pole
At a glance
In short
Mot is a pole for carrying things, and the feminine motah most often the bar of a yoke: carrying pole, yoke-bar. Bad, which Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino makes a synonym of mot, is the carrying pole of the Mishkan vessels: stave. Neis is a high pole or flagpole (banner, standard), and on a ship the sail. Toren is the mast that holds the neis up. Shapud is usually a pointed skewer or spit.
Distinctions
Mot (מוט) and zemorah (זמורה)
Four occurrences: the spies' pole (Bamidbar 13:23), the poles for carrying the Mishkan vessels (Bamidbar 4:10, 4:12), and Nachum 1:13. The feminine motah appears a further twelve times, usually the bar of a yoke (Vayikra 26:13, Yeshayahu 58:6, Yechezkel 30:18).
- On the spies' pasuk, "they cut a branch (zemorah) and a single cluster, and carried it on the pole (mot) by twos," Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (HaKsav VeHaKabbalah) reads two objects, branch and pole.
- The Zohar (Shelach 160b) reads one: the definite article on mot points back to something already named, and the same piece of wood is called zemorah while attached to the tree and mot once cut.
Roots:
- the triliteralists Ibn Janach and Radak, each in his Sefer HaShorashim, מ-ו-ט.
- The medieval biliteralist Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem), the two-letter מ-ט, which also yields tamut (slipping), mateh (staff), matteh (tribe), mitah (bed) and Aramaic mata (touching), so that for him the middle vav is extraneous.
- The Enlightenment-era biliteralist Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim takes even the mem as extraneous and works from ט-ה, whose core sense is changing the present situation by inclining or turning: natah, lematah, matah, mitah (one inclines to lie down), mateh (leaned on while walking). In Cheshek Shlomo he offers two readings of mot and says the pesukim cannot decide between them: either a thick pole, typically from the lower part of a tree, hence lematah, or a pole typically taken from a branch that turns out sideways from the trunk, hence natah. In Yerios Shlomo he simply calls a mot a reinforced mateh.
Bad (בד)
Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino (Ohel Moed) makes mot and bad synonyms. Badim are the staves of the Shulchan (Shemos 25:28, 37:14), the golden Mizbeiach (Shemos 30:4, 37:27), the copper Mizbeiach (Shemos 27:7, 38:7) and the Aron (Shemos 25:13-15, 37:5). The root ב-ד-(ד) also yields levad, alone, and boded, singular, and hisbodedus. Pappenheim connects them two ways: in Yerios Shlomo, once a branch of the right quality is chosen for a stave it can be viewed as the one branch out of all the others, singular among its peers; or a bad is the thick branch that comes off the tree right at the root and so looks like a tree standing alone. That lower branch is thick and hard, which is why it often serves for carrying loads, for bars, and for the beam of a scale, and why an olive press is a beis habad (Shabbos 1:9, Nedarim 3:2, Bava Metzia 10:4, Bava Basra 1:6 and 4:4-5, Shevuos 3:8, Keilim 12:3 and 20:3, Taharos 10:1-2 and 10:8, Zavim 4:7).
Neis (נס)
A tall pole or flagpole, appearing about twenty times in Tanach on Even Shoshan's concordance. The copper snake was set on a neis so that the bitten could look at it and live (Bamidbar 21:8-9), and we daven to "raise a neis to gather in our exiles."
- Pappenheim defines it as a tall mot and does not seem troubled by the near synonymy.
- Roots: Machberes Menachem, נ-ס, which also yields fleeing and miracle; Radak (Sefer HaShorashim), נ-ס-ס, and he links flagpole to fleeing because in ancient battle when the flagbearer fell the whole army lost heart and fled. The nearby triliteral נ-ס-ה is testing or training, as with Avraham (Bereishis 22:1); Machberes Menachem takes even that word back to a one-letter root, samech.
- Pappenheim (Cheshek Shlomo) traces neis instead to ש-א, whose main derivative is nasa, to lift and carry, with sin and samech interchanging: a neis as miracle is an event lifted out of the ordinary order of nature, and a neis as pole is the branch lifted above the rest of the tree.
- Rabbi Zundel Kroizer (1924 to 2014), in Ohr HaChamah on the Siddur, to Al HaNissim, sees neis, miracle, as related to has, silence, because before Hashem performs a miracle every angelic accusation that would stop it from happening must be silenced. In his words, this is the name neis: Hakadosh Baruch Hu says has kateigor, "Silence, accuser!", and the miracle is done. Rabbi Klein notes that this works neatly with the idea of a monoliteral root samech, so that with a nun it is נס and with a hei הס, though Rabbi Pappenheim himself parses neis differently, from ש-א.
