spear
At a glance
In short
Romach is the spear or lance that Pinchas took (Bamidbar 25:7), the only one of the three words in the Chumash. It is commonly translated "spear," and HALOT glosses it "lance." Chanit is the spear, HALOT's gloss as well; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim explains it as the weapon commonly found in the military camp, from the root for encamping. Kidon is a small romach (Rambam), usually thrown at the enemy (Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi), so a javelin or dart; HALOT instead gives "hunting knife/scimitar," and Targum renders it romcha. Rabbi Shmuel Krauss holds that romach, chanit and kidon all name the same weapon, and that the rabbis had a fourth word for it, alunki, from Greek: the rabbinic lance.
Distinctions
Romach (רמח)
Once in the Chumash (Bamidbar 25:7), fourteen more times elsewhere in Tanach. Commonly translated "spear"; HALOT, "lance." Tedeschi-Ashkenazi's and Ohalei Yehuda's derivations make it the lethal weapon (annihilating, life-removing, effective even against the most exalted target); Rav Hirsch's makes it, it seems, a thrown one; for the classical lexicographers the root names this weapon and nothing else.
Chanit (חנית)
Forty-seven times in Tanach, never in the Chumash; HALOT, "spear." Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim builds a family from CHES-NUN: machaneh, a united party travelling from place to place that has collectively halted and made camp, and so a military camp, many individuals working together to capture enemy territory or defend the homeland; anachnu, parsed as ana (cognate with ani, anochi) plus chnu, "we who are camping together"; chen, favor, since one who finds favor is granted room to "camp out" in another's thoughts; and techinah and tachanun, petitions to be granted chen.
Kidon (כידון)
Nine times in Tanach: Yehoshua 8:18, 8:26; Shmuel I 17:6, 17:45; Yirmiyahu 6:23, 50:42; Iyov 39:23, 41:21. Never in the Chumash. HALOT, "hunting knife/scimitar."
- The classical lexicographers: root KAF-YUD-DALET; since kid from that root means "misfortune, suffering" (Iyov 21:20), Ibn Janach suggests the kidon is named for bringing misfortune on one's enemies.
- Rambam (to Keilim 11:8): a small romach, the weapon kings and aristocrats typically carried at all times. Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein suggests that perhaps Rambam read the word as yad, "hand," with the KAF a kaf hadimyon: a weapon always with its owner, as a hand is.
- The philologist Rabbi Ernest Klein (no relation to Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein): probably related to Arabic kadda and Ethiopic kedda, verbs for "thrusting."
- In a somewhat similar way Rabbi Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg of the Veromemanu Foundation proposes a metathesis of DALET-KAF, "smashed," for how a kidon might smite the enemy.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from biliteral KAF-DALET, a vessel with ear-like handles protruding sideways, whose most basic derivative is kad, a jug; in a borrowed sense the kidon is a romach with spikes protruding from its sides like a jug's handles (a third derivative is neched, "nephew," a side offshoot of the family tree).
Alunki (אלונקי)
Rabbinic only. Rabbi Shmuel Krauss counts it the rabbis' fourth synonym for this weapon; the example given is Shmuel's statement that one struck by a Persian alunki will not live (Gittin 70a). Rabbi Krauss derives alunki from Greek lonche, the etymon of English "lance." In the Persian version the points were tipped with poison, so one struck by it is unlikely to survive.
Where the authorities disagree
Whether these are three weapons or one.
- Rabbi Shmuel Krauss (1866 to 1948) writes that romach, chanit, and kidon are all synonyms for the same sort of weapon, and adds that the rabbis used a fourth, alunki.
- Targum to Yehoshua 8:18 renders kidon as romcha, implying that those two weapons are very similar and their names can even be somewhat interchanged.
- HALOT gives each word its own English: romach "lance," chanit "spear," kidon "hunting knife/scimitar."
How romach is built.
- Menachem Ibn Saruk (920 to 970), Yonah Ibn Janach (990 to 1050), and Radak (1160 to 1235): a triliteral root REISH-MEM-CHES, used for nothing but this weapon.
- Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi (1821 to 1898, Otzar Nirdafim): related to biliteral MEM-CHES, "erase, annihilate," for the weapon's destructive nature.
- Ohalei Yehuda: a single stab of a romach is fatal to anyone, exalted or lowly, so the word fuses REISH-(VAV)-MEM ("high, exalted") with MEM-CHES, lethal even to the highest-ranking. (Kozbi was a Midianite princess and Zimri the prince of the tribe of Shimon, yet both fell to Pinchas's romach.) Alternatively, Ohalei Yehuda: REISH-MEM ("high, lift, remove") with CHES-YUD (chai, "life"), a remover of life.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 15:1, Bamidbar 25:7) follows the triliteralists' REISH-MEM-CHES but hears in it the similar ramah, "throwing, shooting," CHES interchanging with HEI; in his view, it seems, the romach is used by throwing, not generally by stabbing.
