society
uncle
At a glance
In short
English "uncle" covers four relationships, but dod in Biblical Hebrew primarily means one, the father's brother; Rashi asserts that Scripture never uses dod for a mother's brother. In Shir HaShirim it seems to mean beloved.
Misaref, a hapax legomenon (Amos 6:10), is disputed. Ibn Kuraish, Ibn Janach and Radak in Sefer HaShorashim read it as the maternal uncle, and so does the Karaite Yefet ben Ali; Rabbi Klein entertains this reading ("seems to mean one's mother's brother") and then questions it. Rashi seems to take it as a generic kinsman, as do the Septuagint, the Peshitta and, seemingly, Ibn Kaspi. Targum Yonasan and Radak, in his commentary, read it as a verb of burning. Professor Gary Rendsburg, following Yechezkel Kutscher, relates it to seraf, sap or syrup, and reads "to smear with resin"; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer similarly derives it from seraf and takes it as unwanted offspring. A mother's brother in Tanach is spelled out as "his mother's brother," never misaref, and never dod.
Distinctions
Dod (דוד), dodah (דודה)
The Torah forbids marrying one's dodah because it exposes the nakedness of one's dod (Vayikra 18:14, 20:20); the Torah's wording makes clear that the Biblical prohibition is the father's brother's wife (see Toras Kohanim there), while the mother's brother's wife is forbidden by Rabbinic decree (Yevamos 21a). A father's sister or mother's sister is typically called just that, "father's sister," "mother's sister" (Vayikra 18:12 to 13, 20:19), not dodah. The one exception is Yocheved, called Amram's dodah because she was his father's sister (Shemos 6:20), and the exception holds only for the feminine dodah, never for dod.
Rashi (to Yirmiyahu 32:12) asserts that dod is never found in Scripture for a mother's brother; it always means the father's brother. Targum Onkelos (Vayikra 18:14, 20:20) renders dod as achvuhi, which Rabbi Rafael Binyamin Posen explains as a portmanteau of ach ("brother") and avohi ("his father"). The Targumic achvuh was later shortened in Talmudic Aramaic to chaviv/chabib. Rashi (to Makkos 3b) explains that Rav called Rav Chiya chabibi, "my uncle," because Rav Chiya's brother was Rav's father. The Gemara elsewhere (Sanhedrin 5a, Pesachim 4a) says that Rav Chiya's sister was Rav's mother; Rabbi David Cohen of Gvul Yaavetz and Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, the Erloi Rebbe, explain that Rashi nonetheless focuses on the brother because chaviv, the Aramaic of dod, means specifically the father's brother (a mother's brother would be misaref, Rabbi Klein adds). How both of Rav's parents could be Rav Chiya's siblings, as Rashi to Eruvin 12b and Chullin 32a and Rashbam to Bava Basra 41b note, Rabbi Klein answers that one must have been related to Rav Chiya through his mother and the other through his father, so they were not related to each other and could marry.
The semantic range of dod later expanded to "lover" or "companion," as the word seems to mean throughout Shir HaShirim. Rabbi Klein chalks that up to the regularity of marriages in which a woman married her uncle, and holds that the core sense of dod did not change; he adds, "however, see Rabbi Zev Hoberman's Zeev Yitraf, Pesach ch. 90."
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces dod/dodah to the single letter ד, "separation" or "protrusion": as a dad ("breast") protrudes from the body, a dod protrudes from the straight stem of the family tree as a separate branch.
- Rabbi Moshe Kunitz argues from Esther 2:15 ("Esther daughter of Avichayil, dod of Mordechai") that Esther was Mordechai's cousin on his father's side, since the pasuk says dod rather than misaref, and brings proof from Yevamos 54b, which limits the prohibition of one's dodah to the father's side, one's father's paternal brother's wife.
- Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad agrees that the sugya proves dod is only the paternal uncle, but notes that it does not prove that misaref is the maternal uncle.
(By Biblical law one may marry the ex-wife or widow of one's father's maternal brother, but the Rabbis forbade it, Yevamos 21a.)
