action
stoning
At a glance
In short
Both mean stoning, and Targum renders both sekilah and regimah as regimah (Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim makes sekilah the act of throwing and regimah its result, the victim subdued and immobile. For Yashar, similarly, sekilah is a stoning that need not kill, which is why wherever the Torah prescribes it, it adds "he shall be put to death," while regimah is stoning to death. For Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter, sekilah is a means of killing that one stone could accomplish, while regimah is a whole heap thrown by many. Sefer HaChochmah reverses the pair, making regimah the throwing and sekilah the pile of stones that results. Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi admits that no clear line separates the two in actual usage. The root ס-ק-ל also means clearing stones away, which Ibn Janach and Radak see as the exact opposite of stoning, getting rid of stones rather than using them.
Distinctions
Sekilah (סקילה)
Twenty occurrences in the sense of stoning to death: for approaching Har Sinai (Shemos 19:13), the ox that kills a person (Shemos 21:28-29, 21:32), the idolater (Devarim 17:5) and the one who incites to idolatry (Devarim 13:11), the betrothed naarah who commits adultery and her paramour (Devarim 22:21, 22:24). It is also used where nobody dies: Moshe tells Pharaoh the Egyptians would stone the Jews for slaughtering their gods (Shemos 8:22); "a little more and they will stone me" (Shemos 17:4); Dovid HaMelech's similar fear (Shmuel I 30:6); and Shimi ben Geira's actual stoning of Dovid, who survived (Shmuel II 16:6, 16:13). Fatal instances: Achan (Yehoshua 7:25) and Navos (Melachim I 21:10-15). In the Mishnah it is used of stoning a person or animal to death (among many places, Sanhedrin 6:1, 7:4) and of stoning a dead man's coffin (Eduyos 5:6). Twice in Tanach the root means the reverse, clearing stones away: Yeshayahu 62:10 and the vineyard mashal of Yeshayahu 5:2, a usage that carries into Mishnah Shevi'is 2:3 and 3:7.
Regimah (רגימה)
Sixteen occurrences in the sense of stoning to death: the megadef of Vayikra 24:10-23 (four times), the mekoshesh (Bamidbar 15:35-36), one who gives his child to Molech (Vayikra 20:2), one who consults Ov and Yidoni (Vayikra 20:27), the ben sorer umoreh (Devarim 21:21); what the people wanted to do to Yehoshua and Kalev (Bamidbar 14:10); what they did to Rechavam's tax collector (Melachim I 12:18, Divrei HaYamim II 10:18) and, in Yoash's day, to Zecharia ben Yehoyada, Kohen Gadol and navi (Divrei HaYamim II 24:21); Yechezkel's prophecy for a people whose idolatry is likened to adultery (16:40, 23:47); and Achan, beside sekilah (Yehoshua 7:25). In the Mishnah: the people pelting (ragmuhu) the Tzedoki Kohen with their esrogim at the water libation (Sukkah 4:9), and Sanhedrin 6:4, where one who survives the push and the boulder is stoned by those present.
- Pappenheim treats the mem as non-essential and traces the word to biliteral ר-ג, subduing: the stoned man is overwhelmed by the stones, which stop his functioning; harigah, killing, subdues in the most absolute way, and arigah, weaving, holds threads immobile.
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843 to 1916) extends the string ר-ג to regev (clod), regel (foot), rogez (anger) and regesh (feeling), all tied to subduing, conquering or trampling.
- Tedeschi compares regel, ragan (complain), raga (terrify, thrash) and regesh (tumult), words of strong, even violent, movement, and so makes regem the violent act of throwing.
- Ohalei Yehuda (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh of Carpentras, 18th century) relates regimah to regev, "clump of dirt" (Iyov 21:33, 38:38), both a gathering of smaller parts, by the interchange of MEM and BEIS; this resembles Tedeschi's account of sekilah.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 26:1) links ר-ג-ם to ר-ק-ם, embroidery, by the interchange of GIMMEL and KUF: one piles stones on top of a person, the other sews a picture on top of a fabric.
- Rabbi Avi Kobernick (Hipuch Osiyos) ties it to the permutations ג-מ-ר (finish off), מ-ג-ר (destroy, as in usimager) and ג-ר-ם (break), all destruction.
- Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh notes that the gematria of ר-ג-ם (243) exceeds that of ס-ק-ל (190) by 53, the gematria of even, stone.
- Noonan lists ragam as non-Semitic, from Hittite.