- Mecklenburg (HaKsav VeHaKabbalah to Bereishis 22:1): a nisayon from the All-Knowing cannot be for the tester to learn something, so it is for the tested to reach new levels by prevailing through the travails of a Divine test. In this way the nisayon is another kind of lifting, raising a man up like a neis.
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 17:20 and 22:1) joins neis to nasi, the leader whose task is to raise those under him, and, like Pappenheim, reads neis as lifting in both senses at once, a man's rise in spiritual rank when he passes a test and a tall pole for carrying or raising a banner; elsewhere (to Tehillim 4:7) he reads the flagstaff as a sign that keeps those who see it faithful to their cause, which is also what a miracle does.
- Midrash Tanchuma (Vayeira 43) links the roots thematically: the merit of the nisayon of the Akeidah is what lets Israel escape (manos) Gehinnom; the Mechilta to Shemos 15:25 reads "there He tested them" at Marah as Hashem lifting them to greatness, which He did by revealing parts of the Torah to them before Sinai.
Rabbi Tzvi Matisyahu Abrahams (Root Connections in the Torah, 120-125) draws the senses of neis together homiletically: the nisyonos are the wind in the sail without which the boat, to which life is compared, does not move; only a neis, Divine help rather than human intuition, carries a person through a real test, and Nissan is named as the month of the greatest miracles in Tanach, among them the birth of Yitzchak, the Exodus, the Splitting of the Sea, Haman's downfall; a banner proclaims its message as a miracle proclaims Hashem's hand; and nisah, fleeing, is sometimes the right answer to a test, as Yosef fled (vayanas) rather than risk the sin (Bereishis 39:12). For that last link he leans on Rashi (to Yeshayahu 30:17), who explains the neis as a military signal to the troops either to rally or to flee.
Toren (תורן)
The ship's mast, the tall pole that holds up the neis, its sail. The two words often appear together (Yeshayahu 30:17, 33:23; Yechezkel 27:5, 7), and the Mishnah rules that a sold boat includes its toren and its neis (Bava Basra 5:1, with Rambam's commentary there and Rashi to Bava Basra 73a).
- Lexicographers such as Menachem Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach and Radak give the triliteral ת-ר-ן, which yields nothing else.
- Pappenheim works from ת-ר, furling and unfurling, whose derivative meisar, rope, gives him the mast, since the mast is held fast by ropes.
Shapud (שפוד)
Mishnaic: usually a wooden pole with a sharpened end, a spit or skewer (Pesachim 7:1-2, Sukkah 1:8, Bava Kamma 8:1, Avodah Zarah 5:12, Zevachim 11:7, Keilim 5:5 and 7:3, Ohalos 1:3). Vocalization is unsettled: the Kaufmann manuscript, the earliest vowelized Mishnah, reads shfud in most places, shfod at Keilim 5:5 and shifud at Keilim 7:3, and shpud, shafud and shafod are all current as well. Modern Hebrew most commonly says shipud, and that pronunciation was given official recognition by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 2019, as reported by Doron Yaakov (Academ vol. 40 pp. 2-3).
- Rabbi Ernest Klein (no relation to Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein) argues that shapud is ultimately a loanword from the Greek spodos, charcoal, embers or ashes, which came also to mean a spit for roasting meat, as the Italian spiedo does.
- Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein adds an etymology of his own, flagging that he usually shies away from speculative ones: English spit comes from German spitz, point or sharp end, from the Proto-Indo-European root spei- or spi-, something pointy, which also gives spike and spoke, and it seems fairly clear to him that spit and its cognates are related to the same Greek word from which shapud derives, on the interchange of the t and d sounds in Germanic under Grimm's Law, the Danish spid for English spit showing that dynamic.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ב-ד-ד
Alone, solitary: a noun of solitude, not an adjective, used too where security is meant; with a lamed, לְבַד, apart or besides; and as a verb, to keep apart.
