spring

כִּי־אַתָּה גֹחִי מִבָּטֶן (Tehillim 22:10), for You are my bringer-forth from the womb, a description built like גוֹזִי. Where the verb takes an object it brings out: כִּי־יָגִיחַ יַרְדֵּן אֶל־פִּיהוּ (Iyov 40:23), that he brings the Yarden out to his mouth, and מֵגִיחַ מִמְּקֹמוֹ (Shoftim 20:33), bringing out from its place, though some say the word stands of itself and means going out from its place. Going out: בְּגִיחוֹ מֵרֶחֶם יֵצֵא (Iyov 38:8), in its going out from the womb it came forth, and וַתָּגַח בְּנַהֲרוֹתֶיךָ (Yechezkel 32:2), and you went out in your rivers.

The river גִיחוֹן may be named from this, because it goes out and spreads far, being a great river, as it says הַסּוֹבֵב אֵת כָּל־אֶרֶץ כּוּשׁ (Bereishis 2:13), that goes round the whole land of Kush. His father writes that it is the Nile of Egypt, called גִיחוֹן because it goes out and waters the land. Whether his father's words run on from here the Hebrew does not mark: the one near Jerusalem is also called so, small though it is, and it is the one called שִׁלֹחַ, for Targum Yonasan renders אֶל־גִּחוֹן (Melachim I 1:33), to Gichon, by לְשִׁילוּחָא, to the Shiloach; it may be called Gichon because it goes out to the gardens to water them.

חוּלִי וָגֹחִי בַּת־צִיּוֹן כַּיּוֹלֵדָה (Michah 4:10), writhe and groan, daughter of Tzion, like a woman giving birth, where וגחי is והאנחי, and groan; this too belongs to the first sense, since a groan is the bringing out of breath.

וְכִֽי־יִגַּח שׁוֹר אֶת־אִישׁ (Shemos 21:28), and if an ox pushes a man. The heavy form: וּבְקַרְנֵיכֶם תְּנַגְּחוּ כָּל־הַנַּחְלוֹת (Yechezkel 34:21), and with your horns you push all the sickly; בָּהֶם עַמִּים יְנַגַּח (Devarim 33:17), with them he pushes nations; בְּךָ צָרֵינוּ נְנַגֵּחַ (Tehillim 44:6), through You we push our foes; מְנַגֵּחַ יָמָּה וְצָפוֹנָה וָנֶגְבָּה (Daniel 8:4), pushing westward and northward and southward. The adjective: וְאִם שׁוֹר נַגָּח הוּא (Shemos 21:29), and if it is a pushing ox. The reflexive: וּבְעֵת קֵץ יִתְנַגַּח עִמּוֹ מֶלֶךְ הַנֶּגֶב (Daniel 11:40), and at the time of the end the king of the south will push with him. ענינם ענין ההדיפה והמכה בקרן, their sense is pushing and striking with the horn.

שָׁלַח לִפְנֵיהֶם אִישׁ (Tehillim 105:17), He sent a man before them. His father reads יָדָהּ לַיָּתֵד תִּשְׁלַחְנָה (Shoftim 5:26) not as stretching out but as sending: Yael's hands sent for the peg and for the workmen's hammer, and the sending is ascribed to the hands, though Yael is the one who sends, because the hands are the chief part of the deed.

Close to sending is the loosing of a thing with nothing to hold it back. מְשַׁלְּחֵי רֶגֶל הַשּׁוֹר וְהַחֲמוֹר (Yeshayahu 32:20), who let loose the feet of the ox and the donkey: out of the abundance of grain they send the ox and the donkey to graze in the fields of grain and let them go where they will, and do not mind it. נָוֶה מְשֻׁלָּח (Yeshayahu 27:10), a dwelling let loose, is one that stands open and free to whoever wishes to bring anything into it, and וְנַעַר מְשֻׁלָּח מֵבִישׁ אִמּוֹ (Mishlei 29:15), a boy let loose shames his mother, is a boy free to go after his own desire.

Reaching out: שָׁלַח יָדָיו בִּשְׁלֹמָיו (Tehillim 55:21), he put out his hands against those at peace with him, and וְיָד אַל תִּשְׁלְחוּ בוֹ (Bereishis 37:22), do not put out a hand against him. The nouns are מִשְׁלוֹחַ יָדָם (Yeshayahu 11:14), the putting out of their hand, and בְּכֹל מִשְׁלַח יֶדְכֶם (Devarim 12:7), in all that you put your hand to.