Whether kidon is a weapon or armor.
- Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi (13th century, in the Holy Land; HaMadrich HaMaspik): the word usually means a small romach thrown at the enemy, like an arrow or dart, but Golyas wearing "a copper kidon between his shoulders" (Shmuel I 17:6) implies it can also mean a helmet. From this Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein suggests that kidon may perhaps be a general term for an infantryman's gear, weaponry or armor.
- Radak (to Shmuel I 17:6): even with Golyas the kidon is an offensive weapon, not armor, something resembling a romach that soldiers hid between their shoulders; at Yirmiyahu 50:42 Radak seems unsure which of the two it is.
Where chanit comes from.
- Ibn Janach and Radak (each in his Sefer HaShorashim): triliteral CHES-NUN-HEI ("camping, resting, store"); Menachem Ibn Saruk, a biliteralist, does not list the word at all.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740 to 1814), a biliteralist: CHES-NUN, camping as against travelling, the weapon commonly found in the machaneh and used for military purposes.
- Then three more: Rabbi Tedeschi-Ashkenazi, from CHES-NUN-HEI, the spear often stabbed into the ground where it would be "camped"; Shoresh Yesha, from the same root, the weapon military camps fear; and Ohalei Yehuda, related to chadah, "sharp, pointed," which Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein supposes is probably by the interchange of NUN and DALET.
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ח-נ-ה
To encamp, and to encamp against a city. The camp, מַחֲנֶה, comes from it, and the spear, חֲנִית, may as well.
Encamping
קִרְיַת חָנָה דָוִד (Yeshayahu 29:1), the city where David encamped; וַיִּֽחַן ־שָׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shemos 19:2), and Yisrael encamped there; וַֽחֲנֵה עַל־הָעִיר וְלָכְדָהּ (Shmuel II 12:28), encamp against the city and capture it. At פִּזַּר עַצְמוֹת חֹנָךְ (Tehillim 53:6), He scattered the bones of חֹנָךְ, which Radak explains as one encamping against you, just as בָּנַי יְצָאֻנִי (Yirmiyahu 10:20) means my sons have gone out from me, and לֹא יְגֻרְךָ רָֽע (Tehillim 5:5) means evil shall not dwell with You. All of these he counts as verbs that take no object.
Two pesukim either way
וְחָנִיתִי כַדּוּר עָלָיִךְ (Yeshayahu 29:3) he explains as וחניתי בכדור, I will encamp against you in a ring; and וְחָנִיתִי לְבֵיתִי מִצָּבָה (Zecharyah 9:8) as I will encamp in my house, and they will not fear a garrison that would encamp against them. He allows that both may instead be verbs that take an object.
The camp
מַֽחֲנֶה is found masculine and feminine. Masculine: וְהָיָה הַמַּֽחֲנֶה הַנִּשְׁאָר (Bereishis 32:9), the camp that is left. Feminine: אִם־ תַּֽחֲנֶה עָלַי מַֽחֲנֶה (Tehillim 27:3), if a camp encamps against me, and הַמַּֽחֲנֶה הָאַחַת (Bereishis 32:9), the one camp. The plural runs both ways too: masculine in וַיָּשֹׁסּוּ אֶת־ מַֽחֲנֵיהֶֽם (Shmuel I 17:53), they plundered their camps, and feminine in לִשְׁנֵי מַֽחֲנֽוֹת (Bereishis 32:11), into two camps. וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם־הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא מַֽחֲנָֽיִם (Bereishis 32:3), he called the name of that place Machanayim, means two camps: he called the place so for his camp that had been with Lavan and for the camp of Hashem that he saw afterward.
The shop
Of this root and this sense is אֶל־בֵּית הַבּוֹר וְאֶל־ הַֽחֲנֻיוֹת (Yirmiyahu 37:16), to the dungeon house and to the chanuyos. The word is well known in the words of Chazal (Pesachim 31b), חנות של ישראל ומלאי של ישראל, a Jew's shop and a Jew's wares; and it is called so because travellers encamp there.
The spear
חֲנִית, the spear, may be of this root: וְלַהֶבֶת חֲנִיתוֹ (Shmuel I 17:7), the blade of his spear; וַתֵּצֵא הַֽחֲנִית מֵאַֽחֲרָיו (Shmuel II 2:23), and the spear came out behind him; נִשְׁעָן עַל־ חֲנִיתוֹ (Shmuel II 1:6), leaning on his spear. The plural is found masculine, הַֽחֲנִיתִים וְאֶת־הַמָּגִנּוֹת (Divrei HaYamim II 23:9), the spears and the shields, and feminine, וַֽחֲנִיתֽוֹתֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרוֹת (Yeshayahu 2:4), their spears into pruning hooks.