Not an adjective but a noun
בָּדָד יֵשֵׁב (Vayikra 13:46), he shall dwell alone, that is, solitary. The word is not an adjective for the masculine only, for it serves the feminine and the plural too, אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד (Eichah 1:1), how she sat alone, and בָּדָד יִשְׁכֹּנוּ (Yirmiyahu 49:31), they dwell alone; and it takes a serving lamed in the way of a noun and not of an adjective, שֹׁכְנִי לְבָדָד (Michah 7:14), who dwell alone. Therefore it is not an adjective but the noun of solitude.
Alone and secure
It comes in the matter of בֶּטַח, security, since one who dwells secure sits alone and has no need of many men about him to help; therefore it is said of dwelling in the two pesukim above, and וַיִּשְׁכֹּן יִשְׂרָאֵל בֶּטַח בָּדָד (Devarim 33:28), Israel dwelt secure, alone; and so בָּדָד יַנְחֶנּוּ (Devarim 32:12), Hashem led him alone.
בַּד בְּבַד, one by one
בַּד בְּבַד (Shemos 30:34) is one by one, that is, each of the spices is to be ground by itself. Some explain it as weight by weight, and so Onkelos rendered it. Radak explains that reading two ways: each one weighed by itself for exactness, or the weight of one like the weight of another, since there were among them spices of equal weight, the ones the Torah names, nataf, shecheles, chelbenah and levonah. So too Chazal say (Kereisos 6a) that the tzori and the tziporen, the levonah and the chelbenah, weighed seventy manah each.
Used with a lamed
Most use of the noun is with a lamed: מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּית־דָּוִיד לְבָד וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד (Zecharyah 12:12), the family of Beis David apart and their wives apart, pointed with a kamatz, and in construct with a patach, לְבַד מִשָּׂרֵי הַנִּצָּבִים (Melachim I 5:30), apart from the appointed officers. A mem is added on top of that, מִלְּבַד נְשֵׁי בְנֵי־יַעֲקֹב (Bereishis 46:26), apart from the wives of Yaakov's sons; and with suffixes it takes a dagesh for the doubled letter that is missing, וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב לְבַדּוֹ (Bereishis 32:25), Yaakov was left alone, and אֵין עוֹד מִלְּבַדּוֹ (Devarim 4:35), there is none besides Him.
The verb, keeping apart
The verb from it is וְאֵין בּוֹדֵד בְּמוֹעָדָיו (Yeshayahu 14:31), and none keeps apart at his appointed times: at the times Nevuchadnetzar sets his troops, this day and this hour, to be ready to go to war, not one of them holds himself apart or stays back, for all come together. Targum Yonasan renders it, and none delays at his times.
Whose musters they are
The pasuk is read three ways. It may speak of Nevuchadnetzar, as above, since the smoke comes from the north, and Bavel lies north of Pelishtim as it does of Eretz Yisrael, and in the destruction the king of Bavel brought on Pelishtim Israel was saved from the Pelishtim who pressed them. It may speak of Pharaoh, who struck the Pelishtim, as it says בְּטֶרֶם יַכֶּה פַרְעֹה אֶת־עַזָּה (Yirmiyahu 47:1), before Pharaoh struck Gaza. But Radak holds it better, for the parsha as a whole, to read it of Chizkiyahu, who struck the Pelishtim as far as Gaza (Melachim II 18:8): the rod that was broken is Uziyahu, who had struck the Pelishtim (Divrei HaYamim II 26:6), and from his seed came the one who would strike them now.
A creature on its own
פֶּרֶא בּוֹדֵד לוֹ (Hoshea 8:9), a wild donkey off by itself, and כְּצִפּוֹר בּוֹדֵד עַל־גָּג (Tehillim 102:8), like a lone bird on a roof, both of them meaning solitary.