Misaref (מסרף)
The word occurs once, in Amos's prophecy of destruction: "and his dod and his misarfo shall carry him and take out the bones from the house" (Amos 6:10). As a hapax it resists precise definition. The readings:
- Maternal uncle. Ibn Ezra (to Amos 6:10) cites the early grammarian Rabbi Yehuda Ibn Kuraish: dod is the paternal uncle, misaref the maternal uncle. So too Ibn Janach, Sefer HaShorashim (entry שׂ-ר-פ), and Radak's Sefer HaShorashim; the reading was also popularized in Karaite scholarship by the early Karaite commentator Yefet ben Ali. On this view dod and misaref are the two kinds of uncle. Against it: the mother's brother appears several times in Tanach (Bereishis 29:10, Shoftim 9:1, 9:3) and is always "his mother's brother(s)," never misaref, which would suggest that misaref does not mean mother's brother. Moreover, Professor Gary Rendsburg wrote to Rabbi Klein that Ibn Kuraish and Ibn Janach may have been influenced by their native Arabic, which has two words for uncle, em (paternal) and khal (maternal).
- Relative, cohort. Rashi (there) seems to explain misaref as a generic term for a relative, not a specific kinship. The Septuagint and the Peshitta translate the verse the same way, and Rabbi Yosef Ibn Kaspi also seems to follow this approach, lamenting that our understanding of Hebrew is incomplete, so that we do not know the exact relationship misaref denotes.
- A verb of burning. Targum Yonasan and Radak (to Amos 6:10) read misarfo as a verb of burning: though spelled with a samech, samech and sin often interchange, so the root is שׂ-ר-פ, to burn or incinerate. If so, this is a form of the root found nowhere else in Tanach (see also HaKsav VeHaKabbalah to Vayikra 21:11).
- From seraf, sap or resin. Professor Gary Rendsburg, following Yechezkel Kutscher, explains misarfo as a verb, "to smear with resin," relating it to Aramaic and Hebrew seraf, sap or syrup. Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer similarly proposes that misaref derives from seraf, tree sap (Orlah 1:7; see also Shabbos 26a), though that word is spelled with a sin: descendants are one's "sap," coming from one's own flesh as sap comes from within the tree, and misaref refers specifically to unwanted, wicked or wayward, offspring, who drip down from their parents almost involuntarily, as sap flows from a tree whether it wants or not. He notes that this lines up with sar'af, "branch" (Yechezkel 31), the same root with an extra ayin.
Rabbi Shimon Yehuda Leib Goldblit synthesizes readings 1 and 3: love for the maternal uncle "burns" especially strong (see the fire imagery of love in Shir HaShirim 8:6 to 7), alluded to in Chazal's saying that most children resemble the mother's brothers (Bava Basra 110a).
It has been argued that English syrup is related to seraf, but the etymologists cited by the Oxford English Dictionary derive syrup, sorbet and sherbet from Arabic sharba/sharab, "drink." In Hebrew the root ש-ר-ב means thirst or dryness (in Modern Hebrew a heat wave), the opposite of its Arabic cognate. Shoresh Yesha, by the interchange of peh and beis, connects saraf with sharav: dryness comes from heat, as burning does (see also Malbim to Yeshayahu 35:7).
Also discussed in
- Snakeשרף / saraf (ש-ר-פ, burning)
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ד-ו-ד
An uncle, the father's brother; a beloved, and love; a pot; a basket; and perhaps the דּוּדָאִים, a plant's root in the likeness of a man.
The father's brother
דּוֹד שָׁאוּל (Shmuel I 10:14), Shaul's uncle, which he glosses as אחי אביו, his father's brother; לִבְנֵי דֹֽדֵיהֶן (Bamidbar 36:11), to the sons of אחי אביהן, their father's brothers; and דֹּדָֽתְךָ הִֽוא (Vayikra 18:14), she is אשת אחי אביך, your father's brother's wife.
