other
spear
רמח · חנית · כידון · אלונקי
Bottom line
Romach is the full-size spear or lance, the weapon Pinchas took (Bamidbar 25:7), and the only one of the three in the Chumash. Chanit is the spear of the army camp, named from chanah, encamping. Kidon is a smaller thrown weapon, javelin or dart; Rambam calls it a small romach. Alunki is the rabbinic lance, a Greek loan-word. Do not get this wrong: romach and chanit are the two standard Biblical spears, and kidon is the odd one, small and thrown.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| רמח | romach | spear, lance | the lethal one, fatal in a single stab even to the exalted (Ohalei Yehuda); thrown, not thrust (Rav Hirsch) |
| חנית | chanit | spear | the camp weapon, from CHET-NUN "encamping" (Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim); or the one stuck in the ground (Tedeschi Ashkenazi) |
| כידון | kidon | javelin, dart | a small romach of kings and nobles (Rambam); Targum to Yehoshua 8:18 renders it romcha |
| אלונקי | alunki | lance | rabbinic, from Greek lonche; the Persian one was poisoned (Gittin 70a) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether these are three weapons or one. Rabbi Shmuel Krauss holds romach, chanit, and kidon are plain synonyms, with alunki a rabbinic fourth; Targum to Yehoshua 8:18 renders kidon as romcha, supporting him for that pair. The etymologists keep them apart by root, and the Bottom line follows them.
How romach is built. Menachem Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak: a plain triliteral root REISH-MEM-CHET, used for nothing but this weapon. Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi (Otzar Nirdafim): from MEM-CHET, "erase, annihilate." Ohalei Yehuda: REISH-VAV-MEM ("exalted") fused with MEM-CHET, so the weapon annihilates even the highest, which fits Kozbi the Midianite princess and Zimri the nasi of Shimon; alternatively REISH-MEM ("remove") with CHET-YOD (chai), a remover of life. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 15:1, Bamidbar 25:7) keeps that root but hears ramah, "throw," in it, CHET for HEI, making the romach a hurled weapon.
Whether kidon is a weapon or armor. Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi (HaMadrich HaMaspik): usually a small thrown romach, but Golyas wearing "a copper kidon between his shoulders" (Shmuel I 17:6) shows it can mean a helmet, so kidon covers an infantryman's gear generally. Radak (to Shmuel I 17:6): even there it is a romach-like weapon concealed between the shoulders; at Yirmiyahu 50:42 Radak himself is undecided. The Bottom line follows Radak.
Where chanit comes from. Ibn Janach and Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): CHET-NUN-HEI, camping; Menachem Ibn Saruk does not list the word at all. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: biliteral CHET-NUN, the weapon of the machaneh. Tedeschi Ashkenazi: the spear "camped" upright in the ground. Shoresh Yesha: the weapon camps fear. Ohalei Yehuda: from chadah, "sharp," NUN for DALET.
Distinctions
romach (רמח)
Once in the Chumash (Bamidbar 25:7), fourteen more times elsewhere in Tanach. Every derivation offered makes it the lethal weapon: annihilating, life-removing, or effective even against the most exalted target.
chanit (חנית)
Forty-seven times in Tanach, never in the Chumash. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim builds a family from CHET-NUN: machaneh, a travelling party that has halted and made camp (and so a military camp); anachnu, parsed as ana plus chnu, "we who are camping together"; chen, favor, since one who finds favor is granted room to camp in another's thoughts; and techinah and tachanun, petitions for 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. Root KAF-YOD-DALET; Ibn Janach links it to kid, "misfortune" (Iyov 21:20), so the kidon brings misfortune on the enemy. Rambam (to Keilim 11:8): a small romach, the weapon kings and aristocrats carried at all times, which may make the KAF a kaf hadimyon on yad, "like a hand," always with him. Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg: a metathesis of DALET-KAF, "smashed." Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from biliteral KAF-DALET, a vessel with ear-like handles jutting sideways, hence kad, a jug; the kidon's spikes protrude at its sides the same way (as does neched, a side branch of a family).
alunki (אלונקי)
Rabbinic only. Shmuel: one struck by a Persian alunki will not live (Gittin 70a), because the Persian points were poisoned. Rabbi Shmuel Krauss: from Greek lonche, the same word English "lance" descends from.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "spear" will swallow all three. Reserve "spear" for chanit, give romach "spear" or "lance" as the passage needs, and always mark kidon as smaller and thrown ("javelin," "dart"), so a verse listing two of them does not read as a repetition. Where a pasuk pairs chanit and kidon (Yirmiyahu 6:23, 50:42), "spear and javelin" keeps the heavy weapon and the light missile apart, which is the point of the pairing.
- Bamidbar 25:7: "spear" is right for romach, and it is a fair note that this is the sole appearance of the word in the Chumash.
- Do not carry Modern Hebrew back into a pasuk: modern kidon means javelin, bayonet, and bicycle handlebar.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pinchas: Piercing Spears," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 19 Tammuz 5783 (2023-07-08): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11010-pinchas-piercing-spears.md. Primary loci cited: Bamidbar 25:7; Shemos 15:1; Yehoshua 8:18, 8:26; Shmuel I 17:6, 17:45; Yirmiyahu 6:23, 50:42; Iyov 21:20, 39:23, 41:21; Gittin 70a; Rambam to Keilim 11:8; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, and to Shmuel I 17:6 and Yirmiyahu 50:42; Otzar Nirdafim; HaMadrich HaMaspik. HALOT, Even-Shoshan and Dr. Raphael Sappan on modern kidon, and the comparative Arabic and Ethiopic derivation of kidon, are omitted under house rule 9; the article's appendix on neched (grandson versus nephew) is a separate cluster.