trembling

Distinctions

chil (חיל), chal (חל), chalchalah (חלחלה)

The common Biblical term, meaning fear and the bodily tremor fear produces. Shiras HaYam: the nations heard and shuddered (yirgazun), chil seized the dwellers of Peleshes (Shemos 15:14). After Sichon's defeat: "they shall tremble (v'ragzu) and be in dread (v'chalu) before you" (Devarim 2:25).

Rav Hirsch (there) gives chil a specific sense: the fear of an established party at a change of order, dread of what one's place will be in the new reality. That, he says, is why chil is the word Tanach uses of childbirth (Yirmiyahu 6:24, 22:23, 50:43; Michah 4:9; Tehillim 48:7), where the mother fears both the birth itself and where she will stand in the household after it. The Pelishtim who heard of Krias Yam Suf understood that Eretz Yisrael was to be conquered, and feared what that would make of them.

Doubled as chalchal, the ח-ל string names the physical convulsion of terror (Yeshayahu 21:3; Yechezkel 30:4, 30:9). Esther, hearing of Haman's decree, vatischalchal (Esther 4:4); Chazal (Megillah 15a; Esther Rabbah 7:14, 8:3) take that literally, that she lost control of her body on the spot. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim reduces the word to the biliteral ח-ל, movement in every direction, and defines chil as the whole body seizing up in reaction to something frightening.

dachil (דחיל)

Root ד-ח-ל, Aramaic, absent from Biblical Hebrew but six times in the Aramaic of Daniel (2:31, 4:2, 5:19, 6:27, 7:7, 7:19), most famously the fourth beast, dechilah (Daniel 7:7). Targum uses this root as its all-purpose rendering for Hebrew yirah, nora, and pachad (see Rabbi Eliyahu Bachur, Meturgeman); Onkelos renders chil at Shemos 15:14 and chalu at Devarim 2:25 with dachla. The natural conclusion is that chil and dachil differ chiefly as Hebrew from Aramaic, but with Rav Hirsch's reading in hand the better account is that chil is a specific fear and dachil the general one, which is why Targum can spend it on so many Hebrew words.

Two idioms worth knowing. Targum often renders "gods" (elohei) as dachalan (Shemos 20:20), naming the pagan conception of deities as dreadful forces to be appeased. And the kabbalistic formula before a mitzvah, b'dichilu u'rechimu, "with fear and love." In Talmudic Aramaic dachlulei is a scarecrow (Bava Basra 27b with Toras Chaim).

zachal (זחל)

Root ז-ח-ל. Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem) records two unrelated senses, fear and crawling. The root appears once in Chumash, in Haazinu: "the venom of those that zochel in the dust" (Devarim 32:24).

• Crawling: Rashi (there) reads it of poisonous snakes, and connects it to the Mishnaic zochalin, flowing water (Eruvin 10:6; Bava Basra 2:5, 3:6; Eduyos 7:3-4; Mikvaos 1:8, 5:4, 5:5; Parah 8:8), since a creature gliding on the ground looks like water running along it. Compare zachala, a creeping worm, in Targum Yonasan to Bamidbar 21:35, and zachal in Tosefta Chullin 3:25. Rav Hirsch (to Devarim 32:24), on his theory of phonetic substitution, ties ז-ח-ל to ש-ע-ל, the sole of the foot or a step.
• Fear: Ibn Ezra (to Devarim 32:24 and Iyov 32:6) agrees the pasuk is about snakebite but takes zochel itself as fear, all who meet such snakes dreading them. The same Rashi/Ibn Ezra split recurs at Michah 7:17. In Iyov 32:6, Elihu's "I am young in days and you are aged, therefore zachalti and feared to speak my mind," Rashi too reads fear.
• The likely unification: Metzudas Tzion (to Iyov 32:6), followed by Rabbi David Golumb and Rabbi Asher Weiser, holds that Hebrew zachal in the fear sense is the Aramaic dachil with the regular Aramaic dalet answering to a Hebrew zayin, as in dachar/zachar (male), deroa/zeroa (arm), dahav/zahav (gold).
• Two other readings of Elihu's zachalti: Rabbi Yosef Kara (there) and Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim), "I held back, I delayed," which may still be the crawling sense, crawling being the slow way to arrive; and Sforno (there), "I made myself low, like a creature that crawls on its belly."
• A further Rabbinic sense: when Rabbi Oshaya's face lit up, the Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 11:4) says his face was zachlin, and the Midrash uses zachalin of Bar Pedaya (Koheles Rabbah 8:4).

Rendering guidance

• Chil: "trembling," "shuddering," or "writhing" for the birth-pang pesukim. Not "fear" alone; the word names what the body does.
• Chalchalah / vatischalchal: "convulsed," "was seized with trembling." "Was greatly distressed" is too mild, and Megillah 15a shows how strong it is.
• Dachil: "fearsome" or "dread" when descriptive, "fear" when it renders yirah or pachad. In b'dichilu u'rechimu keep the Aramaic and gloss "with awe and love."
• Trap: English "fear" absorbs chil, dachil, and zachal, and the piyut Yarasi Befitzchi Si (Rabbi Yekusiel bar Moshe, the chazzan's reshus before Shacharis Shemoneh Esrei on Rosh Hashanah) sets all three in rhyme, plus nora. There the rendering must vary: "awesome" for nora, "dread" for dachil, "I tremble" for azchil, "trembling" for chil.
• Zochel in Devarim 32:24: follow Rashi ("those that crawl in the dust") or Ibn Ezra ("those that are dreaded"), and say which; do not blend them.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Nitzavim-Vayelech: Shake & Quake (Pt. 1/3)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 18 Elul 5784 (2024-09-21): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11544-nitzavim-vayelech-shake-quake-pt-13.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 15:14, 20:20; Devarim 2:25, 32:24; Bamidbar 21:35 (Targum Yonasan); Yeshayahu 21:3; Yirmiyahu 6:24, 22:23, 50:43; Yechezkel 30:4, 30:9; Michah 4:9, 7:17; Tehillim 48:7; Iyov 32:6; Esther 4:4; Daniel 2:31, 4:2, 5:19, 6:27, 7:7, 7:19; Megillah 15a; Bava Basra 27b; Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 11:4; Esther Rabbah 7:14 and 8:3; Koheles Rabbah 8:4; Tosefta Chullin 3:25; Eruvin 10:6, Bava Basra 2:5 and 3:6, Eduyos 7:3-4, Mikvaos 1:8, 5:4, 5:5, Parah 8:8; Meturgeman; Machberes Menachem.

Citation note: the article prints the Shiras HaYam pasuk once as "Ex. 14:15"; the locus is Shemos 15:14, as its own later citation has it. The article's closing discussion of Arabic astronomy (Saturn as Zachal, a proposed derivation from a pre-Islamic Meccan deity, and the parallel Arabic verb) is omitted here under house rule 9, except that Ibn Janach himself notes in Sefer HaShorashim that Arabic astrology names Saturn Zachal. This is part one of a three-part series; parts two and three are separate articles.