קִרְיַת חָנָה דָוִד (ישעיה כט, א) וְחָנִיתִי כַדּוּר עָלָיִךְ (ישעיה כט, ג), וְחָנִיתִי לְבֵיתִי מִצָּבָה (זכריה ד, ח), וַיִּֽחַן־שָׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל (שמות יט, ב), פִּזַּר עַצְמוֹת חֹנָךְ (תהלים נג, ו), פירוש חונה עליך כמו בָּנַי יְצָאֻנִי (ירמיה י, כ), יצאו ממני, לֹא יְגֻרְךָ רָֽע (תהלים ה, ה), לא יגור עמך, הדומים להם. וַֽחֲנֵה עַל־הָעִיר וְלָכְדָהּ (שמואל ב' יב, כח), כולם פעלים עומדים. ופירוש וְחָנִיתִי כַדּוּר עָלָיִךְ וחניתי בכדור. ופירוש וְחָנִיתִי לְבֵיתִי מִצָּבָה אני אחנה בביתי ולא פחדו מִצָּבָה שיחנה עליהם. ויתכן להיות וְחָנִיתִי כַדּוּר עָלָיִךְ, וְחָנִיתִי לְבֵיתִי מִצָּבָה, פעלים יוצאים. והשם מחנה מצא בלשון זכר ובלשון נקבה. בלשון זכר וְהָיָה הַמַּֽחֲנֶה הַנִּשְׁאָר (בראשית לב, ט), ובלשון נקבה אִם־תַּֽחֲנֶה עָלַי מַֽחֲנֶה (תהלים כז, ג), הַמַּֽחֲנֶה הָאַחַת (בראשית לב, ט). והקבוץ בלשון זכרים הַֽבְּמַֽחֲנִים אִם בְּמִבְצָרִֽים (במדבר יג, יט), וַיָּשֹׁסּוּ אֶת־מַֽחֲנֵיהֶֽם (שמואל א' יז, נג), וַיִּקְבְּצוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים אֶת־כָּל־מַֽחֲנֵיהֶם אֲפֵקָה (שמואל א' כט, א). וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם־הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא מַֽחֲנָֽיִם (בראשית לב, ג), שני מחנים. וקרא שם המקום כן על מחנהו שהיה עם לבן ועל מחנה אלהים שראה אחר כן. והקבוץ בלשון נקבה לִשְׁנֵי מַֽחֲנֽוֹת (בראשית לב, יא), מִמַּֽחֲנוֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּים (שמואל א' יז, ד). ומשקל אחר תַּֽחֲנוּת בפלס תַּרְבּוּת, אֶל־מְקוֹם פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי תַּֽחֲנֹתִֽי (מלכים ב' ו, ח). והשורק והחלם אחדים. ומהשרש הזה והענין הזה אֶל־בֵּית הַבּוֹר וְאֶל־הַֽחֲנֻיוֹת (ירמיה לז, טז), והלשון הזה ידוע בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (פסחים לא, ע"ב), חנות של ישראל ומלאי של ישראל. ונקרא כן לפי שחונים שם האכסנאים. ואפשר שיהיה מן השרש הזה הִנֵּה הֽחֲנִית [חֲֽנִית] הַמֶּלֶךְ וְיַֽעֲבֹר אֶחָד מֵֽהַנְּעָרִים וְיִקָּחֶֽהָ (שמואל א' כו, כב), וַתֵּצֵא הַֽחֲנִית מֵאַֽחֲרָיו וַיִּפָּל־שָׁם (שם ב, כג), וְלַהֶבֶת חֲנִיתוֹ (שם א' יז, ז), נִשְׁעָן עַל־חֲנִיתוֹ (שם ב' א, ו). והקבוץ בלשון זכר אֶת־הַֽחֲנִיתִים וְאֶת־הַמָּגִנּוֹת (דברי הימים ב' כג, ט). ובלשון נקבות וַֽחֲנִיתֽוֹתֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרוֹת (ישעיה ב, ד).
כ-י-ד
כִּידוֹן, the spear that carries the banner, or perhaps the spear alone; the bronze kidon between the shoulders is a shoulder guard. כִּידוֹ is like אידו, ruin.
The spear that carries the banner
נְטֵה בַּכִּידוֹן אֲשֶֽׁר־בְּיָֽדְךָ (Yehoshua 8:18), stretch out the kidon that is in your hand, is the spear on which the banner is. So too וְיִשְׂחַק לְרַעַשׁ כִּידֽוֹן (Iyov 41:21), it laughs at the noise of a kidon, though this one may be the spear by itself without the banner, and the noise of the kidon is the noise the spear makes as it goes, when it is carried along.