בָּדָד יֵשֵׁב (ויקרא יג, מו), יחידי ובדד אינו שם תאר לזכר לבד כי גם לנקבה ולרבים ימצא אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד (איכה א, א), בָּדָד יִשְׁכֹּֽנוּ (ירמיה מט, לא) ובא עם למ"ד השמוש כדרך השם לא שם התאר שֹֽׁכְנִי לְבָדָד (מיכה ז, יד), לפיכך אנו אומרים כי אינו תאר אבל הוא שם היחידות. ויבא בענין בֶּטַח כי השוכן בטח הוא יושב יחידי אין צריך להרבות אנשים לעזר שיהיו עמו לפיכך אמר בָּדָד יִשְׁכֹּֽנוּ, שֹֽׁכְנִי לְבָדָד, וַיִּשְׁכֹּן יִשְׂרָאֵל בֶּטַח בָּדָד (דברים לג, כח), וכן י"י בָּדָד יַנְחֶנּוּ (דברים לב, יב). ובכפול אות הכפל, בַּד בְּבַד (שמות ל, לד), אחד באחד כלומר שיהיו שחוקים כל אחר לבדו. ויש מפרשים משקל במשקל. וכן תרגם אנקלוס רוצה לומר שישקול כל אחד ואחד לבדו מפני ההכרע, או שיהיה משקל זה כמשקל זה כי היה בהם שהיה משקלם שוה והם המפורשים בתורה נטף ושחלת וחלבנה ולבונה. וכן אמרו רבותינו ז"ל (כריתות ו, ע"א), הצרי והצפורן לבונה וחלבנה משקל שבעים שבעים מנה. ורוב המשתמשם בזה השם עם למ"ד, מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּֽית־דָּוִיד לְבָד וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד (זכריה יב, יב), והוא קמוץ ובסמוך פתח, לְבַד מִשָּׂרֵי הַנִּצָּבִים (מלכים א' ה, ל), לְבַד מִמְכָּרָיו (דברים יח, ח). והכניסו עליו עוד המ"ם מִלְּבַד שַׁבְּתֹת י"י (ויקרא כג, לח), מִלְּבַד נְשֵׁי בְנֵי־יַֽעֲקֹב (בראשית מו, כו), זולת נשׁי בני יעקב ועם הכנוים ידגש וַיִּוָּתֵר יַֽעֲקֹב לְבַדּוֹ (בראשית לב, כד), יִֽהְיוּ־לְךָ לְבַדֶּךָ (משלי ה, יז), אֵין עוֹד מִלְּבַדּֽוֹ (דברים ד, לה), הדגש לחסרון אות הכפל ופירושו זולתו. וְהֽוּשַׁבְתֶּם לְבַדְּכֶם (ישעיה ה, ח), אתם יחידים אין אחר עמכם. והפעל ממנו וְאֵין בּוֹדֵד בְּמוֹעָדָֽיו (ישעיה יד, לא), כלומר אין מתיחד במועדיו, רוצה לומר בזמנים שיתן נבוכדנצר לחיילותיו ביום הזה ובזמן הזה תהיו מוכנים ומזומנים ללכת למלחמה אין אחד מהם שיתיחר לעצמו ויפרד וימנע ללכת כי כלם יבאו יחד. וכן תרגם יונתן וְלֵית דִמְאַחַר בְּזִמְנוֹהִי. ואפשר כי על נבוכדנצר אמר כמו שפירשתי, וזה הוא שאמר כִּי מִצָּפוֹן עָשָׁן בָּא (שם) והיא בבל שהיא גם לצפון ארץ פלשתים כמו לצפון ארץ ישראל ובאותו חרבן שהחריב מלך בבל ארץ פלשתים נושעו ישראל שהיו הפלשתים לוחצים אותם. ויתכן גם כן לפרש כי על פרעה אמר שהכה בפלשתים כמו שנאמר בספר ירמיהו בְּטֶרֶם יַכֶּה פַרְעֹה אֶת־עַזָּֽה (ירמיה מז, א), ואמר הִנֵּה־מַיִם עֹלִים מִצָּפוֹן וְהָיוּ לְנַחַל שׁוֹטֵף וגו' (שם). אבל לענין הפרשה נראה יוחל לפרש כי על חזקיהו אמר שאמר בתחלת הפרשה אַל־תִּשְׂמְחִי פְלֶשֶׁת כֻּלֵּךְ כִּי נִשְׁבַּר שֵׁבֶט מַכֵּךְ (ישעיה יד, כח-כט), ואמר זה בשנת מות המלך אחז ומלך חזקיהו, ואמר אַל־תִּשְׂמְחִי פְלֶשֶׁת כֻּלֵּךְ כִּי נִשְׁבַּר שֵׁבֶט מַכֵּךְ והוא עזיהו שהכה בפלשתים כמו שאמר בדברי הימים (דברי הימים ב' כו, ו), וכשמת שֹמחו והיו לוחצים ישראל גם בימי אחז ואמר עתה אַל־תִּשְׂמְחִי כמו ששמחת עד עתה כִּי נִשְׁבַּר שֵׁבֶט מַכֵּךְ והוי עזיהו כי מזרעו יצא עתה שיכך והוא חזקיהו הִכָּה אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּים עַד־עַזָּה וְאֶת־גְּבוּלֶיהָ כמו שכתוב בספר מלכים, (מלכים ב' יח, ח), וזה הוא שאמר כִּֽי־מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ נָחָשׁ יֵצֵא צֶפַע (ישעיה יד, כט), מבני בניו של עזיהו יצא חזקיהו ועזה היא לדרום ארץ ישראל לפיכך אמר כִּי מִצָּפוֹן עָשָׁן בָּא, בארץ ישראל שהיא צפונית לעזה ואין מי שמתאחד במועדים שיתן חזקיהו לבא למלחמה על פלשתים כי כולם יבאו בשמחה. פֶּרֶא בּוֹדֵד לוֹ (הושע ח, ט), כְּצִפּוֹר בּוֹדֵד עַל־גָּֽג (תהלים קב, ח), כלומר יחידי.