Whose uncle Chanamel was
לְעֵינֵי חֲנַמְאֵל דֹּדִי (Yirmiyahu 32:12), before the eyes of Chanamel my uncle, means the son of my uncle, this being the way of the Hebrews, as וְגַם אֶת־לוֹט אָחִיו (Bereishis 14:16), and also Lot his brother, means his brother's son. Or it may be that this was a different Chanamel who was his uncle and was there at the purchase, since the Chanamel who sold was the son of Shallum, and Shallum was Yirmiyahu's uncle, while the Chanamel present at the purchase was his uncle, his father's brother; and so Targum Yonasan rendered it, לְעֵינֵי חֲנַמְאֵל אַחֲבִי, before the eyes of Chanamel my father's brother.
A beloved
דּוֹדִי לי ואני לו (Shir HaShirim 2:16), my beloved is mine and I am his, which he glosses as ידידי ואהובי, my dear one and my beloved; כִּֽי־טוֹבִים דֹּדֶיךָ (Shir HaShirim 1:2), for your loves are good, אהביך וידידותיך, your loves and your endearments; and so אֶתֵּן אֶת־ דֹּדַי לָֽךְ (Shir HaShirim 7:13), I will give my love to you, and נִרְוֶה דֹדִים עַד־הַבֹּקֶר (Mishlei 7:18), let us drink our fill of love until the morning.
Pots, and baskets
בַכִּיּוֹר אוֹ בַדּוּד (Shmuel I 2:14), in the basin or in the pot; כַּפָּיו מִדּוּד תַּֽעֲבֹֽרְנָה (Tehillim 81:7), his hands passed from the pot; and וַיָּשִׂימוּ אֶת־רָֽאשֵׁיהֶם בַּדּוּדִים (Melachim II 10:7), and they put their heads in the pots. The vav takes a vowel in בַּסִּירוֹת וּבַדְּוָדִים (Divrei HaYamim II 35:13), in the cauldrons and in the pots; the sense of all of them is pots. In שְׁנֵי דּֽוּדָאֵי תְאֵנִים (Yirmiyahu 24:1), two baskets of figs, the alef is added, as the alef of לֻֽלָאֹת חֲמִשִּׁים (Shemos 36:17), fifty loops, is added, and the pasuk after it says הדּוּד אחד, the one basket, without it; their sense is baskets. וישימו את ראשיהם בדודים may likewise be בסלים, in baskets.
The mandrakes
הַֽדּוּדָאִים נָֽתְנוּ־רֵיחַ (Shir HaShirim 7:14), the dudaim gave off their scent; וַיִּמְצָא דֽוּדָאִים בַּשָּׂדֶה (Bereishis 30:14), and he found dudaim in the field; and בְּדֽוּדָאֵי בְּנִי (Bereishis 30:16), with my son's dudaim. The alef in them may be an addition, or they may be another root altogether. They are the root of a plant in the likeness of a man, male and female, called mandragores in the vernacular.
דּוֹד שָׁאוּל (שמואל א' י, יד), אחי אביו, לִבְנֵי דֹֽדֵיהֶן (במדבר לו, יא). אחי אביהן, דֹּדָֽתְךָ הִֽוא (ויקרא יח, יד), אשת אחי אביך, לְעֵינֵי חֲנַמְאֵל דֹּדִי (ירמיה לב, יב), רצונו לומר בן דודי. כי כן דרך העברים כמו שאמר וְגַם אֶת־לוֹט אָחִיו (בראשית יד, טז), רצונו לומר בן אחיו. ואפשר שהיה זה חנמאל אחר שהיה דודו והיה שם בעת המקנה כי חנמאל המוכר היה בן שלום ושלום היה דוד ירמיהו וזה חנמאל אשר היה שם בעת המקנה היה דודו אחי אביו, וכן תרגם יונתן לְעֵינֵי חֲנַמְאֵל אַחֲבִי. וענין אחר דּוֹדִי לי ואני לו (שיר השירים ב, טז), ידידי ואהובי, כִּֽי־טוֹבִים דֹּדֶיךָ (שיר השירים א, ב), אהביך וידידותיך. וכן אֶתֵּן אֶת־דֹּדַי לָֽךְ (שיר השירים ז, יג), נִרְוֶה דֹדִים עַד־הַבֹּקֶר (משלי ז, יח). וענין אחר בַכִּיּוֹר אוֹ בַדּוּד (שמואל א' ב, יד), כַּפָּיו מִדּוּד תַּֽעֲבֹֽרְנָה (תהלים פא, ז), וַיָּשִׂימוּ אֶת־רָֽאשֵׁיהֶם בַּדּוּדִים (מלכים ב' י, ז). והונעה הו"ו במלת בַּסִּירוֹת וּבַדְּוָדִים (דברי הימים ב' לה, יג), ענין הכל קדרות. שְׁנֵי דּֽוּדָאֵי תְאֵנִים (ירמיה כד, א), נוספה בו האל"ף כאל"ף לֻֽלָאֹת חֲמִשִּׁים (שמות לו, יז). וכן אמר אחריו בלא אל"ף לולות (?) חמשים. וכן אמר אחריו בלא אל"ף הדּוּד אחד ענינם סלים. וכן יתכן גם כן וישימו את ראשיהם בדודים (ירמיה כד, ב), בסלים. הַֽדּוּדָאִים נָֽתְנוּ־רֵיחַ (שיר השירים ז, יד), וַיִּמְצָא דֽוּדָאִים בַּשָּׂדֶה (בראשית ל, יד), בְּדֽוּדָאֵי בְּנִי (בראשית ל, טז), אפשר שתהיה האל"ף בהם נוספת, או הם שרש אחר. והם שרש עשב שהוא כדמות אדם זכר ונקבה מנדרגול"ש בלע"ז.
