sword and knife

וְאָֽכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָֽעְתָּ (Devarim 11:15), you will eat and be satisfied, and by way of figure אָֽכְלָה וּמָחֲתָה פִיהָ (Mishlei 30:20), she ate and wiped her mouth. The noun is וַיִּתֶּן־ אֹכֶל בֶּֽעָרִים (Bereishis 41:48), he put food in the cities, and in other forms בְּכֹחַ הָֽאֲכִילָה הַהִיא (Melachim I 19:8), by the strength of that eating, and וּמַֽאֲכַל שֻׁלְחָנוֹ (Melachim I 10:5), the food of his table. מַכֹּלֶת לְבֵיתוֹ (Melachim I 5:25), food for his house, is missing its alef, its full form being מַֽאֲכֹלֶת. The sense of all these, eating a thing that is food, is a known one.

אֵשׁ אֹֽכְלָה הוּא (Devarim 4:24), He is a consuming fire; in the passive וְנֶֽאֱכַל גָּדִישׁ (Shemos 22:5), and a stack of grain is consumed, אֻכְּלוּ כְּקַשׁ יָבֵשׁ (Nachum 1:10), they were consumed like dry stubble, and וְהַסְּנֶה אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּֽל (Shemos 3:2), the bush was not consumed. The noun is מַֽאֲכֹלֶת אֵֽשׁ (Yeshayahu 9:4), food for the fire, and וַיְהִי הָעָם כְּמַֽאֲכֹלֶת אֵשׁ (Yeshayahu 9:18), and the people became like food for the fire.

In the sense of destroying and making an end: וְאָֽכַלְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־הָֽעַמִּים, and you shall consume all the peoples; עַל־כֵּן אָלָה אָכְלָה אֶרֶץ (Yeshayahu 24:6), therefore a curse has devoured the land; and אֶרֶץ אֹכֶלֶת יֽוֹשְׁבֶיהָ (Bamidbar 13:32), a land that eats its dwellers. In the sense of the sword cutting down, הֲלָנֶצַח תֹּאכַל חֶרֶב (Shmuel II 2:26), shall the sword devour for ever: the tav of תֹּאכַל goes with the sword, as if to say, if your sword eats for ever, as in וְחַרְבִּי תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר (Devarim 32:42), and my sword shall eat flesh. Or else these mean eating in earnest, said by way of figure, as it says אשׁכיר חצי מדם, I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and likewise it says that the sword of Hashem is filled with blood and made fat with fat (Yeshayahu 34:6).

חֶרֶב תְּאֻכְּלוּ (Yeshayahu 1:20), which he reads as בחרב תאכלו, by the sword you will be eaten: if you listen you will eat the good of the land, and if you refuse you will not be eaters but eaten by the sword.

כִּֽי־ יֽוֹכְלוּ אַתִּיקִים מֵהֵנָה (Yechezkel 42:5), for the אַתִּיקִים took from them, which he explains as the corners taking up space from them, and so Targum Yonasan renders. So too in the words of Chazal (Bava Basra 14a), כמה לוחות אוכלות בארון ששה, how much do the luchos take up in the Aron? Six.

The knife too is called מאכלת, for its eating and making an end: וַיִּקַּח אֶת־ הַֽמַּֽאֲכֶלֶת (Bereishis 22:10), he took the knife, and in the plural וּֽמַֽאֲכָלוֹת מְֽתַלְּעֹתָיו (Mishlei 30:14), his jaw teeth are knives. All that come from the root אכל are one sense, he says, since the eating of bread and of any food is itself consuming, burning away and destroying. His father wrote that לְהָכִיל לְמַעַן בָּרָֽק (Yechezkel 21:33), to devour, so that it may flash, is of this root and this sense, its proper form being להאכיל.

חָלַף הָלַךְ לֽוֹ (Shir HaShirim 2:11), it has passed and gone; וְחָֽלַפְתָּ מִשָּׁם וָהָלְאָה (Shmuel I 10:3), you shall pass on from there; וְיַֽחֲלֹף וְֽלֹא־אָבִין לֽוֹ (Iyov 9:11), He passes by and I do not perceive Him; כְּסוּפוֹת בַּנֶּגֶב לַֽחֲלֹף (Yeshayahu 21:1), like whirlwinds in the Negev, passing through; חָלְפוּ חֹק (Yeshayahu 24:5), they passed over the statute. All of them are the sense of passing. Beside them stand בַּבֹּקֶר יָצִיץ וְחָלָף (Tehillim 90:6), in the morning it blossoms and passes, and בַּבֹּקֶר כֶּחָצִיר יַֽחֲלֹֽף (Tehillim 90:5), in the morning like grass it passes.