Margeimah (מרגמה) and the wider root
Mishlei 26:8: "like tying a stone to a catapult (margeimah), so is giving honor to a fool." Margeimah seemingly derives from ר-ג-ם as throwing, and the Gemara (Chullin 133a) almost certainly alludes to this when it derives from the verse that teaching an unworthy student is like throwing a stone to Merculis.
Regem-Melech, who with Sarezer asked Zecharyah about the fast of Av (Zecharyah 7:2), and Regem of Yehudah (Divrei HaYamim I 2:47) seem to take their names somehow from ר-ג-ם.
- Mishnas Rabbi Eliezer (ch. 3) makes the two askers Nevuchadnetzar's officers who converted.
- Menachem Ibn Saruk: regem melech is not a name but "royal delegation," regem meaning a grouping; others, "royal officials," regem meaning officers (Ibn Ezra to Zecharyah 7:2, Tehillim 68:28).
- Abarbanel (to Zecharyah 7:7, Mashmia Yeshuah 14:2): perhaps a title for his role at court. Since the Ugaritic equivalent of ר-ג-ם means "say, announce, answer," Rabbi Klein suggests Regem-Melech may have been the king's herald, and that Sarezer is perhaps sar otzar, treasurer.
- Radak (to Zecharyah 7:2 and Sefer HaShorashim) and Ibn Ezra (to Zecharyah 7:2) favor a real name.
- Avraham Shmuel Herschberg (1858 to 1943) claims Regem was a god of the air, making Regem-Melech theophoric; Rabbi Klein could not substantiate this and found no other source for such a deity.
Two further words are traced to ר-ג-ם. Argaman, purple cloth: Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (Sefer HaGalui, Sefer HaChukah) takes it from the root with ALEPH and NUN added, from the "officers" sense, since only prominent officials might wear it; Meiri (to Mishlei 26:8) adopts this, Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) cites it, and Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi) compares esnan from ת-ן. Targum, translation (Ezra 4:7), is seemingly from the root, though the relationship is not clear.
- Rabbi Refael Gruskin: as regimah throws stones from place to place, targum transfers a text from one language to another.
- Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (1857 to 1935): "speaking," with regimah itself from rikmah, speech woven of sounds, letters and words.
- Rabbi Yaakov Yehudah Zilberberg Di Kasif (1914 to 2003): smooth and coherent speech, by a link to the root that Rabbi Klein finds somewhat unclear.
- Rabbi Binyamin Kohen-Shauli (1942 to 1971): a metathesis of Aramaic ג-מ-ר, to learn.
- Rabbi Yaakov Loyfer (introduction to Targum Onkelos in Otzar HaRishonim): "elucidated speech," from ר-ג-ם as the Ugaritic "say."
Rabbi Klein compares Yiddish taytsh, "translate," an early form of German deutsch before the t became d under Grimm's Law, and cognate with English "Teutonic."
Where the authorities disagree
Which word is the act and which the result.
- Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi (1821 to 1898, Otzar Nirdafim) attempts a distinction but admits that no clear line separates the two in actual usage.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740 to 1814), from his reading of regimah as subduing: sekilah is the act of throwing stones at the one being stoned, regimah the result, that he is now subdued and immobile.
- Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (HaKsav VeHaKabbalah to Vayikra 24:16; see also Shemos 17:4) cites a similar explanation from Yashar (Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Reggio, 1784 to 1855): sekilah is throwing stones and does not necessarily entail killing, as when Shimi ben Geira stoned Dovid HaMelech; so whenever the Torah prescribes sekilah for a sin it adds that the sinner "shall be put to death," whereas regimah is specifically stoning to death, which is why a verse with regimah usually lacks an explicit reference to death.
- Along these lines, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter (1743 to 1826): sekilah is only a means to killing, and even one stone would theoretically suffice, while regimah is continuously throwing a whole heap of stones on the victim, even if he is already dead; so where regimah is used, Scripture or Mishnah typically says the entire nation did it.
- Sefer HaChochmah (ascribed to the late twelfth-century Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms) reverses them: regimah is the throwing, sekilah the resulting pile of stones.
Why Yehoshua 7:25 uses both on Achan.
- Rashi (see also Targum and Radak there): Achan himself received regimah, the animals he took sekilah.
- Yashar: regimah comes first because it denotes killing by stoning, which is how Achan died; then sekilah, throwing stones without necessarily killing, at his corpse and ashes once he was dead and burnt, to disgrace him further.
Whether the two senses of ס-ק-ל are one root.
- Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem) lists "stoning" and "clearing" as two separate categories, implying he does not see them as related.
- Ibn Janach and Radak (each in his Sefer HaShorashim) see them as related as exact opposites, one using stones and the other getting rid of them, a self-antonym, a well-established phenomenon in Hebrew.
- Pappenheim bridges them: both are throwing stones, at a person or away from the area being cleared.
- Rabbi Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg suggests the clearing sense is a metathesis of Mishnaic ס-ל-ק (as in siluk), "remove, finish," a suggestion also cited by Rabbi Yaakov Berger of Kiryat Sefer (Milon Leshon Mikra).
- Tedeschi finds the core in amassing a large quantity, of stones to throw or stones cleared, and compares ס-ג-ל (segulah, what one gathers up; segol, a grouping of three dots) and ש-כ-ל (eshkol, a cluster). The same ש-כ-ל gives shakul, bereft of children, as a cluster thins row by row.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ס-ק-ל
To stone; and turned about, to clear of stones. His father held them all one sense, reading the clearing as building with stones.
Stoning
עוֹד מְעַט וּסְקָלֻֽנִי (Shemos 17:4), a little more and they will stone me; וּסְקַלְתּוֹ בָֽאֲבָנִים (Devarim 13:11), and you shall stone him with stones; סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל הַשּׁוֹר (Shemos 21:28), the ox shall surely be stoned; וַיְסַקֵּל בָּֽאֲבָנִים אֶת־דָּוִד (Shmuel II 16:6), and he pelted David with stones; and כִּֽי־ סֻקַּל נָבוֹת וַיָּמֹת (Melachim I 21:15), that Navos had been stoned and was dead.
Clearing the stones away
סַקְּלוּ מֵאֶבֶן (Yeshayahu 62:10), clear it of stone: the sense is turned about because it is joined to the mem of מֵאֶבֶן, from stone. And so וַיְסַקְּלֵהוּ (Yeshayahu 5:2), where the joining is left out: it means ויסקלהו מאבנים, he cleared it of stones, that is, took the stones away and cleared the vineyard of them.
His father makes it one sense
His father held them all one sense: ויסקלהו is building it a wall of stones after digging round it, which is וַיְעַזְּקֵהוּ, he dug about it, as in the words of Chazal ומצאו שהיה עוזק (Menachos 85b), and they found that he was digging; and סַקְּלוּ מֵאֶבֶן is to make a high road of great stones.
עוֹד מְעַט וּסְקָלֻֽנִי (שמות יז, ד), וּסְקַלְתּוֹ בָֽאֲבָנִים (דברים יג, יא). והנפעל סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל הַשּׁוֹר (שמות כא, כח). והפעל הכבד [פִּעֵל] וַיְסַקֵּל בָּֽאֲבָנִים אֶת־דָּוִד (שמואל ב' טז, ו). ושלא נזכר פעלו [פֻּעַל] כִּֽי־סֻקַּל נָבוֹת וַיָּמֹת (מלכים א' כא, טו). ובהפך הענין סַקְּלוּ מֵאֶבֶן (ישעיה סב, י), לפי שהוא דבוק עם מ"ם. וכן וַיְעַזְּקֵהוּ וַיְסַקְּלֵהוּ (ישעיה ה, ב), והוא חסר הדבק ופירושו ויסקלהו מאבנים רוצה לומר הסרת האבנים ונקות הכרם ממנו. ואדוני אבי ז"ל כתבם כולם ענין אחד כי פירוש ויסקלהו בנה לו גדר אבנים אחר שעשה לו החפירת סביב וזהו וַיְעַזְּקֵהוּ כמו ומצאו שהיה עוזק בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (מנחות פה, ע"ב). ופירוש סַקְּלוּ מֵאֶבֶן עשו מסלה גבוהה מאבנים גדולות.
ר-ג-ם
To stone. מַרְגֵּמָה is a gathering of stones, or, as his father reads it, purple; רִגְמָתָם is their assembly, or, some say, their princes.
The stoning
וְרָֽגְמוּ אֹתוֹ כָּל־הָֽעֵדָֽה (Vayikra 24:14), the whole congregation shall stone him, and יִרְגְּמֻהוּ בָאָֽבֶן (Vayikra 20:2), they shall stone him with the stone.
Honour given to a fool
In כִּצְרוֹר אֶבֶן בְּמַרְגֵּמָה (Mishlei 26:8), like binding a stone in a מַרְגֵּמָה, the מַרְגֵּמָה is a gathering of stones together, and the אבן is a precious stone. His father writes that בְּמַרְגֵּמָה is like אַרְגָּמָן, purple; and on that reading, as one binds a stone from the stones of the street in a purple garment, so is one who gives honour to a fool.
