snake

וּפָֽעָלְכֶם מֵאָפַע (Yeshayahu 41:24), and your work is of nothing: he glosses מֵאָפַע as מאין, from nothing.

His father explained מֵאָפַע as מֵאֶפֶס, from nothing at all, the samech exchanged for an ayin.

His brother Rabbi Moshe explained it from the sense of אֶפְעֶה, the snake; on that reading, you are nothing, and your work is the work of snakes, which harm those who cling to them.

תִּבָּקַע אֶפְעֶה (Yeshayahu 59:5), an efeh breaks out; אֶפְעֶה וְשָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵף (Yeshayahu 30:6), efeh and flying saraf; תַּֽהַרְגֵהוּ לְשׁוֹן אֶפְעֶֽה (Iyov 20:16), an efeh's tongue shall slay him. It is a kind of snake. They say it is the female of the saraf, short and thick, and its venom harsher than the male's.

נִחַשְׁתִּי (Bereishis 30:27), I have divined; מְעוֹנֵן וּמְנַחֵשׁ (Devarim 18:10), a soothsayer and a diviner; וְהָֽאֲנָשִׁים יְנַֽחֲשׁוּ (Melachim I 20:33), and the men divined. The noun is כִּי לֹא־נַחַשׁ בְּיַֽעֲקֹב (Bamidbar 23:23), for there is no divining in Yaakov, and לִקְרַאת נְחָשִׁים (Bamidbar 24:1), to meet omens.

Chazal (Sanhedrin 68b) set out the forbidden divining: one who says his bread fell from his mouth, his staff fell from his hand, his son calls after him, a raven calls to him, a deer cut across his path, a snake at his right and a fox at his left, do not begin, for it is morning, it is Rosh Chodesh, it is Motzaei Shabbos. They count there too those who divine by weasel, by birds and by stars.

הֲלוֹא יְדַעְתֶּם כִּֽי־נַחֵשׁ יְנַחֵשׁ אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר כָּמֹֽנִי (Bereishis 44:15), did you not know that a man like me surely divines? Divining by it means that he would ask diviners on his behalf. Some explain that he divines by it himself; that is, he would reckon the loss of the goblet an ill omen for himself, since the vessel he drank from was lost to him.

וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם (Bereishis 3:1), and the snake was cunning, is known. נָחָשׁ שָׂרָף (Devarim 8:15), a burning snake, is called so because it burns with the breath of its mouth. נְחָשִׁים צִפְעֹנִים (Yirmiyahu 8:17), snakes, vipers, should properly be snakes and vipers, the vav left out as in שֶׁמֶשׁ יָרֵחַ (Chavakuk 3:11), sun, moon.

נְחַשׁ נְחשֶׁת (Bamidbar 21:9), a snake of copper: his father wrote that the physicians say a man bitten by a snake who then sees copper dies at once, and therefore Hashem told Moshe to make a snake of copper, and everyone bitten who looked at it lived, against the nature of the world, to make the miracle greater. So too, his father wrote, the cake of figs for Chizkiyahu (Yeshayahu 38:21), and so too the tree Hashem showed Moshe (Shemos 15:25), which the Yalkut in the name of the Mechilta says was a bitter tree.

עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ (Yeshayahu 27:1), upon Livyasan the barring serpent, and נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן, the twisting serpent, and אֲצַוֶּה אֶת־ הַנָּחָשׁ וּנְשָׁכָֽם (Amos 9:3), I will command the snake and it shall bite them: this is Livyasan, called a snake because it is like one. It is called tannin as well, it and the great fish, as the snakes of the dry land are also called tanninim. The barring serpent and the twisting serpent are a mashal for the kings of the nations. Some explain נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ as the Teli, called the twisting serpent because it is as though bent, and barring because it bars across from one end to the other.

נְחֹשֶׁת קָלָֽל (Yechezkel 1:7), burnished copper, נְחֹשֶׁת מְמֹרָֽט (Melachim I 7:45), polished copper, and וַיִּשְׂאוּ אֶת־כָּל־נְחֻשְׁתָּם בָּבֶֽלָה (Yirmiyahu 52:17), they carried all their copper off to Bavel. אִם־בְּשָׂרִי נָחֽוּשׁ (Iyov 6:12), if my flesh is of steel: his father explains the word as the metal called in the vernacular אצר"ו, acero, which is steel. On that explanation, so too וְאֶֽת־אַרְצְכֶם כַּנְּחֻשָֽׁה (Vayikra 26:19), and your land like steel, and וּמִצְֽחֲךָ נְחוּשָֽׁה (Yeshayahu 48:4), and your forehead steel; and so is every נחשת and נחושה in Scripture that is spoken of for strength.

