stranger

וַיָּזַר אֶת־הַגִּזָּה (Shoftim 6:38), he pressed the fleece; וַתִּשְׁכַּח כִּי־רֶגֶל תְּזוּרֶהָ (Iyov 39:15), and she forgets that a foot may press it; וְהַזּוּרֶה תִּבָּקַע אֶפְעֶֽה (Yeshayahu 59:5), and the pressed one splits open into a viper, where the segol stands in place of a kamatz. Of it he says ענין מעיכה ידוע, the sense of pressing is known.

לֹא־ זֹרוּ וְלֹא חֻבָּשׁוּ (Yeshayahu 1:6), they were not pressed and not bound up: on the view of Rabbi Yehudah the grammarian it is a form whose doer is not named. In Radak's own view it is a past verb standing without an object, on the pattern of מַה־טֹּבוּ אֹֽהָלֶיךָ יַֽעֲקֹב (Bamidbar 24:5), how goodly are your tents, Yaakov; and though this root takes an object in the light form, so we find אָז הָֽלְמוּ עִקְּבֵי־סוּס (Shoftim 5:22), then the horses' hooves hammered, standing without one beside הֲלָמוּנִי בַּל־יָדָעְתִּי (Mishlei 23:35), they struck me, I did not know it, which takes one. On זֹרוּ רְשָׁעִים מֵרָחֶם (Tehillim 58:4), the wicked are estranged from the womb, he says it may be a light past or, on Rabbi Yonah's view, a form whose doer is not named.

A blow is called מָזוֹר because it is pressed: וְלֹֽא־יִגְהֶה מִכֶּם מָזֽוֹר (Hoshea 5:13), and he will not heal the wound from you, and וַיַּרְא אֶפְרַיִם אֶת־חָלְיוֹ וִֽיהוּדָה אֶת־ מְזֹרוֹ (Hoshea 5:13), Efrayim saw his sickness and Yehudah his wound. The healing is called מָזוֹר too, since healing comes by pressing the wound, as לֹא־ זֹרוּ וְלֹא חֻבָּשׁוּ (Yeshayahu 1:6), they were not pressed and not bound up, and אֵֽין־דָּן דִּינֵךְ לְמָזוֹר (Yirmiyahu 30:13), none judges your cause for healing.

וַיְזוֹרֵר הַנַּעַר (Melachim II 4:35), the lad sneezed, which he gives in the vernacular, and the Targum of עֲטִישֹׁתָיו תָּהֶל אוֹר (Iyov 41:10), his sneezes flash forth light, is זְרִירוֹי, his sneezes. This too is near the first sense, since a man in sneezing presses himself.

רוּחִֽי זָרָה לְאִשְׁתִּי (Iyov 19:17), my spirit is strange to my wife; לֹא־ זָרוּ מִתַּֽאֲוָתָם (Tehillim 78:30), they were not estranged from their craving; לְאִישׁ זָר (Vayikra 22:12), to a strange man; מוּזָר הָיִיתִי לְאֶחָי (Tehillim 69:9), I became a stranger to my brothers; נָזֹרוּ אָחֽוֹר (Yeshayahu 1:4), they are estranged, gone backward; and וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְזָרָא (Bamidbar 11:20), and it will be a thing estranged to you, where the alef stands in place of a heh. All of these are ענין התנכרות וזרות, a sense of estrangement and strangeness.

מַיִם זָרִים קָרִים נוֹזְלִֽים (Yirmiyahu 18:14), strange waters, cold and flowing, are waters coming from a strange and distant place, as though strangers to the place they flow in. כְּמַהְפֵּכַת זָרִֽים (Yeshayahu 1:7) is the overturning by strange men from a far land, who when they come on a city and take it overturn and destroy everything, having no mind to stay in it, which neighbours do not do. In וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי לְבָבֶל זָרִים וְזֵרוּהָ (Yirmiyahu 51:2), I will send strangers to Bavel and they will scatter her, one word plays on the other, וְזֵרוּהָ being from זְרֵה ־הָלְאָה (Bamidbar 17:2), scatter afar, and of that root; though it may be of this root, and then: I will send foreigners to Bavel and they will make her a stranger in all she has, taking everything and plundering her.

וְלֹא נִכַּר ־שׁוֹעַ לִפְנֵי־דָל (Iyov 34:19), and the noble is not recognized before the poor; לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּחוּצוֹת (Eichah 4:8), they were not recognized in the streets. וְלֹא הִכִּירוֹ כִּֽי־הָיוּ יָדָיו (Bereishis 27:23), he did not recognize him because his hands were so; וְאֵינָם מַכִּירִים לְדַבֵּר יְהוּדִית (Nechemiah 13:24), they did not know how to speak Yehudis; לֹֽא־ תַכִּירוּ פָנִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט (Devarim 1:17), you shall not recognize faces in judgment, and הַֽכֵּר ־פָּנִים לֹֽא־טוֹב (Mishlei 28:21), recognizing faces is not good. The noun is הַכָּרַת פְּנֵיהֶם עָנְתָה בָּם (Yeshayahu 3:9), the recognition of their faces testifies against them. Of all this he says ענין ההכרה ידוע, the sense of recognizing is known.

גַּם בְּמַֽעֲלָלָיו יִתְנַכֶּר ־נָעַר (Mishlei 20:11), even by his doings a lad makes himself known, stands among the forms of recognizing. His father explained it as the reverse of recognizing, which Radak spells out: by his doings the lad makes himself a stranger, for if what he does is clean and upright, people say this is no lad's doing.

The second sense, the opposite of the first: בְּיוֹם נָכְרוֹ (Ovadiah 1:12), on the day of his estrangement, an infinitive; וַֽיְנַכְּרוּ אֶת־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה (Yirmiyahu 19:4), they made this place strange; פֶּן־ יְנַכְּרוּ צָרֵימוֹ (Devarim 32:27), lest their foes deny it; וַיִּתְנַכֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם (Bereishis 42:7), he made himself a stranger to them; וְהִיא מִתְנַכֵּרָֽה (Melachim I 14:5), and she was making herself a stranger. The sense is ענין ההכחשה והזרות, denial and strangeness.

From this sense, the adjective: כָּל־בֶּן־ נֵכָר (Shemos 12:43), any foreigner; אֱלֹהֵי נֵֽכַר ־הָאָרֶץ (Devarim 31:16), the gods of the foreigners of the land; and with a yud, אִישׁ נָכְרִי (Devarim 17:15), a foreign man, מַלְבּוּשׁ נָכְרִֽי (Tzefaniah 1:8), foreign clothing, הֲלוֹא נָכְרִיּוֹת נֶחְשַׁבְנוּ לוֹ (Bereishis 31:15), are we not reckoned to him as strangers. The right account, he holds, is that נֶכֶר is both a noun and an adjective: in לְאֵל נֵכָֽר (Tehillim 81:10), to a foreign god, it is an adjective, and so in כָּל־בֶּן־נֵכָר; those upon which the construct falls are nouns, as וּבְנֵי הַנֵּכָר (Yeshayahu 56:5 in his edition), and the sons of the foreigner, and אֱלֹהֵי הַנֵּכָר (Bereishis 35:2), the gods of the foreigner.

נִכַּר אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים בְּיָדִי (Shmuel I 23:7), Elokim has handed him over into my hand, which he glosses מסר והסגיר, gave him over and delivered him up.