ס-ר-ף
A man's mother's brother, where the דּוֹד is his father's brother; others take the word from burning instead.
The whole entry
On וּנְשָׂאוֹ דּוֹדוֹ וּמְסָרְפוֹ (Amos 6:10), his uncle and his mesarfo shall carry him, he says that the מְסָרְפוֹ is his mother's brother, since the דּוֹד is his father's brother. Some explain it from שריפה, burning. What that comes to, Radak says, is the one who burned him, to bring the bones out of the house. Yonasan renders it וְיִטְלִנֵיהּ קְרִיבֵיהּ מִיְקֵידָא, his kinsman shall take him up out of the burning.
וּנְשָׂאוֹ דּוֹדוֹ וּמְסָֽרְפוֹ (עמוס ו, י), הוא אחי אמו כי דוֹד הוא אחי אביו וּמְסָֽרְפוֹ אחי אמו. ויש מפרשים מענין שריפה, כלומר מי ששרפו להוציא עצמים מן הבית. ויונתן תרגם וְיִטְלִנֵיהּ קְרִיבֵיהּ מִיְקֵידָא.
ש-ר-ף
To burn. The serpents called שְׂרָפִים are named for burning with their breath; the שְׂרָפִים who stand are angels of fire.
Burning
וְשָׂרַף אֶת־הַפָּרָה (Bamidbar 19:5), and he shall burn the cow. וַיִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ (Shemos 32:20), and he burned it in the fire, means that he melted the calf in the fire to undo its form, and afterwards ground it with a file, for gold does not burn but melts. וְאֶת־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת תִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵֽשׁ (Yirmiyahu 38:23), and you shall burn this city with fire, means that you will be the cause of the city's burning if you do not go out to the Kasdim, and it is as though you burned it.
The burning for kings
וּֽבְמִשְׂרְפוֹת אֲבוֹתֶיךָ (Yirmiyahu 34:5), and as with the burnings of your fathers, is the burning for kings of their bed and the vessels they used. So Chazal say (Sanhedrin 52b) that one burns for kings and it is not of the ways of the Emori, and that what is burnt for them is their bed and the vessels they used. Some explain the burning as a burning of incense, made for the dead so that the flesh should not stink, as it is written, וַיַּשְׁכִּיבֻהוּ בַּמִּשְׁכָּב אֲשֶׁר מִלֵּא בְּשָׂמִים (Divrei HaYamim II 16:14), and they laid him on the bed which he had filled with spices, and then וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ ־לוֹ שְׂרֵפָה גְּדוֹלָה, and they burned for him a great burning; and so וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ אֹתָם שָֽׁם (Shmuel I 31:12), and they burned them there. That last, Radak writes, can also be read of burning the flesh: since days had passed, the flesh had perhaps bred worms, and they would not bury them so, with the worms, but burned the flesh and afterwards buried the bones, as it is written, וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת־עַצְמֹתֵיהֶם וַיִּקְבְּרוּ (Shmuel I 31:13), and they took their bones and buried them.