מ-ו-ט
To tilt and slip, with מוֹט a slipping; and, close to that sense, מוֹט a carrying pole, and מוֹטָה the yoke, or the strap it is tied with.
Tilting and slipping
וּמָטָה יָדוֹ עִמָּךְ (Vayikra 25:35), and his hand slips beside you; צַדִּיק מָט לִפְנֵֽי־רָשָֽׁע (Mishlei 25:26), a righteous man slipping before a wicked one; וּמָטִים לַהֶרֶג (Mishlei 24:11), those slipping toward the slaughter; and וְהַגְּבָעוֹת תְּמוּטֶינָה (Yeshayahu 54:10), and the hills will tilt. The sense of them all is tilting and slipping.
Not to slip
The noun: לֹא־יִתֵּן לְעוֹלָם מוֹט לַצַּדִּֽיק (Tehillim 55:23), He will never let the righteous slip, and אַל־יִתֵּן לַמּוֹט רַגְלֶךָ (Tehillim 121:3), He will not let your foot slip; and with the verb, וַיְחַזְּקֵהוּ בְמַסְמְרִים לֹא יִמּֽוֹט (Yeshayahu 41:7), and it was fastened with nails, that it should not tilt.
The carrying pole
Close to this sense: וַיִּשָּׂאֻהוּ בַמּוֹט (Bamidbar 13:23), they carried it on a pole; וְנָֽתְנוּ עַל־ הַמּֽוֹט (Bamidbar 4:10), they put it on the pole; and אֶשְׁבֹּר מֹטֵהוּ (Nachum 1:13), I will break his bar. The plural is בִּכְתֵפָם בַּמֹּטוֹת (Divrei HaYamim I 15:15), on their shoulder with the poles, and מוֹטֹת עֵץ שָׁבָרְתָּ (Yirmiyahu 28:13), bars of wood you have broken.
The yoke, and a masculine verb
וַיִּקַּח חֲנַנְיָה הַנָּבִיא אֶת־ הַמּוֹטָה מֵעַל צַוַּאר יִרְמְיָה הַנָּבִיא וַיִּשְׁבְּרֵֽהוּ (Yirmiyahu 28:12 in his edition), and Chananyah the navi took the מוֹטָה off the neck of Yirmiyahu the navi and broke it. Though מוֹטָה is feminine, the pasuk says וַיִּשְׁבְּרֵֽהוּ, and broke it, in the masculine, agreeing with העול, the yoke, for the מוֹטָה is the yoke; or else the מוֹטָה is the strap by which the yoke is tied.
מֻטּוֹת כְּנָפָיו
מֻטּוֹת כְּנָפָיו (Yeshayahu 8:8), the bonds of his wings, he keeps at this root, the quiescent letter swallowed in a dagesh and the cholam turned into a shuruk, its sense being bonds or staves of wood. His father writes the phrase under the root נָטָה, the dagesh standing for a swallowed nun; on that reading it means that the spreading of his camp will fill the breadth of your land. The Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma asks how great the מוטות of a rooster's wings are, and answers a sixtieth of its wings, a sixtieth of Sancheriv's hosts, the full breadth of the land of Yehudah.