כֻּלָּם סָרֵי סֽוֹרְרִים הֹֽלְכֵי רָכִיל נְחשֶׁת וּבַרְזֶל (Yirmiyahu 6:28), all of them lords of the rebellious, going about with tales, copper and iron: as copper is mixed with iron so that it cuts well, which is what is called in the vernacular אצרו, steel, so they are mixed with one another in talebearing to do harm; and so Yonasan renders it, walking in guile as copper is mixed with iron. Radak reads סָרֵי as though it were שָֹרֵי, with a sin, lords of the rebellious: the servants are rebellious and evil and carry tales to their masters, like copper with iron, neither of which does the work of cutting without the other.

הִכְבִּיד נְחָשְׁתִּֽי (Eichah 3:7), he made my fetter heavy, וַיַּֽאַסְרֵהוּ בַּֽנְחֻשְׁתַּיִם (Yirmiyahu 39:7), he bound him in fetters, and ורגליך לֹֽא־ לִנְחֻשְׁתַּיִם הֻגָּשׁוּ (Shmuel II 3:34), your feet were not brought into fetters: these are the shackles, named so because they are made of copper, and the Targum renders בַּֽנְחֻשְׁתַּיִם as בְּשַׁלְשְׁלָן דִנְחָשׁ, in chains of copper. יַעַן הִשָּׁפֵךְ נְחֻשְׁתֵּךְ (Yechezkel 16:36), because your lower part was poured out, is a euphemism for nakedness, and the Targum says of it, because you uncovered your shame. So too וְחָרָה נְחֻשְׁתָּהּ (Yechezkel 24:11), and its bottom grows hot, and the Mishnah (Keilim 8:3) speaks of a jar set beneath the נחשת of an oven, that is, its underside.

וַיִּקְרָא־לוֹ נְחֻשְׁתָּֽן (Melachim II 18:4), and he called it Nechushtan: the added letters make the thing small, that is, it was of no use; and so אֲמִינוֹן (Shmuel II 13:20), Aminon, where the addition likewise belittles.

עַל־חֻר פָּתֶן (Yeshayahu 11:8), "over the hole of a pesen"; מְרוֹרַת פְּתָנִים בְּקִרְבּוֹ (Iyov 20:14), "the gall of pesanim within him"; רֹאשׁ־פְּתָנִים יִינָק (Iyov 20:16), "he sucks the poison of pesanim". They are the evil snakes.

פֶתֶן חֵרֵשׁ (Tehillim 58:5), "a deaf pesen", is said for the greatness of its evil: that is, there is no charm for it.

כְּרֻתוֹת אֶל־הַמִּפְתָּן (Shmuel I 5:4), "cut off at the threshold"; מִתַּחַת מִפְתַּן הַבַּיִת קָדִימָה (Yechezkel 47:1), "from under the threshold of the house eastward". It is the lower threshold that is trodden on, and so the Targum says, סְקוֹפָא, the threshold.

כִּֽי־מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ נָחָשׁ יֵצֵא צֶפַע (Yeshayahu 14:29), for out of the snake's root a tzefa will come forth; the word is pointed with segol.

נְחָשִׁים צִפְעֹנִים (Yirmiyahu 8:17), snakes, tzifonim: its meaning is נחשים וצפעונים, snakes and tzifonim. Or צפעונים may describe the snakes, the צפעוני being the hard and fierce snake.

צְפִיעֵי הַבָּקָר (Yechezkel 4:15), the tzefi'ei of the cattle, he explains as their dung; and likewise in this sense הַצֶּֽאֱצָאִים וְהַצְּפִעוֹת (Yeshayahu 22:24), the offspring and the tzefi'os, which he explains as the sons and the daughters, as though it said הצאצאים והצאצאות, the male and the female offspring. The Targum renders them sons and sons of sons.

He says of שְׁפִיפֹן only that it follows the pattern of ישימון, wasteland. What it is, his entry does not say.

