nation

In most places it sets a condition, as וְאִם־עֵז קָרְבָּנוֹ (Vayikra 3:12), and if his offering is a goat. It also asks a question, as הֲיִנְהַק־פֶּרֶא עֲלֵי־דֶשֶׁא אִם יִגְעֶה־שּׁוֹר (Iyov 6:5), does the wild donkey bray over grass, or will the ox low? The heh of asking can come on it as well: הַאִם תַּמְנוּ לִגְוֹעַ (Bamidbar 17:28), are we to perish to the last?

It also stands in the sense of לוּ, were it so: אִם־תַּגְבִּיהַּ כַּנֶּשֶׁר (Ovadiah 1:4), were you to soar like the eagle; אִם־יִתֶּן־לִי בָלָק (Bamidbar 24:13), were Balak to give me; אִם־אֶסַּק שָׁמַיִם (Tehillim 139:8), were I to go up to heaven; אִם־יַֽעֲלֶה לַשָּׁמַיִם שִׂיאוֹ (Iyov 20:6), were his height to go up to the heavens; and אִם־יַֽעֲמֹד מֹשֶׁה וּשְׁמוּאֵל (Yirmiyahu 15:1), were Moshe and Shmuel to stand. All of this kind go the same way.

וְהָיָה אִם־בָּא אֶל־אֵשֶׁת אָחִיו (Bereishis 38:9) is: when he came to his brother's wife. So too אִם־כֶּסֶף תַּלְוֶה אֶת־עַמִּי (Shemos 22:24), when you lend money to my people, since lending is an obligation, as it says וְהַעֲבֵט תַּעֲבִיטֶנּוּ (Devarim 15:8), you shall surely lend to him.

It also stands in place of אֲשֶׁר, that: עַד אִם־דִּבַּרְתִּי דְּבָרָי (Bereishis 24:33) is עד שאדבר, until I have spoken my words; וְאַחַר אִם־אֵֽינְכֶם שֹֽׁמְעִים אֵלָי (Yechezkel 20:39), after that you do not listen to me; and עַד אִם־נֽוֹתַרְתֶּם (Yeshayahu 30:17), until you are left.

כִּי אִם־תַּם הַכֶּסֶף (Bereishis 47:18), truly the money is gone, and אִם־לַלֵּצִים הוּא יָלִיץ (Mishlei 3:34), truly he scoffs at the scoffers. Every אִם of this kind is to be read as truly, and he holds these are short of the nun of אָמֵן, as אֱמֶת is short a nun, its proper form being אֱמֶנֶת, which the dagesh in אֲמִתּוֹ proves.

It also serves in an oath, as a man says, let it be thus and thus if I do this: אִם־לְדָוִד אֲכַזֵּֽב (Tehillim 89:36), if I lie to David, and אִם־יְבֹאוּן אֶל־מְנוּחָתִֽי (Tehillim 95:11), if they come into My rest.

אָב וָאֵם (Esther 2:7), father and mother, is plain enough. A family is called אוּם or אוּמָּה, the plural רֹאשׁ אֻמּוֹת (Bamidbar 25:15), head of families, and שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר נְשִׂיאִם לְאֻמֹּתָם (Bereishis 25:16), twelve princes for their families; and a whole nation is called אוּם, כָּל־הָאֻמִּים (Tehillim 117:1), all the nations. By way of parable, אִמּוֹ in בָּֽעֲטָרָה שֶׁעִטְּרָה־לּוֹ אִמּוֹ (Shir HaShirim 3:11), with the crown his mother crowned him with, is explained in this sense too. Though the alef takes a chirik, that is because the poetic speech is of Shlomo's mother; in the parable Shlomo is Hakadosh Baruch Hu and his mother is Yisrael His people, that is, His nation. His father writes that the root of אוּם is אָמַם, on the evidence of the Arabic.

The middle of the road, where the roads turn to it from this side and that, is called אֵם הַדֶּרֶךְ (Yechezkel 21:26), the mother of the road, since it is like a mother to the roads that turn in to it; and the great city is עִיר וְאֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל (Shmuel II 20:19), a city and a mother in Israel, since it is like a mother to the smaller places, which are themselves called daughters.

וְהָאַמָּה מִזֶּה וְהָאַמָּה מִזֶּה (Shemos 26:13), and the cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other, is the cubit, whose sense is known, and so בְּאַמַּת־אִישׁ (Devarim 3:11), by the cubit of a man. אַמַּת בִּצְעֵךְ (Yirmiyahu 51:13) is the arm of your gain, or the measure of your gain, that is, the measure you measured out. In וַיָּנֻעוּ אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (Yeshayahu 6:4), and the אַמּוֹת of the thresholds moved, the doorposts are called אַמּוֹת. Yonasan renders it אֵילְוַת סִפֵּי, and by that the Targum seems to mean the corners standing on the doorposts on either side, on which the lintel rests. Some explain it that the thresholds moved two or three cubits from their place.