מְסָרְפוֹ, written with a samech
Some explain וּנְשָׂאוֹ דּוֹדוֹ וּמְסָֽרְפוֹ (Amos 6:10) as of this sense, and his uncle and the one who burns him shall carry him, although it is written with a samech. Radak has already written of it under the samech.
Misrefos Mayim
מִשְׂרְפוֹת מַיִם (Yehoshua 11:8), Misrefos Mayim, is a place so called because its waters sprang up hot, like the hot springs of Teveria and others. Targum Yonasan renders it חַרְצֵי יַמָא, trenches of the sea; these, Radak explains, are trenches dug and filled with water drawn from the sea, which the sun burns until it turns to salt.
The burning serpent
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ שָׂרָף (Bamidbar 21:8), make yourself a burning serpent, and הַנְּחָשִׁים הַשְּׂרָפִים (Bamidbar 21:6), the burning serpents, are named so because they burn with the breath of their mouth. שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵֽף (Yeshayahu 14:29), a flying serpent: it is said that serpents are found in the land of Kush that have wings and fly with them; or מְעוֹפֵֽף means leaping far off, as though it were a bird.
Angels of fire
שְׂרָפִים עֹֽמְדִים (Yeshayahu 6:2), serafim standing, are מלאכי אש, angels of fire.
אֲשֶׁר שָׂרַף י"י (ויקרא י, ו), וְשָׂרַף אֶת־הַפָּרָה (במדבר יט, ה), עַל־פִּרְשָׁהּ יִשְׂרֹֽף (שם). וַיִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ (שמות לב, כ), פירוש התיך העגל באש לבטל צורתו ואחר כך טחנו בפצירה פים, כי הזהב לא ישרף אבל יותך. וְאֶת־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת תִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵֽשׁ (ירמיה לח, כג), פירוש אתה תהיה גורם שתהיה נשרפת העיר אם לא תצא אל הכשדים, וכאלו אתה שורף אותה. וְהִנֵּה שְׂרוּפָה בָּאֵשׁ (שמואל א' ל, ג), עָרֵיכֶם שְׂרֻפוֹת אֵשׁ (ישעיה א, ז). וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ־לוֹ שְׂרֵפָה גְּדוֹלָה עַד־לִמְאֹֽד (דברי הימים ב' טו, יד), וּֽבְמִשְׂרְפוֹת אֲבוֹתֶיךָ הַמְּלָכִים הָרִֽאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר־הָיוּ לְפָנֶיךָ כֵּן יִשְׂרְפוּ־לָךְ (ירמיה לד, ה), הוא ששורפין על המלכים מטתן וכלי תשמישין. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (סנהדרין נב, ע"ב) שורפין על המלכים ולא מדרכי האמורי שנאמר בשלום תמות ובמשרפות אבותיך וגו' מכאן ששורפים על המלכים. ומה הן שורפין עליהן? מטתן וכלי תשמישן. ויש מפרשים השרפה לשון הקטרה יעשו למת כדי שלא יסריח בשרו. וכן כתוב וַיַּשְׁכִּיבֻהוּ בַּמִּשְׁכָּב אֲשֶׁר מִלֵּא בְּשָׂמִים וּזְנִים מְרֻקָּחִים בְּמִרְקַחַת מַֽעֲשֶׂה וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ־לוֹ שְׂרֵפָה גְּדוֹלָה וגו' (דברי הימים ב' טז, יד), וכן וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ אֹתָם שָֽׁם (שמואל א' לא, יב). ויש לפרש וישרפו אותם שם ששרפו הבשר. ולפי שנשתהו ימים אולי העלה הבשר רמה ולא רצו לקברם כן עם התולעים ושרפו הבשר ואחרי כן קברו העצמות. וכן כתוב (שם יג) וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת־עַצְמֹתֵיהֶם