וְהַֽחֲלִיפוּ שִׂמְלֹֽתֵיכֶֽם (Bereishis 35:2), change your garments; וַתַּֽחֲלֵף אֶת־מַשְׂכֻּרְתִּי (Bereishis 31:41), you changed my wages; כַּלְּבוּשׁ תַּֽחֲלִיפֵם וְֽיַֽחֲלֹֽפוּ (Tehillim 102:27), You change them like a garment and they are changed; אִֽם־יִכָּרֵת וְעוֹד יַֽחֲלִיף (Iyov 14:7), though it be cut down it will yet renew, meaning it will renew its shoots; וְקַשְׁתִּי בְּיָדִי תַֽחֲלִֽיף (Iyov 29:20), my bow renews in my hand, which he explains as my strength and my might renewing my honour for me; and יַֽחֲלִיפוּ כֹחַ (Yeshayahu 40:31), they shall renew strength.

וַיְגַלַּח וַיְחַלֵּף שִׂמְלֹתָיו (Bereishis 41:14), he shaved and changed his garments; חֲלִפוֹת שְׂמָלֹת (Bereishis 45:22), changes of raiment; וּשְׁלשִׁים חֲלִפֹת בְּגָדִֽים (Shoftim 14:12), thirty changes of garments: all in the sense of renewal and exchange. One thing coming in another's place is עֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים בַּחֹדֶשׁ חֲלִיפוֹת (Melachim I 5:28), ten thousand a month by courses, these going and those coming. חֵלֶף עֲבֹֽדַתְכֶם (Bamidbar 18:31), in return for your service, is pointed with six dots; and the Targum renders תַּחַת (Bereishis 4:25), in place of, as חֲלַף.

Another sense, close to this one: אִם־ יַֽחֲלֹף וְיַסְגִּיר (Iyov 11:10), if He cuts off and shuts up; וְהָאֱלִילִים כָּלִיל יַֽחֲלֹֽף (Yeshayahu 2:18), and the idols shall be wholly cut off; תַּחְלְפֵהוּ קֶשֶׁת נְחוּשָֽׁה (Iyov 20:24), a bow of brass shall cut him down; and the nouns עַד־בּוֹא חֲלִיפָתִֽי (Iyov 14:14), until my cutting off comes, אֲשֶׁר אֵין חֲלִיפוֹת לָמוֹ (Tehillim 55:20), who have no cutting off, and כָּל־בְּנֵי חֲלֽוֹף (Mishlei 31:8), all the sons of cutting off. All of these are the sense of cutting off, and the people of the world are called בני חלוף because death and cutting off from the world come upon them.

His father explains כֶּחָצִיר יַֽחֲלֹֽף (Tehillim 90:5), like grass it is cut off, from this sense, citing זְרַמְתָּם שֵׁנָה יִהְיוּ בַּבֹּקֶר כֶּחָצִיר יַֽחֲלֹֽף, You flood them away, they are as a sleep; in the morning, like grass, it is cut off. On his father's reading, if they are there at night they are not there in the morning, for like grass it is cut off, the word standing alone in that sense; and if בַּבֹּקֶר יָצִיץ וְחָלָף (Tehillim 90:6), in the morning it blossoms and is renewed, is like וְעוֹד יַֽחֲלִיף (Iyov 14:7), it will yet renew, then by evening it is cut down and dried.

From this sense knives are called מחלפים, מַֽחֲלָפִים תִּשְׁעָה וְעֶשְׂרִֽים (Ezra 1:9), twenty-nine knives, because they cut; and אֶת־שֶׁבַע מַחְלְפוֹת רֹאשִׁי (Shoftim 16:13), the seven locks of my head, are the curls of the hair, called so because they are like knives, or because change and exchange come over them when they whiten in old age.

חָרְבוּ פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה (Bereishis 8:13), the face of the ground was dry, and וְנָהָר יֶחֱרַב וְיָבֵשׁ (Yeshayahu 19:5), and the river will be parched and dry. The nouns are חָרָבָה, dry land, and חֹרֶב, drought and heat; the adjective is פַּת חֲרֵבָה (Mishlei 17:1), a dry crust. Their sense, he says, is dryness, drying and heat.