וְיֶתֶר גּוֹיִ יִנְחָלֽוּם (Tzefaniah 2:9), and the remnant of My nation will inherit them: the yud of the suffix, my, is missing from the writing and stays in the speaking. In גּוֹיִם רַבִּים (Yeshayahu 52:15), many nations, לִשְׂמֹחַ בְּשִׂמְחַת גּוֹיֶךָ (Tehillim 106:5), to rejoice in the joy of Your nations, and גּוֹיַיִךְ (Yechezkel 36:13), your nations, it is the yud of the plural that has fallen from the writing and stays in the speaking; and so כֵּֽאלֹהֵי גּוֹיֵי הָֽאֲרָצוֹת (Divrei HaYamim II 32:17), like the gods of the nations of the lands.

כִּי־ גוֹי עָלָה עַל־אַרְצִי (Yoel 1:6), for a nation has come up against my land, is said of a gathering of locusts.

Chazal were accustomed in their speech to call a man who is not of Israel a goy. The usage came about because whenever they wished to say of a man that he was not of Israel but of some other nation, and it was not settled with them which nation he came from, whether Edomite or Ishmaelite or one of the rest, they said goy, meaning that he is of another nation and not of Israel.

Rabbi Yonah said that גוי falls on a single man, as it says הֲגוֹי גַּם־צַדִּיק תַּֽהֲרֹֽג (Bereishis 20:4), will You slay a גוי, even a righteous one? What seems right to Radak is that Avimelech said it on account of his people, since Hashem's anger was on him and on his people; and so Avimelech said כִּֽי־הֵבֵאתָ עָלַי וְעַל־מַמְלַכְתִּי חֲטָאָה גְדֹלָה (Bereishis 20:9), that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin. Further, וַיִּרְפָּא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־אֲבִימֶלֶךְ וְאֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאַמְהֹתָיו וַיֵּלֵֽדוּ (Bereishis 20:17), and Hashem healed Avimelech and his wife and his maidservants and they bore children: so it is plain that Avimelech was not stricken alone.

וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץ (Bereishis 25:23), one people will be stronger than the other, and וּשְׁנֵי לְאֻמִּים in the same pasuk, and two peoples; תּוֹכֵחֹת בַּל־אֻמִּים (Tehillim 149:7), rebukes upon the peoples; and וּלְאוּמִּי אֵלַי הַאֲזִינוּ (Yeshayahu 51:4), and My people, give ear to Me, in which the quiescent letter, the vav, is written, and the dagesh with it. Its like, he says, is set out in the section on grammar, and they are like אומים, peoples.

אֲרָזִים לֹא־עֲמָמֻהוּ (Yechezkel 31:8), the tall cedars did not cover him or hide him, for he rose above them all; כָּל־סָתוּם לֹא עֲמָמוּךָ (Yechezkel 28:3), no hidden thing was covered or concealed from you, none that you did not know; and אֵיכָה יוּעַם זָהָב (Eichah 4:1), how the gold is covered over. The sense of them all is hiding and covering. His father takes עֲמָמוּךָ from עִם, with: that is, the matters were not closed off with you.

עַם רַב וְעָצוּם (Yoel 2:2), a great and mighty people. The word is mostly masculine and at times feminine: מַדּוּעַ שׁוֹבְבָה הָעָם הַזֶּה (Yirmiyahu 8:5), why has this people turned away; וְחָטָאת עַמֶּךָ (Shemos 5:16), and your people sins; and הָעָם אֲשֶׁר־בְּקִרְבָּהּ יוֹשֶׁבֶת־לָבֶטַח (Shoftim 18:7), the people in its midst dwelling secure. So too חֲבִי כִמְעַט־רֶגַע (Yeshayahu 26:20), hide for a brief moment, for one who reads it as a command.

עַמִּים הַר־יִקְרָאוּ (Devarim 33:19), peoples will call to the mountain; in the fuller form בַּעֲמָמֶיךָ (Shoftim 5:14), among your peoples, and עַמְמֵי הָאָרֶץ (Nechemiah 9:24), the peoples of the land.

As עַם is said of a gathering and assembly of men, so it is said of other things: of the locust, עַם רַב וְעָצוּם כָּמֹהוּ לֹא נִהְיָה מִן־הָעוֹלָם (Yoel 2:2), a people great and mighty whose like has never been; of the ants, עַם לֹא־עָז (Mishlei 30:25), a people not strong; and of the shefanim, עַם לֹא־עָצוּם (Mishlei 30:26), a people not mighty. His father explains עַם־זוּ יָצַרְתִּי לִי תְּהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ (Yeshayahu 43:21), this people I formed for Myself, they shall tell My praise, the same way, of the beasts, since the pasuk before it says that the beast of the field shall honour Me.