וַיִּקְבְּרוּ וגו'. לְבִלְתִּי שְׂרֹף אֶת־הַמְּגִלָּה (ירמיה לו, כה). והשם הַשְּׂרֵפָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂרַף י"י (ויקרא י, ו), אֶל־תּוֹךְ שְׂרֵפַת הַפָּרָֽה (במדבר יט, ו). ומשקל אחר וְהָיוּ עַמִּים מִשְׂרְפוֹת שִׂיד (ישעיה לג, יב), וּֽבְמִשְׂרְפוֹת אֲבוֹתֶיךָ (ירמיה לד, ה). והתאר גָּפְרִית וָמֶלַח שְׂרֵפָה כָל־אַרְצָהּ (דברים כט, כב), פירוש בגפרית ומלח תהיה שרפה כל ארצה. ושלא נזכר פועלו מהדגוש [פֻּעַל] וְהִנֵּה שׂרָף (ויקרא י, טז). והנפעל שָׂרוֹף יִשָּֽׂרְפוּ (שמואל ב' כג, ז), וְהָעִיר הַזֹּאת לֹא תִשָּׂרֵף בָּאֵשׁ (ירמיה לח, יז). ויש מפרשים מזה הענין וּנְשָׂאוֹ דּוֹדוֹ וּמְסָֽרְפוֹ (עמוס ו, י), ואף על פי שנכתב בסמ"ך וכבר כתבנוהו באות הסמ"ך. מִשְׂרְפוֹת מַיִם (יהושע יא, ח), נקרא כן המקום לפי שהיו מימיו נובעין חמין כחמי טבריה וזולתם. ויונתן תרגם חַרְצֵי יַמָא. והוא שעושין חריצין וממשיכין לתוכן מים מן הים והחמה שורפתם והם נעשות מלח שלינ"ש בלע"ז. עֲשֵׂה לְךָ שָׂרָף (במדבר כא, ח), הַנְּחָשִׁים הַשְּׂרָפִים (שם ו), נקראו כן לפי שהן שורפין בהבל פיהם. שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵֽף (ישעיה יד, כט), אומרים כי יש נחשים ימצאו בארץ כוש יש להם כנפים ויעופו בהם. או פירוש מעופף מדלג למרחוק וכאילו הוא עוף. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (שבת כו, ע"א) אין מדליקים בצרי מפני שהוא עף, פירוש נע מן הנר ונרתז הנה והגה. שְׂרָפִים עֹֽמְדִים (שבת ו, ב), מלאכי אש.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Say Uncle," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 24 April 2021.
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 29:10; Shemos 6:20; Vayikra 18:12 to 14, 20:19 to 20 and Toras Kohanim there; Vayikra 21:11 (HaKsav VeHaKabbalah); Shoftim 9:1, 9:3; Yeshayahu 35:7 (Malbim); Yirmiyahu 32:12 (Rashi); Yechezkel 31; Amos 6:10 (Ibn Ezra citing Rabbi Yehuda Ibn Kuraish, Rashi, Radak, Targum Yonasan); Shir HaShirim 8:6 to 7; Esther 2:15; Targum Onkelos to Vayikra 18:14, 20:20; Yevamos 21a, 54b; Makkos 3b (Rashi); Sanhedrin 5a; Pesachim 4a; Rashi to Eruvin 12b and Chullin 32a; Rashbam to Bava Basra 41b; Bava Basra 110a; Orlah 1:7; Shabbos 26a; Ibn Janach, Sefer HaShorashim (entry שׂ-ר-פ); Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi Rafael Binyamin Posen; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo s.v. דד; Rabbi Moshe Kunitz; Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad; Rabbi David Cohen of Gvul Yaavetz; Rabbi Yochanan Sofer; Rabbi Yosef Ibn Kaspi; Rabbi Shimon Yehuda Leib Goldblit, Leshon Chachamim (מערכת ס, ערך סרף-דוד); Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer, Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim s.v. דוד/דודן/סרף; Rabbi Zev Hoberman, Zeev Yitraf, Pesach ch. 90; the Septuagint and Peshitta to Amos 6:10; Yefet ben Ali; Professor Gary Rendsburg (correspondence with the author) and Yechezkel Kutscher; Shoresh Yesha; the Oxford English Dictionary on syrup.