divine judgment

דָּן דִּין־עָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן (Yirmiyahu 22:16), he judged the cause of the poor and needy, דָּנַנִּי אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 30:6), Hashem has judged me, and לֹֽא־יָדוֹן רוּחִי (Bereishis 6:3), My spirit shall not judge. In לְמַעַן תֵּֽדְעוּן (Iyov 19:29) he gives שַׁדּֽוּן as אשר דון: that you may know that there is judgment.

The noun is a judgment: לֹא־דָנוּ דִּין יָתוֹם (Yirmiyahu 5:28), they did not judge the cause of the orphan; and the adjective, a judge: אֲבִי יְתוֹמִים וְדַיַּן אַלְמָנוֹת (Tehillim 68:6), father of orphans and judge of widows.

The noun for strife is here too: אִישׁ חֵמָה יְגָרֶה מָדוֹן (Mishlei 15:18), a man of wrath stirs up strife, and מִדְיָנִים יְשַׁלֵּֽחַ (Mishlei 6:14), he sends out quarrels. וַיְהִי אִישׁ מָדֹין (Shmuel II 21:20) can be explained from this: and there was a man of strife, איש ריב ומלחמה, a man of quarrel and of war.

לֹֽא־יָדוֹן רוּחִי may bear another sense: that it lacks its first root letter, a nun, the vowel letter standing in place of the dagesh, and the root is נָדַן, as in וַיָּשֶׁב חַרְבּוֹ אֶל־נְדָנָֽהּ (Divrei HaYamim I 21:27), he returned his sword to its sheath.

The chacham Rabbi Yehudah brought לֹֽא־יָדוֹן רוּחִי, and כָל־הָעָם נָדוֹן, all the people were at strife, together with יְגָרֶה מָדוֹן, stirs up strife, and מִדְיָנִים יְשַׁלֵּֽחַ, he sends out quarrels, as a sense standing on its own, that of strife. Radak's father explained it so: My higher spirit, which I blew into man, shall not be at strife with the body forever, since the spirit takes no pleasure in the body's desires while the body is drawn after the desires of a beast, for he is flesh, and in the nature of flesh the desires are sunk and fixed; I will lengthen his days a hundred and twenty years if they repent, and if not, I will destroy them from the world.

וּבְעֵינֵי מֹשֶׁה רָֽע (Bamidbar 11:10), and it was evil in the eyes of Moshe, and כַּדָּבָר הָרָע הַזֶּה (Devarim 19:20), like this evil thing. In the plural, לֹא־תִֽהְיֶה אַֽחֲרֵֽי־רַבִּים לְרָעֹת (Shemos 23:2), do not follow the many for evils, means to do evil things, and in גַּם אֶת־ הָֽרָעוֹת (Yirmiyahu 2:33), even the evil ones, Radak explains הָֽרָעוֹת as the evil women. The noun is רֹעַ לֵב (Nechemiah 2:2), badness of heart. Radak holds there is no dividing this from רַבּוֹת רָעוֹת צַדִּיק (Tehillim 34:20), many are the evils of the righteous, for an evil that comes from a man and an evil that comes upon him from Hashem are alike evil, with no difference between them.

הֵרֵעוּ מַֽעַלְלֵיהֶֽם (Michah 3:4), they made their deeds evil, and לָמָה הֲרֵֽעֹתֶם לִי (Bereishis 43:6), why did you deal ill with me. In זֶרַע מְרֵעִים (Yeshayahu 1:4), a seed of evildoers, he says the word is said not of the fathers but of the sons, a seed who are your evildoers and children who corrupt their doings.

So too of a body run down and a face changed: וְרָעוֹת תֹּאַר מְאֹד (Bereishis 41:19), and very bad of form, רָעוֹת הַמַּרְאֶה (Bereishis 41:4), bad of appearance, and מַדּוּעַ פְּנֵיכֶם רָעִים (Bereishis 40:7), why are your faces bad. So וְלֹא הָיִיתִי רַע לְפָנָיו (Nechemiah 2:1), and I had not been bad before him: until that day I had not been so before him, but glad and of good heart, and that day, when he saw me so, he asked me why my face was bad. All of them are the sense of evil, and it is known.

Another sense: תִּתְקְעוּ וְלֹא תָרִֽיעוּ (Bamidbar 10:7), you shall blow but not sound a teruah, with the noun וּתְקַעְתֶּם תְּרוּעָה, and you shall blow a teruah. All of them are the sense of teruah, the sounding of the voice in a teruah, whether for joy or for mourning, as לָמָּה תָרִיעִי רֵעַ (Michah 4:9), why do you raise a shout. יִתְרוֹעֲעוּ אַף יָשִׁירוּ (Tehillim 65:14), they shout, indeed they sing, is said of the ears of grain, which strike one another when the wind blows through them, as though they shouted and sang.

A noun of the same sense in another form is יַגִּיד עָלָיו רֵעוֹ (Iyov 36:33), its noise tells of it, that is, the thunder tells of the rain and points to it.

Another sense is a companion: אִישׁ רֵעִים לְהִתְרוֹעֵעַ (Mishlei 18:24), a man of friends to keep company with, and וְרֵעַ אָבִיךָ (Mishlei 27:10), and your father's friend.

