yud missing, since many like it are found.

זָהָב וָכֶסֶף (Shemos 25:3), gold and silver: the word is known.

Since gold is clear and clean, a thing that is clear and clean is called gold as well. מִצָּפוֹן זָהָב יֶֽאֱתֶה (Iyov 37:22), out of the north comes gold, means the clear and clean wind. The Chacham Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra explains it as the brightness of the sky, which looks like gold, since it is from the northern side that it begins to clear. Further, כּֽוֹס־ זָהָב בָּבֶל (Yirmiyahu 51:7), Bavel is a cup of gold, means the clear and clean wine; and הַֽמְרִיקִים מֵֽעֲלֵיהֶם הַזָּהָֽב (Zecharyah 4:12), that empty the gold out from themselves, means the clear and clean oil.

לֹֽא־ חָרַץ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְאִישׁ אֶת־לְשֹׁנֽוֹ (Yehoshua 10:21) means: not one man of them moved his tongue at Yisrael, the lamed of לאיש being an extra one like the lamed of הַשְּׁלִשִׁי לְאַבְשָׁלוֹם (Divrei HaYamim I 3:2), the third, Avshalom; or it means to a man of Bnei Yisrael, that not one of them moved his tongue even at a single man of Bnei Yisrael, and all the less at all of them together. So too לֹא יֶֽחֱרַץ ־כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ (Shemos 11:7), no dog shall move its tongue, and אָז תֶּחֱרָץ (Shmuel II 5:24), then you shall move. The sense of these is ענין התנועה, movement.

מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ־לְמוֹתָר (Mishlei 21:5), the thoughts of the diligent are only to profit. וְהֽוֹן־אָדָם יָקָר חָרֽוּץ (Mishlei 12:27) he reads as though turned about, והון אדם חרוץ יקר, the wealth of a diligent man is precious; and some take חרוץ there for a noun, so that the precious thing in a man's wealth is החריצות, diligence itself. In the plural, וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (Mishlei 10:4), the hand of the diligent makes rich, and וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (Mishlei 13:4), the soul of the diligent shall be made fat; the sense of all of it is movement. They are men who move about for their food and do their work in uprightness and justice, diligent and quick to acquire this world and the next, the opposite of the lazy and the deceitful; for the sense of חרוץ is also that of decree and judgment.

כֵּן מִשְׁפָּטֶךָ אַתָּה חָרָֽצְתָּ (Melachim I 20:40), so is your judgment, you yourself have decreed it; בְּעֵמֶק הֶֽחָרוּץ (Yoel 4:14), in the valley of decree, which the Targum renders בְּמֵישַׁר פִּלוּג דִינָא, the plain where judgment is divided; כִּי כָלָה וְנֶחֱרָצָה (Yeshayahu 10:23), for destruction, and decreed, whose meaning is: and the destruction is decreed; and אִם חֲרוּצִים יָמָיו (Iyov 14:5), if his days are decreed, a passive participle, that is, גזורים, decreed.

כִּי לֹא בֶֽחָרוּץ יוּדַשׁ קֶצַח (Yeshayahu 28:27), for קֶצַח, black cumin, is not threshed with a חָרוּץ, means with a מורג חרוץ, which cuts and threshes the grain, as in הִנֵּה שַׂמְתִּיךְ לְמוֹרַג חָרוּץ חָדָשׁ (Yeshayahu 41:15), behold, I have made you a new threshing sledge that cuts. It is a board of wood with fine stones set under it, to cut the straw and bring the grain out of its husk; the tool's name is מורג, and it is called חרוץ for its work, cutting the husk from the grain. Though they are one tool, there may be some difference between מורג and חרוץ; or חרוץ describes the מורג as one that cuts well, and such a great heavy tool is not fit for threshing קצח and fine seed.

וּבַֽחֲרִצֵי הַבַּרְזֶל (Shmuel II 12:31), and with cutters of iron, and בַּֽחֲרֻצוֹת הַבַּרְזֶל (Amos 1:3), with cutters of iron, are like it, the sense of all of them being החתוך והכריתה, cutting and severing. So too אֽוֹ־ חָר֣וּץ אֽוֹ־יַבֶּ֗לֶת (Vayikra 22:22), or חָרוּץ or with a wart, where חָרוּץ has been explained as cut, and Chazal explain it (Bechoros 38a, 39a) as an eyelid split or nicked, or a lip split or nicked. And וְנִבְנְתָה רְחוֹב וְחָרוּץ (Daniel 9:25), and it shall be built, street and trench, is a digging cut into the ground, as the Mishnah's חריץ שבין שתי חצרות (Eruvin 7:3), a trench between two courtyards.

חֲרִצֵי הֶֽחָלָב (Shmuel I 17:18), which the Targum renders גוּבְנִין דַחֲלָבָא, cheeses of milk: it may be that they are so named because they are pressed in the making, and their making resembles the work of the חרוץ in threshing. מֵחָרוּץ וּמִפָּז (Mishlei 8:19), than gold and fine gold, בִּֽירַקְרַק חָרֽוּץ (Tehillim 68:14), with the greenish hue of gold, וְחָרוּץ כְּטִיט חוּצֽוֹת (Zecharyah 9:3), and gold like the mud of the streets, and יִרְפַּד חָרוּץ עֲלֵי־טִֽיט (Iyov 41:22), he spreads gold upon the mud, are all of them gold, though some explain precious stones. Rabbi Yonah wrote that וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (Mishlei 10:4) and וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (Mishlei 13:4), the hand of the חָרוּצִים makes rich and the soul of the חָֽרֻצִים shall be made fat, may be from this too, and Radak takes his meaning to be the great merchants, the gold men, that is, those who hold the gold.

בְּכֶתֶם אוֹפִֽיר (Tehillim 45:10), in the gold of Ophir, pointed with six dots; וְלַכֶּתֶם אָמַרְתִּי מִבְטַחִֽי (Iyov 31:24), and to the gold I said, my trust; יִשְׁנֶא הַכֶּתֶם הַטּוֹב (Eichah 4:1), the good gold is changed; and וַֽחֲלִי־ כָתֶם (Mishlei 25:12), and an ornament of gold: it is the good gold. Rabbi Yonah wrote that they are pearls. But from its being tied to Ophir and to פָּז it looks like gold and not pearls.

כֶּתֶם פָּז (Shir HaShirim 5:11) means כתם and פז, gold and refined gold, with the vav missing, as in שֶׁמֶשׁ יָרֵחַ (Chavakuk 3:11), sun and moon, and others like it; or else כתם stands in the construct with פז, joined to it for its worth, as in זָהָב מוּפָז (Melachim I 10:18), refined gold.

From this sense is מִכְתָּם לְדָוִד (Tehillim 16:1), a michtam of David, that is, the mizmor was upon him like gold. נִכְתָּם עֲוֹנֵךְ (Yirmiyahu 2:22), your sin is marked, is like נרשם, marked in; and Chazal call the mark of a thing כתם, טק"א in the vernacular.