Two blades in one phrase
Like them is לַהַב חֲנִית וְכִידֽוֹן (Iyov 39:23), the blade of spear and kidon, meaning the blade of the spear and the blade of the kidon.
Where it is not a spear
But וְכִידוֹן נְחשֶׁת בֵּין כְּתֵפָֽיו (Shmuel I 17:6), and a bronze kidon between his shoulders, is no spear, for it is a guard for his shoulders, and the Targum renders it וּמְסַחֲפָא דִנְחָשָׁא, a covering of bronze. At קֶשֶׁת וְכִידוֹן יַֽחֲזִיקוּ (Yirmiyahu 6:23), they take hold of bow and kidon, the Targum has קַשְׁתָּן וּתְרֵיסִין, bows and shields.
כִּידוֹ, his ruin
יִרְאוּ עֵינָו [עֵינָיו] כִּידוֹ (Iyov 21:20), let his eyes see his כִּיד: כִּידוֹ is like אידו, his ruin.
יִרְאוּ עֵינָו [עֵינָיו] כִּידוֹ (איוב כא, כ), כמו אידו. נְטֵה בַּכִּידוֹן אֲשֶֽׁר־בְּיָֽדְךָ (יהושע ח, יח), הוא הרומח שבו הנס. וכן וְיִשְׂחַק לְרַעַשׁ כִּידֽוֹן (איוב מא, כא). ואפשר שיהיה זה הרומח לבדו בלא הנס, ואמר רעש כידון רעש הרומח בהליכתו כשמוליכין אותו. וכמוהם עוד לַהַב חֲנִית וְכִידֽוֹן (איוב לט, כג), פירוש להב חנית ולהב כידון. אבל וְכִידוֹן נְחשֶׁת בֵּין כְּתֵפָֽיו (שמואל א' יז, ו), אינו רומח כי הוא כלי מגן לכתפיו ואמר בו התרגום וּמְסַחֲפָא דִנְחָשָׁא. קֶשֶׁת וְכִידוֹן יַֽחֲזִיקוּ (ירמיה ו, כג), אמר בו התרגום קַשְׁתָּן וּתְרֵיסִין.
ר-מ-ח
A spear, a word whose sense is known: וַיִּקַּח רֹמַח בְּיָדֽוֹ (Bamidbar 25:7), and he took a spear in his hand.
The plural
מִרְקוּ הָֽרְמָחִים (Yirmiyahu 46:4), polish the spears, is like בקרים, mornings, from בֹּקֶר, morning. Or it is of another pattern: עִם־חַרְבֹֽתֵיהֶם רָמְחֵיהֶם וְקַשְּׁתֹֽתֵיהֶֽם (Nechemiah 4:7), with their swords, their spears and their bows.
A kamatz in the careful sefarim
In some exact sefarim רָמְחֵיהֶם is pointed with a kamatz under the resh, keeping to the base form, on the pattern of חָדְשֵׁיכֶם וּמֽוֹעֲדֵיכֶם (Yeshayahu 1:14), your new moons and your appointed times. So too Rabbi Yonah wrote.
וַיִּקַּח רֹמַח בְּיָדֽוֹ (במדבר כה, ז), מִרְקוּ הָֽרְמָחִים (ירמיה מו, ד), כמו מן בֹּקֶר בקרים. או הוא משקל אחר עִם־חַרְבֹֽתֵיהֶם רָמְחֵיהֶם וְקַשְּׁתֹֽתֵיהֶֽם (נחמיה ד, ז). ובמקצת ספרים מדויקים רָמְחֵיהֶם בקמץ הרי"ש עד העיקר במשקל חָדְשֵׁיכֶם וּמֽוֹעֲדֵיכֶם (ישעיה א, יד). וכן כתב רבי יונה. ענינו ידוע.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pinchas: Piercing Spears," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 8 July 2023.
Cited in the essay: Shemos 15:1 and Bamidbar 25:7 with Rav Hirsch; Yehoshua 8:18 with Targum, and 8:26; Shmuel I 17:6 with Radak, and 17:45; Yirmiyahu 6:23, and 50:42 with Radak; Iyov 21:20, 39:23, 41:21; Gittin 70a; Rambam to Keilim 11:8; Menachem Ibn Saruk; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi, Otzar Nirdafim; Ohalei Yehuda; Shoresh Yesha; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim; Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi, HaMadrich HaMaspik; Rabbi Shmuel Krauss; HALOT; Rabbi Ernest Klein; Rabbi Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg; Dr. Raphael Sappan, additions to Even-Shoshan's dictionary; Elimelech Klein.