Whatever cuts is called a חֶרֶב, whether of iron or of sharpened stone, as חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (Yehoshua 5:2), which he reads as sharpened flints. It is a general name that is sometimes particular to the sword, and it takes in a razor, קַח לְךָ חֶרֶב חַדָּה תַּעַר הַגַּלָּבִים (Yechezkel 5:1), take a sharp blade, a barbers' razor; the tool that stones are dressed with, כִּי חַרְבְּךָ הֵנַפְתָּ עָלֶיהָ (Shemos 20:22), for you have lifted your tool over it; and the tool that throws towers down, וּמִגְדְּלֹתַיִךְ יִתֹּץ בְּחַרְבוֹתָיו (Yechezkel 26:9), he will break down your towers with his tools.

וְהָעִיר הַזֹּאת תֶּחֱרַב (Yirmiyahu 26:9), this city shall be laid waste, with חָרְבָּה for a ruin and הֶחֳרָבוֹת for ruins.

וְשַׂעֲרוּ חָרְבוּ מְאֹד (Yirmiyahu 2:12), and shudder, be exceedingly dried up, he reads with a chataf kamatz under the ches, a command like שֹׁמּוּ, be astonished, earlier in the pasuk. Rabbi Yonah wrote that some read it like חָרְבוּ פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, the face of the ground was dry, and took it too for a command, of the doubled form, on the pattern of פָּרְקוּ נִזְמֵי הַזָּהָב (Shemos 32:2), break off the golden rings. Rabbi Yonah refuted them on the strength of the Mesorah, which marks this חָרְבוּ as the only one of its kind, and the חָרְבוּ of the waters as one of two in a single pasuk.

The same word is used of one who dries a thing out: וְכָל־הַנְּהָרוֹת הֶחֱרִיב (Nachum 1:4), He dried up all the rivers; וְאַחְרִב בְּכַף־פְּעָמַי (Yeshayahu 37:25), I dry up with the sole of my foot; and וְהַחֲרַבְתִּי אֶת־יַמָּהּ (Yirmiyahu 51:36), I will dry up her sea. What has not been dried is אֲשֶׁר לֹא־חֹרָבוּ (Shoftim 16:7), which have not been dried out. וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־הַיָּם לֶחָרָבָה (Shemos 14:21) is the sea turned to dry ground.

חֹרֶב is the dryness itself: יְהִי נָא חֹרֶב אֶל הַגִּזָּה (Shoftim 6:39), let there be dryness on the fleece, and וְעַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ חֹרֶב (Shoftim 6:37), and dryness on all the ground. Other forms of it are בְּחַרְבֹנֵי קַיִץ (Tehillim 32:4), in the droughts of summer, and וּבַחַרְחֻר וּבַחֶרֶב (Devarim 28:22), with burning heat and with drought. וְלֹא צָמְאוּ בָּחֳרָבוֹת (Yeshayahu 48:21), they did not thirst in the dry places, is the plural.

כְּחֹרֶב בְּצָיוֹן שְׁאוֹן זָרִים תַּכְנִיעַ (Yeshayahu 25:5) he reads as heat in a parched place, a distress that gives no rest, and so will the noise of strangers be brought down past rising again. חֹרֶב בְּצֵל עָב, heat under the shadow of a cloud, he reads as a man who has lain in a hot place and then comes into a cold one and cannot bear it; so will זמיר עריצים, the song of the tyrants, be humbled until they cannot rise.

From the sword comes a verb of putting to the sword: חִרְבוּ כָּל פָּרֶיהָ (Yirmiyahu 50:27), put all her bullocks to the sword, and חֲרֹב וְהַחֲרֵם אַחֲרֵיהֶם (Yirmiyahu 50:21), smite and destroy after them. In הָחֳרֵב נֶחֶרְבוּ הַמְּלָכִים (Melachim II 3:23), the kings have surely smitten one another, both words are this verb: נֶחֶרְבוּ in another of its forms, and הָחֳרֵב its infinitive, of the form that names no doer.