וְשָׂרַף אֶת־הַפָּרָה (Bamidbar 19:5), and he shall burn the cow. וַיִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ (Shemos 32:20), and he burned it in the fire, means that he melted the calf in the fire to undo its form, and afterwards ground it with a file, for gold does not burn but melts. וְאֶת־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת תִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵֽשׁ (Yirmiyahu 38:23), and you shall burn this city with fire, means that you will be the cause of the city's burning if you do not go out to the Kasdim, and it is as though you burned it.

וּֽבְמִשְׂרְפוֹת אֲבוֹתֶיךָ (Yirmiyahu 34:5), and as with the burnings of your fathers, is the burning for kings of their bed and the vessels they used. So Chazal say (Sanhedrin 52b) that one burns for kings and it is not of the ways of the Emori, and that what is burnt for them is their bed and the vessels they used. Some explain the burning as a burning of incense, made for the dead so that the flesh should not stink, as it is written, וַיַּשְׁכִּיבֻהוּ בַּמִּשְׁכָּב אֲשֶׁר מִלֵּא בְּשָׂמִים (Divrei HaYamim II 16:14), and they laid him on the bed which he had filled with spices, and then וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ ־לוֹ שְׂרֵפָה גְּדוֹלָה, and they burned for him a great burning; and so וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ אֹתָם שָֽׁם (Shmuel I 31:12), and they burned them there. That last, Radak writes, can also be read of burning the flesh: since days had passed, the flesh had perhaps bred worms, and they would not bury them so, with the worms, but burned the flesh and afterwards buried the bones, as it is written, וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת־עַצְמֹתֵיהֶם וַיִּקְבְּרוּ (Shmuel I 31:13), and they took their bones and buried them.

Some explain וּנְשָׂאוֹ דּוֹדוֹ וּמְסָֽרְפוֹ (Amos 6:10) as of this sense, and his uncle and the one who burns him shall carry him, although it is written with a samech. Radak has already written of it under the samech.

מִשְׂרְפוֹת מַיִם (Yehoshua 11:8), Misrefos Mayim, is a place so called because its waters sprang up hot, like the hot springs of Teveria and others. Targum Yonasan renders it חַרְצֵי יַמָא, trenches of the sea; these, Radak explains, are trenches dug and filled with water drawn from the sea, which the sun burns until it turns to salt.

עֲשֵׂה לְךָ שָׂרָף (Bamidbar 21:8), make yourself a burning serpent, and הַנְּחָשִׁים הַשְּׂרָפִים (Bamidbar 21:6), the burning serpents, are named so because they burn with the breath of their mouth. שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵֽף (Yeshayahu 14:29), a flying serpent: it is said that serpents are found in the land of Kush that have wings and fly with them; or מְעוֹפֵֽף means leaping far off, as though it were a bird.

שְׂרָפִים עֹֽמְדִים (Yeshayahu 6:2), serafim standing, are מלאכי אש, angels of fire.

וַיְהִי לְתַנִּֽין (Shemos 7:10), "and it became a tannin", and the plural אֶת־ הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים (Bereishis 1:21), "the great tanninim". Those spoken of on dry land are one of the kinds of snake, and those spoken of in the water one of the kinds of great fish shaped like snakes.

הַתַּנִּים הַגָּדוֹל הָֽרֹבֵץ בְּתוֹךְ יְאֹרָיו (Yechezkel 29:3), "the great tannim crouching in the midst of his rivers", and כַּתַּנִּים בַּיַּמִּים (Yechezkel 32:2), "like a tannim in the seas": it is the way of the language for mem and nun to come one for the other, as מוֹף and נוֹף, Mof and Nof, and כְּמֹהֶם and כְּמֹהֶן, both meaning like them.

In Eichah 4:3 the tannim חָלְצוּ שַׁד, "have drawn out the breast", and so מְעוֹן תַּנִּים (Yirmiyahu 9:10), "a lair of tannim". The feminine plural is לְתַנּוֹת מִדְבָּֽר (Malachi 1:3), "to the tannos of the wilderness", and the Targum renders תנים as ירודין, a word Radak does not explain.

On חָלְצוּ שַׁד, "they have drawn out the breast", the Targum in Megillas Eichah says that these creatures have breasts up to their faces, and when they suckle their young, so that the young should not see them, they choke them and eat them. Midrash Tanchuma says that when the tannin comes to suckle, its mother sees it from afar and draws out her breasts, so that it should suckle and not see them covered and refuse.