וּמָטָה יָדוֹ עִמָּךְ (ויקרא כה, לה), צַדִּיק מָט לִפְנֵֽי־רָשָֽׁע (משלי כה, כו), וּמָטִים לַהֶרֶג (משלי כד, יא), לְעֵת תָּמוּט רַגְלָם (דברים לב, לה), וְהַגְּבָעוֹת תְּמוּטֶינָה (ישעיה נד, י). והשם לֹא־יִתֵּן לְעוֹלָם מוֹט לַצַּדִּֽיק (תהלים, נה, כג), אַל־יִתֵּן לַמּוֹט רַגְלֶךָ (תהלים, קכא, ג). והפעל הכבד [הִפְעִיל] כִּי־יָמִיטוּ עָלַי אָוֶן (תהלים, נה, ד). והנפעל בַּל־נָמוֹטּוּ פְעָמָֽי (תהלים, יז, ה), וַיְחַזְּקֵהוּ בְמַסְמְרִים לֹא יִמּֽוֹט (ישעיה מא, ז) יִמֹּיטוּ [יִמּוֹטוּ] עֲלֵיהֶם גֶּֽחָלִים (תהלים קמ, יא). וההתפעל מוֹט הִתְמֽוֹטְטָה אָֽרֶץ (ישעיה כד, יט), ענינם ענין ההטיה והמעידה. וקרוב לענין הזה וַיִּשָּׂאֻהוּ בַמּוֹט (במדבר יג, כג), וְנָֽתְנוּ עַל־הַמּֽוֹט (במדבר ד, י), אֶשְׁבֹּר מֹטֵהוּ (נחום א, יג). אִם־תָּסִיר מִתּֽוֹכְךָ מוֹטָה (ישעיה נח, ט). וַיִּקַּח חֲנַנְיָה הַנָּבִיא אֶת־הַמּוֹטָה מֵעַל צַוַּאר יִרְמְיָה הַנָּבִיא וַיִּשְׁבְּרֵֽהוּ (ירמיה כח, יב). אף על פי שהמוטה לשון נקבה אמר וַיִּשְׁבְּרֵֽהוּ כנגד העול כי הַמּוֹטָה היא העול. או נקראת מוטה הרצועה שנקשר בה העול. והקבוץ בִּכְתֵפָם בַּמֹּטוֹת (דברי הימים א' טו, טו), מוֹטֹת עֵץ שָׁבָרְתָּ (ירמיה כח, יג). ובהבלע הנח בדגש והומר החולם בשרק מֻטּוֹת כְּנָפָיו (ישעיה ח, ח), ענינים ענין מוסרות או בדי עץ. ואדני אבי ז"ל כתב מֻטּוֹת כְּנָפָיו בשרש נָטָה והדגש להבלעת הנו"ן והוא בשקל מָפְנֶה צָפוֹנָה (יחזקאל ט, ב) שהוא שם והרבים מָפְנוֹת בשקל מֻנְטוֹת כי השורק והקמץ חטף שוים, ופירושו נטיית מחנהו יהיה מלא רחב ארצך. ובמדרש רבי תנחומא כמה הם מוטות כנפי התרנגול אחד מששים בכנפיו אחד מששים באכלוסי סנהריב מלא רוחב ארץ יהודה.
נ-ס-ס
The נֵס, the banner carried high for a whole army to see and follow; the root's core is height and being raised, and a sail is a נֵס too.
The banner
וְנָשָׂא־נֵס לַגּוֹיִם (Yeshayahu 5:26), he will raise a banner to the nations, and נִסִּי (Shemos 17:15), my banner, in Hashem Nissi, Hashem is my banner; the word is known. The root is height and being lifted up, since the man bearing the banner carries it high, so that it is seen over the whole army and they march after it.
When the bearer melts
כִּמְסֹס נֹסֵס (Yeshayahu 10:18), as a banner-bearer melts away: when the one bearing the banner melts, the whole army melts and flees. Rabbi Yehudah wrote that the phrase has another sense, and Rabbi Yonah put it under another root and another sense.
Raised and lifted high
נֹסְסָה בוֹ (Yeshayahu 59:19), raised itself against him: that is, the spirit of Hashem rose up against him to drive him back. נָתַתָּה לִּירֵאֶיךָ נֵּס לְהִתְנוֹסֵס (Tehillim 60:6), You gave those who fear You a banner to be raised, לְהִתְנוֹסֵס meaning to rise up and be lifted high; and כִּי אַבְנֵי־נֵזֶר מִתְנוֹסְסוֹת עַל־אַדְמָתוֹ (Zecharyah 9:16), for crown stones are raised high on his land.
The sail
The sail is called נֵס as well, since they raise it on the mast: בַּל־פָּרְשׂוּ נֵס (Yeshayahu 33:23), they did not spread a sail, and וְכַנֵּס עַל־הַגִּבְעָה (Yeshayahu 30:17), like a sail on the hill.