The act has its own forms: הֶחֱרִיבוּ מַלְכֵי אַשּׁוּר (Yeshayahu 37:18), the kings of Ashur laid waste, and מְהָרְסַיִךְ וּמַחֲרִבַיִךְ מִמֵּךְ יֵצֵאוּ (Yeshayahu 49:17), those who tear you down and lay you waste go out from you. The ruin left is וְחִדְּשׁוּ עָרֵי חֹרֶב (Yeshayahu 61:4), they will renew the waste cities, and וְעָרֵיכֶם יִהְיוּ חָרְבָּה (Vayikra 26:33), your cities will be a ruin. The place so left is described חָרֵב הוּא מֵאֵין אָדָם (Yirmiyahu 33:10), waste without a man, and אֲשֶׁר יְרוּשָׁלַם חֲרֵבָה (Nechemiah 2:17), that Yerushalayim lies waste. He allows that וְשַׂעֲרוּ חָרְבוּ מְאֹד (Yirmiyahu 2:12) may belong to this sense rather than to dryness.

הוֹכֵחַ בְּדָבָר לֹא יִסְכּוֹן (Iyov 15:3), arguing with a word that does not profit, and כִּי־תֹאמַר מַה־יִּסְכָּן־לָךְ (Iyov 35:3), for you say, what does it profit you. הַלְאֵל יִסְכָּן־גָּבֶר (Iyov 22:2) he reads as, can a man profit Hashem by his righteousness and the uprightness of his deeds? For a man profits himself alone and not Hashem. The sense of all of them is benefit. Ibn Ezra takes the same words in the sense of reproof, that is, can a man reprove Hashem, or will a wise man reprove between the two of them.

הַסְכֶּן־נָא עִמּוֹ וּשְׁלָם (Iyov 22:21), where Radak says the verb takes an object with the word דְּרָכֶיךָ, your ways, understood: let your ways profit with Him, and be at peace. So too וְכָל־דְּרָכַי הִסְכַּנְתָּה (Tehillim 139:3), and all my ways You have made to profit: he glosses it הועלת, You profited, that is, You put profit in them.

In another sense, הַהַסְכֵּן הִסְכַּנְתִּי (Bamidbar 22:30), which he glosses ההרגל הרגלתי, have I ever been accustomed. הַסְכֶּן־נָא עִמּוֹ can be read of this sense too: be accustomed with Him, so as to be with Him always; and some read וְכָל־דְּרָכַי הִסְכַּנְתָּה so as well, You are accustomed to my ways, that is, You know them always.

In another sense, בֹּא אֶל־הַסֹּכֵן הַזֶּה (Yeshayahu 22:15), go to this סֹכֵן, which he glosses as the one appointed over the treasury; and so עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת (Shemos 1:11), cities of stores, their sense being storehouses. Rabbi Yonah put וּתְהִי־לוֹ סֹכֶנֶת (Melachim I 1:2), and let her be a סֹכֶנֶת to him, here as well, in the sense of stores. What is correct and straight in Radak's eyes is that סוכנת means one who is of use, as מַה־יִּסְכָּן־לָךְ, what does it profit you: she is to be of use to him against the cold, which is what the pasuk says, וְשָׁכְבָה בְחֵיקֶךָ, and she will lie in your bosom.

It is also read as מחממת, one who warms, and what points to it is וְשָׁכְבָה בְחֵיקֶךָ וְחַם לַאדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ, she will lie in your bosom and my lord the king will be warm. That is, the king did not know her, but she warmed him and lay with him, since she was forbidden to him by לא ירבה לו נשים, he shall not take many wives, and he already had eighteen. So too, in Radak's own view, בּוֹקֵעַ עֵצִים יִסָּכֶן בָּם (Koheles 10:9) is one who splits wood warming himself by it in his labour over it; and in Arabic a hot thing is called א"ל סכו"ן.

Some read יִסָּכֶן בם from סכנה, danger, on the strength of how much Chazal use the word: in the Mishnah, המפרש והיוצא בשיירא (Gittin 6:5), one who sets out to sea and one who goes with a caravan, and והמסוכן, the man in danger; and again, השוחט את המסוכנת (Chullin 2:6), one who slaughters a beast at the point of death. הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה (Yeshayahu 40:20) Rabbi Yonah put with the storehouses. Radak himself takes it from טוֹב יֶלֶד מִסְכֵּן (Koheles 4:13), better a poor youth, and הָאִישׁ הַמִּסְכֵּן (Koheles 9:15), the poor man, מִסְכֵּן meaning poor; and so the Targum renders עָנִי (Devarim 24:12), poor, מִסְכֵּן. So the pasuk speaks of the poor man who cannot make his idol of silver and gold as the rich do (Yeshayahu 40:19), and so seeks out for his offering the choicest wood, that will not rot. The noun of this sense is אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר לֹא בְמִסְכֵּנֻת (Devarim 8:9), a land where there is no poverty.

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.