Another sense is breaking: תְּרֹעֵֽם בְּשֵׁבֶט בַּרְזֶל (Tehillim 2:9), You shall break them with a rod of iron, and רֹעוּ עַמִּים וָחֹתּוּ (Yeshayahu 8:9), be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed. הֲיָרֹעַ בַּרְזֶל בַּרְזֶל מִצָּפוֹן וּנְחֹשֶׁת (Yirmiyahu 15:12), will iron break the iron from the north, and copper: the iron and copper from the north is Nevuchadnetzar, and will their iron break it? If they are strong, one stronger than they will come upon them to break them and crush them. In Radak's view this whole sense belongs to the doubled roots, and so in the words of the Chachamim (Bava Kamma 30a), בכותל רעוע שנו, they taught it of a crumbling wall.

רַחֵם אֲרַחֲמֶנּוּ (Yirmiyahu 31:19), I will surely have mercy on him, and וְרִחַמְךָ וְהִרְבֶּךָ (Devarim 13:18), and He will have mercy on you and multiply you. In the passive, אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ יְרֻחַם יָתוֹם (Hoshea 14:4), in You the orphan is shown mercy, and וּמוֹדֶה וְעֹזֵב יְרֻחָם (Mishlei 28:13), one who confesses and forsakes is shown mercy. The adjective is רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן (Tehillim 86:15), merciful and gracious, and with a yud of relation, יְדֵי נָשִׁים רַחֲמָנִיּוֹת (Eichah 4:10), the hands of compassionate women. The sense of all of them, he says, is compassion, and it is known. In בְּרֹגֶז רַחֵם תִּזְכּוֹר (Chavakuk 3:2), in wrath remember mercy, רַחֵם may be an infinitive, but it is more correct as a noun.

Another sense: אֶרְחָמְךָ (Tehillim 18:2), where the ches carries a kamatz chatuf, means like אוהבך, I love You, from the Targum of וַיֶּאֱהַב (Bereishis 25:28), and he loved, which is וּרְחֵם. Some take רחם תזכור from this sense, which would mean: in the time of wrath You will remember the love of the fathers. Ibn Ezra explains אֶרְחָמְךָ from the first sense, meaning I will seek mercy from You.

כָל־פֶּטֶר־רֶחֶם (Shemos 13:12), every first issue of the womb, and אֲשֶׁר בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵרֶחֶם אִמּוֹ (Bamidbar 12:12), who when he comes out of his mother's womb. It comes with a patach, רַחַם רַחֲמָתַיִם (Shoftim 5:30), a maiden and two maidens, and in pause the resh takes a kamatz, כָּל־פֶּטֶר רָחַם (Yechezkel 20:26), every first issue of the womb. In וְרַחְמָה הֲרַת עוֹלָם (Yirmiyahu 20:17), and her womb pregnant for ever, the heh is quiescent where it ought to carry a mappik.

By way of borrowing, בְּגִיחוֹ מֵרֶחֶם יֵצֵא (Iyov 38:8), when it burst out, it came forth from the womb, is said of the sea: when He brought it forth it was as one coming out of a womb; that is, when the waters went out and were gathered He hedged it about, so that it should not pass the limit He set for it, which is the sand.

מֵרֶחֶם מִשְׁחָר (Tehillim 110:3), from the womb, from the dawn, Radak explains of the day you were born and came out of the womb: that dawn was the dew of your youth, the dew that came down that dawn being yours; that is, it was good for you, as a man says that a dew of blessing came down on the day he was born. In Ibn Ezra's view it is borrowed like the sea's womb, מִשְׁחָר being from the time the dawn rises, as though it went out of its place like one coming out of a womb; and Ibn Ezra explains the pasuk: if you must make war, they will come to you on that day as a willing rain, from the time the dawn rises, like the dew you were used to seeing in your youth when you were a shepherd.

The word is applied to the woman herself: רַחַם רַחֲמָתַיִם לְרֹאשׁ גֶּבֶר (Shoftim 5:30), which Radak explains as a maiden and two maidens for every man's head; they were called so by way of contempt. וְאֶת־הָרָחָמָה (Devarim 14:17), and the rachamah: it is said to be a bird that pities its young greatly.

וְשָׁאוּל תָּקַע בַּשּׁוֹפָר (Shmuel I 13:3), and Shaul blew the shofar, with the noun בְּתֵקַע שׁוֹפָר (Tehillim 150:3), with the blast of the shofar. The shofar itself is called תָּקוֹעַ, as in תָּֽקְעוּ בַתָּקוֹעַ (Yechezkel 7:14), they have blown on the takoa.

But וּבִתְקוֹעַ תִּקְעוּ שׁוֹפָר (Yirmiyahu 6:1), in Tekoa blow the shofar, he takes as a place name, said as a turn of speech with one word falling on another, as in וְעֶקְרוֹן תֵּֽעָקֵֽר (Tzefaniah 2:4), and Ekron shall be uprooted.

Another sense: ויעקב תָּקַע אֶת־אָֽהֳלוֹ (Bereishis 31:25), Yaakov pitched his tent, and וְלָבָן תָּקַע אֶת־אֶחָיו (Bereishis 31:25), Lavan stationed his brothers there. So וְאֶת־גְּוִיָּתוֹ תָּֽקְעוּ בְּחוֹמַת בֵּית שָֽׁן (Shmuel I 31:10), they fastened his body to the wall of Beis Shan, with nails or otherwise, and וַתִּתְקַע אֶת־הַיָּתֵד בְּרַקָּתוֹ (Shoftim 4:21), she drove the peg into his temple.

Near to this is אַל־תְּהִי בְתֹֽקְעֵי־כָף (Mishlei 22:26), be not of those who strike hands, which he explains as הכות כף האדם אל כף חבירו בערבון, a man striking his palm against his fellow's in surety; and for joy תָּקְעוּ כַף עָלֶיךָ (Nachum 3:19), they have clapped hands over you.