וְנָֽשָׂא־נֵס לַגּוֹיִם (ישעיה ה, כז), י"י נִסִּֽי (שמות יז, טו). ידוע. ועקר הענין מענין גבהות והתרוממות, כי נושא הנס הוא נושאו גבוה שמתראה על כל בני הצבא ואחריו ילכו. והפעל הקל ממנו כִּמְסֹס נֹסֵֽס (ישעיה י, יח), וענינו כי כשימס נושא הנס כל בני הצבא ימסו ויברחו. והפעל הכבד הדומה למרובע [פֹּעֵל] רוּחַ י"י נֹסְסָה בֽוֹ (ישעיה נט, יט), כלומר התרוממה על הצד להשיבו אחור. וההתפעל נָתַתָּה לִּירֵאֶיךָ נֵּס לְהִתְנוֹסֵס (תהלים ס, ו) פירוש להתרומם ולהתעלות. כִּי אַבְנֵי־נֵזֶר מִתְנֽוֹסְסוֹת עַל־אַדְמָתֽוֹ (זכריה ט, טז), פירוש מתרוממות. ורבי יהודה כתב כמסוס נוסס ענין אחר. ורבי יונה כתבו שרש אחר וענין אחר. וכן הוילון נקרא נֵס לפי שמרימין אותו על התורן בַּל־יְחַזְּקוּ כֵן־תָּרְנָם בַּל־פָּרְשׂוּ נֵס (ישעיה לג, כג) וְכַנֵּס עַל־הַגִּבְעָֽה (ישעיה ל, יז).
ת-ר-ן
The mast, the tall timber on a ship by which the sail is let down and set up.
Where the word appears
כַּתֹּרֶן עַל־רֹאשׁ הָהָר (Yeshayahu 30:17), like a mast on a mountain top; לַעֲשׂוֹת תֹּרֶן עָלָיִךְ (Yechezkel 27:5), to make a mast for you; and בַּל־יְחַזְּקוּ כֵן־תָּרְנָם (Yeshayahu 33:23), they did not hold the base of their mast firm. He closes with the foreign word for it.
כַּתֹּרֶן עַל־רֹאשׁ הָהָר (ישעיה ל, יז), לַֽעֲשׂוֹת תֹּרֶן עָלָֽיִךְ (יחזקאל כז, ה), בַּל־יְחַזְּקוּ כֵן־תָּרְנָם (ישעיה לג, כג), הוא העץ הגבוה בספינה שמשלשלין בו הנס ומעמידים אותו בואלבר"ו בלע"ז.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Shelach: Message on a Pole," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 29 June 2024.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Message on a Pole," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 17:20, 22:1, 39:12; Shemos 15:25, 25:13-15, 25:28, 27:7, 30:4, 37:5, 37:14, 37:27, 38:7; Vayikra 26:13; Bamidbar 4:10, 4:12, 13:23, 21:8-9; Yeshayahu 30:17, 33:23, 58:6; Yechezkel 27:5, 27:7, 30:18; Nachum 1:13; Tehillim 4:7; Zohar Shelach 160b; Mechilta to Shemos 15:25; Tanchuma Vayeira 43; Mishnah Shabbos 1:9, Pesachim 7:1-2, Sukkah 1:8, Nedarim 3:2, Bava Kamma 8:1, Bava Metzia 10:4, Bava Basra 1:6, 4:4-5, 5:1, Shevuos 3:8, Avodah Zarah 5:12, Zevachim 11:7, Keilim 5:5, 7:3, 12:3, 20:3, Ohalos 1:3, Taharos 10:1-2, 10:8, Zavim 4:7; Rambam's commentary to Bava Basra 5:1; Rashi to Bava Basra 73a and to Yeshayahu 30:17; Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 17:20, 22:1 and Tehillim 4:7; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, HaKsav VeHaKabbalah; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Menachem Ibn Saruk, Machberes Menachem; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo and Yerios Shlomo; Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino, Ohel Moed; the Kaufmann manuscript of the Mishnah; Even Shoshan's concordance; Rabbi Ernest Klein; Doron Yaakov, Academ vol. 40 pp. 2-3; Rabbi Tzvi Matisyahu Abrahams, Root Connections in the Torah 120-125; Rabbi Zundel Kroizer, Ohr HaChamah on the Siddur, to Al HaNissim.