Close to stretching out: שְׁלֻחוֹתֶיהָ נִטְּשׁוּ (Yeshayahu 16:8), the spreading of boughs and branches. A garden of fruit trees is called so as well, because its boughs and branches spread out this way and that, as בְּרֵכַת הַשֶּׁלַח לְגַן הַמֶּלֶךְ (Nechemiah 3:15), the pool of the Shelach at the king's garden, and שְׁלָחַיִךְ פַּרְדֵּס רִמּוֹנִים (Shir HaShirim 4:13), your gardens are an orchard of pomegranates. So too בְּשַׁלְחָהּ תְּרִיבֶנָּה (Yeshayahu 27:8), in her spreading out You contend with her; תְּשַׁלַּח קְצִירֶהָ עַד־יָם (Tehillim 80:12), she sent out her boughs to the sea; and יְשַׁלַּח שָׁרָשָׁיו (Yirmiyahu 17:8), it sends out its roots. The river beside Yerushalayim may be called Shiloach for the same reason, אֵת מֵי הַשִּׁלֹחַ (Yeshayahu 8:6), the waters of the Shiloach, because it spreads out to the gardens to water them.

To drive out: וַיְשַׁלְּחֵהוּ (Bereishis 3:23), Hashem sent him out of Gan Eden, and אֶל מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה תְּשַׁלְּחוּם (Bamidbar 5:3), you shall send them outside the camp; all of these, he says, are close in sense. In another sense שֶׁלַח is a sword, as וַיַּעַשׂ שֶׁלַח לָרֹב וּמָגִנִּים (Divrei HaYamim II 32:5), and he made swords in abundance, and shields. And from this root is the שֻׁלְחָן, the table, as הַשֻּׁלְחָן אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי י"י (Yechezkel 41:22), the table that is before Hashem.

הֹלֵךְ עִמָּם לְשַׁלְּחָם (Bereishis 18:16), going with them to see them off, וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם יִצְחָק (Bereishis 26:31), and Yitzchak saw them off, and וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֶת רִבְקָה אֲחֹתָם (Bereishis 24:59), and they saw off Rivkah their sister. This accompanying, he says, is all one sense with the first.

וְהִשְׁלַחְתִּי בָכֶם (Vayikra 26:22) and הִנְנִי מַשְׁלִיחַ בְּךָ (Shemos 8:17), with the noun מִשְׁלַחַת מַלְאֲכֵי רָעִים (Tehillim 78:49), suit the sense of letting loose, he says: I will let loose among you, I am letting loose upon you, and a letting loose of evil messengers. Chazal speak the same way of משלחת זאבים, a letting loose of wolves, in Bava Metzia 93b.

לָכֵן תִּתְּנִי שִׁלּוּחִים (Michah 1:14), therefore you shall give gifts, and אַחַר שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ (Shemos 18:2), after her gifts: he takes שִׁלּוּחִים as gifts. The second can also be read as after he had sent her and she returned to her father's house.

שֻׁלַּח בְּרַגְלָיו (Shoftim 5:15), sent on his feet: he asked for no beast to ride on, and the pasuk says sent although nobody sent him, because out of his great desire to go he is as one sent. In כִּי שֻׁלַּח בְּרֶשֶׁת בְּרַגְלָיו (Iyov 18:8) Radak says the words may be read either way, a net for his feet or his feet in a net.

Some take וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֶת כְּתֹנֶת הַפַּסִּים (Bereishis 37:32) from the sword: they tore the striped coat so that their father would believe the beasts had torn him. His own reading is that they sent the coat by the hand of some of them, who went to their father and brought it to him. Some take וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם בְּיַד פִּשְׁעָם (Iyov 8:4), which he lists under driving out, He sent them away by the hand of their transgression, from the sword as well. מִשְׁלַחַת מַלְאֲכֵי רָעִים can be read this way too, their sense being a sword; and רַגְלַי שִׁלֵּחוּ (Iyov 30:12) is put here too: they set thorns and briars where I walk, to cut my feet. אִישׁ שִׁלְחוֹ הַמָּיִם (Nechemiah 4:17) is of this sense: as they went to the water, each man had his sword in his hand. It can also be read from the Targum, which renders וְהִפְשִׁיט (Vayikra 1:6), and he shall strip, by וְיַשְׁלַח: none of them put off his clothes by day or by night, and no man put off his clothes to wash them in the water.

His father reads בְּשַׁלְחָהּ תְּרִיבֶנָּה (Yeshayahu 27:8) from the sword too: by her sword You wished to contend with her, that is, by the measure she measured, as the pasuk says בְּסַאסְּאָה, in measure. On his father's reading, You wished to kill her, judging her by fire as Sodom was judged, since her deeds were theirs, as it says of her קְצִינֵי סְדֹם, rulers of Sodom (Yeshayahu 1:10); and so You would have judged her, had Hashem not had pity on them and turned the fire aside with the strong east wind after it had been cast upon the city, as Yechezkel sets out.