An assembly, or two men's names
שָׂרֵי יְהוּדָה רִגְמָתָם (Tehillim 68:28), the princes of Yehudah, their assembly: רִגְמָתָם is their assembly, and some explain it as princes. Targum Yonasan does not render ורגם מלך in וְרֶגֶם מֶלֶךְ וַֽאֲנָשָׁיו (Zecharyah 7:2), and Regem Melech and his men; perhaps, Radak says, these were two men so named, Sar'etzer and Regem Melech, and that is the correct reading.
וְרָֽגְמוּ אֹתוֹ כָּל־הָֽעֵדָֽה (ויקרא כד, יד), וַיִּרְגְּמוּ אֹתוֹ אָבֶן (ויקרא כד, כג), וְרָֽגְמוּ עֲלֵיהֶן אֶבֶן (יחזקאל כג, מז), רָגוֹם יִרְגְּמוּ־בוֹ (ויקרא כד, טז), יִרְגְּמֻהוּ בָאָֽבֶן (ויקרא כ, ב). כִּצְרוֹר אֶבֶן בְּמַרְגֵּמָה (משלי כו, ח), קבוצת אבנים ביחד קלפיי"ר בלע"ז, ופירוש אבן, אבן טובה. ואדוני אבי ז"ל כתב בְּמַרְגֵּמָה כמו אַרְגָּמָן, ופירוש כִּצְרוֹר אבן מאבני החוצות בבגד ארגמן כן הנותן לכסיל כבוד. וְרֶגֶם מֶלֶךְ וַֽאֲנָשָׁיו (זכריה ז ,ב), בשש נקודות. שָׂרֵי יְהוּדָה רִגְמָתָם (תהלים סח, כח), פירוש קהלם. ויש מפרשים שרים. ויונתן לא תרגם ורגם מלך. אולי שני אנשים היו שמם כך ש?אצר ורגם מלך. והוא הנכון.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Emor: Getting Stoned," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 6 May 2023.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Getting Stoned," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Shemos 8:22, 17:4, 19:13, 21:28-29, 21:32, 26:1; Vayikra 20:2, 20:27, 24:10-23, 24:16; Bamidbar 14:10, 15:35-36; Devarim 13:11, 17:5, 21:21, 22:21, 22:24; Yehoshua 7:25; Shmuel I 30:6; Shmuel II 16:6, 16:13; Melachim I 12:18, 21:10-15; Yeshayahu 5:2, 62:10; Yechezkel 16:40, 23:47; Zecharyah 7:2, 7:7; Tehillim 68:28; Mishlei 26:8; Iyov 21:33, 38:38; Ezra 4:7; Divrei HaYamim I 2:47; Divrei HaYamim II 10:18, 24:21; Mishnah Shevi'is 2:3 and 3:7, Sukkah 4:9, Sanhedrin 6:1, 6:4, 7:4, Eduyos 5:6; Chullin 133a; Menachem Ibn Saruk, Machberes Menachem; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi Yosef Kimchi, Sefer HaGalui and Sefer HaChukah; Rashi, Targum and Radak to Yehoshua 7:25; Meiri to Mishlei 26:8; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman and Sefer HaTishbi; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Yerios Shlomo (עמ' 548, עמ' 798); Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi, Otzar Nirdafim; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, HaKsav VeHaKabbalah to Vayikra 24:16; Yashar; Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter, HaRechasim LeVik'ah to Vayikra 24:15; Sefer HaChochmah; Rav Hirsch to Shemos 26:1; Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg; Rabbi Yaakov Berger, Milon Leshon Mikra; Ohalei Yehuda; Rabbi Aharon Marcus; Rabbi Avi Kobernick, Hipuch Osiyos; Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh; Mishnas Rabbi Eliezer ch. 3; Ibn Ezra to Zecharyah 7:2 and Tehillim 68:28; Radak to Zecharyah 7:2; Abarbanel to Zecharyah 7:7 and Mashmia Yeshuah 14:2; Avraham Shmuel Herschberg; Rabbi Refael Gruskin; Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn; Rabbi Yaakov Yehudah Zilberberg Di Kasif; Rabbi Binyamin Kohen-Shauli; Rabbi Yaakov Loyfer, introduction to Targum Onkelos in Otzar HaRishonim; Noonan.