prayer

בִּקַּשְׁתִּיהוּ וְלֹא מְצָאתִיהוּ (Shir HaShirim 5:6), I sought him and did not find him; יְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־נַפְשִׁי (Shmuel I 22:23), he seeks my life; וּבִקֵּשׁ י"י מִיַּד אֹֽיְבֵי דָוִֽד (Shmuel I 20:16), and Hashem shall require it at the hand of David's enemies; and מִיָּדִי תְּבַקְשֶׁנָּה (Bereishis 31:39), you would require it at my hand.

וַיְבֻקַּשׁ הַדָּבָר וַיִּמָּצֵא (Esther 2:23), the matter was looked into and found out; וּֽתְבֻקְשִׁי וְלֹֽא־תִמָּצְאִי עוֹד (Yechezkel 26:21), you will be sought and never found again; and the noun, וְלַֽעֲשׂוֹת אֶת־ בַּקָּשָׁתִי (Esther 5:8), and to grant my request.

In תְּבַקְשֶׁנָּה the kuf is light, carrying no strengthening point, and so through most of the pattern: where the kuf takes a sheva, it is light.

וְחַנֹּתִי אֶת־אֲשֶׁר אָחֹן (Shemos 33:19), which he explains אתן חִנִּי, I will give My favour to whom I will favour; likewise כִּֽי־חַנַּנִי אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 33:11), for Hashem has favoured me. וְחַנֹּתִי לִבְנֵי בִטְנִי (Iyov 19:17) he explains within its pasuk: my breath is strange to my wife and to those I favoured and loved, that is, to the children of my body.

וְחִין עֶרְכּוֹ (Iyov 41:4) is of this root and this sense, חִין with a chirik standing as חֵן with a tzeirei. He reads the pasuk: I will not keep silent about the mighty deeds of one who can fight him, nor about the חִין, the favour, of his battle array; that is, if one should set battle against him, I would acknowledge his mighty deeds, and he would find favour before me in the ordering of his battle.

אֲשֶׁר־חָנַן אֱלֹהִים אֶת־עַבְדֶּֽךָ (Bereishis 33:5) he explains of the children: with them, the children, Hashem has favoured your servant. חָנּוּנוּ אוֹתָם (Shoftim 21:22) he explains חנו אותנו מהם, favour us with them. These, he says, are close to the sense of מתנה, a gift.

וָֽאֶתְחַנַּן (Devarim 3:23), I pleaded, he explains בקשתי מלפניו שיחנני, I asked before Him that He favour me; and כִּֽי־יְחַנֵּן קוֹלוֹ (Mishlei 26:25), when he raises his voice in the manner of supplication, as he explains it, ישא קולו בדרך תחינה. These he calls close to the sense of תפלה ובקשה, prayer and request, and with them go תְּחִנָּה, a plea, as מַפִּיל־אֲנִי תְחִנָּתִי לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ (Yirmiyahu 38:26), I lay my plea before the king.

He holds כלם ענין חֵן, that all of them are the sense of favour, adding that one who understands can tell a little between each of them according to its place; and he closes that for one who understands all of them come into one sense.

מַה־נֵּחַנְתְּ בְּבֹא־לָךְ חֲבָלִים (Yirmiyahu 22:23), what נֵחַנְתְּ when pangs come upon you, he explains: what favour is left to you of all you built and acquired in cedars, when pangs come upon you. Its full form is נחננת.

וְיָֽצְאָה חִנָּם (Shemos 21:11), she shall go out free: the mem is an addition, like the mem of רֵיקָם, empty, and the sense is ותצא בחן מאין כסף, she goes out in favour, without money; that is, since she leaves without money, it is as though she goes out by the favour she found in her master's eyes. Every חנם in Scripture, he says, is to be explained as favour.

רְאֹה פָנֶיךָ לֹא פִלָּלְתִּי (Bereishis 48:11), to see your face I had not judged, means: I had not reached the judgment and ruling in my own mind that I could ever see your face again.

וַיַּֽעֲמֹד פִּֽינְחָס וַיְפַלֵּל (Tehillim 106:30), Pinchas stood up and did judgment, is the judgment he carried out when he ran Zimri and Kozbi bas Tzur through.

On וּפִֽלְלוֹ אֱלֹהִים (Shmuel I 2:25), the judge will judge him, he says: if a man sins against a man, the judge judges him and brings him out clear of his fellow's hand, ordering what is fitting for him to do, or making a settlement between the two; but if a man sins against Hashem, מי יתפלל לו, who will act as judge for him, that is, who will take it on himself to enter into judgment with him and say, let the law between you be thus and thus. The judge is spoken of in the reflexive form, which is the form of one acted on, as also at וְנִשְׁפַּטְתִּי אִתּוֹ בְּדֶבֶר וּבְדָם (Yechezkel 38:22), I will enter into judgment with him with plague and with blood, since a judge goes back over the pleadings and shows each man the other's claim, as though he himself were the one being judged.

אֲשֶׁר פִּלַּלְתְּ לַֽאֲחוֹתֵךְ (Yechezkel 16:52), that you gave judgment on your sister: the pasuk says גַּם־אַתְּ שְׂאִי כְלִמָּתֵךְ, you too bear your shame, for you sat in judgment on her when she first began to do wrong, and now you have done worse than she did, so that by your own sins, more than hers, you have made her out the righteous one.

עָוֹן פְּלִילִי (Iyov 31:28), a wrong for the judges; עָוֹן פְּלִילִֽים (Iyov 31:11), a wrong the judges must deal with; וְנָתַן בִּפְלִלִֽים (Shemos 21:22), he shall pay as the judges assess; פְלִילָה (Yeshayahu 16:3), give a ruling; פָּקוּ פְּלִֽילִיָּֽה (Yeshayahu 28:7), they stumbled in giving judgment. Rabbi Yehudah holds that the verb in וְנִפְֽלַל חָלָל (Yechezkel 28:23), said of the slain, is the passive of this root. Radak gives it no gloss of its own; it stands in the run he closes with ענין הכל המשפט והדין, the sense of all of it is judgment and law.

וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אַבְרָהָם (Bereishis 20:17), Avraham prayed; וְהִתְפַּלֵּל אֶל־הַבַּיִת (Melachim I 8:42), and he prays toward the house; וְיִתְפַּלֵּל בַּֽעַדְךָ וֶֽחְיֵה (Bereishis 20:7), he will pray for you and you will live; and the noun, תְּפִלָּה לְמֹשֶׁה (Tehillim 90:1), a prayer of Moshe, and שָׁמַעְתִּי אֶת־ תְּפִלָּֽתְךָ (Melachim I 9:3), I have heard your prayer. The reflexive form is used of supplication and request, and it belongs to this root because the one who prays asks Him to judge him in His mercy and not to look to the many wrongs he has done, for the judgment he asks is that He let his sins go and not call them to mind against him at all; as the navi said, יַסְּרֵנִי, chasten me, Hashem, אַךְ־בְּמִשְׁפָּט אַל־בְּאַפְּךָ (Yirmiyahu 10:24), but in judgment, not in Your anger.