nature
wax
דונג · שעוה · קירא · נכאת
Bottom line
Donag is the Biblical word for wax, and it always appears as the substance that melts away in fire. Shaavah is the Mishnaic and Targumic word for the same substance, but named from the honeycomb side: beeswax, or candle wax in a halachic context. Kira (and keirosa, kiri) is wax too, but it is a Greek and Latin loan-word, not Hebrew or Aramaic, so never build a derashah on it. Nechot in the Yosef narrative is ordinarily a spice; render it wax only where you are following the Midrash.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| דונג | donag | wax | Biblical only; wax as what melts in fire; pliable like an ear lobe (Rav Hirsch), or dei-nogah, "enough light" (Steinberg) |
| שעוה | shaavah | beeswax, candle wax | Mishnaic and Targumic; pesulta d'duvsha, the refuse of honey (Shabbos 20b); root SHIN-AYIN, "smooth" |
| קירא | kira | wax | a loan-word from Greek keros / Latin cera, not native (the Gemara's keirosa, kiri) |
| נכאת | nechot | spice (Midrash: wax) | a caravan good in Bereishis 37:25 and 43:11; wax only per Bereishis Rabbah 91:11 and the Targumim |
Where the authorities disagree
What nechot is. The plain reading is a spice, usually identified as ladanum; Ibn Janach makes it carobs. Against that, Bereishis Rabbah 91:11 and Targum Yonasan and Targum Neofiti (to Bereishis 37:25 and 43:11) render it shaavah, wax.
What Onkelos says there. Rashi (to Bereishis 37:25) cites Targum Onkelos as rendering nechot as shaavah, but our editions of Onkelos read shaaf, apparently "smear" (cf. Chullin 111b). Three ways out: Ramban (to Shemos 30:34) takes Onkelos to mean olive oil; Rabbi Avraham Vilner, son of the Gra, reads the word as saaf and ties it to seif, "branch" (Yechezkel 31:8); Rabbi Yosef Teomim-Frankel (Iggros Pri Megadim) holds shaaf is simply a variant of shaavah, PEH and VAV being phonetically close, which vindicates Rashi's citation. The Bottom line follows the plain "spice" for translation and flags the Midrash, because only the Midrashic line makes it wax at all.
Where donag comes from. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 29:20) links it to tenuch, the ear lobe, DALET interchanging with TAV and GIMMEL with KAF, both being soft and pliable. Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg (Shorashei Leshon HaKodesh) reads it as a compound of dei and nogah, "enough light." Rabbi Ernest Klein leaves it of uncertain etymology. Nothing in translation turns on the choice.
Distinctions
donag (דונג)
Four times in Tanach: Michah 1:4, Tehillim 22:15, 68:3, 97:5. In every one it is wax as the thing that melts, so the word carries an image of dissolving before heat. It is absent from Mishnah and Gemara, except as the name of Rav Nachman's wife, Donag (Kiddushin 70a). The proposed derivations (Rav Hirsch, Steinberg, Klein) point respectively at pliability, light-giving, and nothing settled.
shaavah (שעוה)
The word of Mishnaic Hebrew: six times in the Mishnah, three in Shabbos (2:1, 8:4, 22:3) and three in Keilim (10:2, 17:17, 24:7); never in Tanach. Shabbos 20b defines it as pesulta d'duvsha, the refuse of honey, that is, the honeycomb left over from honey-making, so shaavah names beeswax by its origin. The two-letter root SHIN-AYIN means "smooth" (compare shua), which fits the silky feel of hardened wax. Targum renders donag in Tehillim as shaavah all three times; at Michah 1:4 it has sheieita, which Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Meturgeman) holds is a copyist's error for shaavita. Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun reads Bereishis Rabbah 85:4, which calls Shua "the candle of the city," as a pun: שוע has the letters of שעוה, the stuff the best candles are made of.
kira (קירא)
Shabbos 20b glosses the Mishnah's shaavah with keirosa, and the Gemara uses kira (Bava Metzia 40a, Berachos 56b, Shabbos 110b, 133b) and kiri (Pesachim 8a, Yevamos 76a). These look Aramaic but are borrowed from Greek keros and Latin cera. Translate them "wax" and expect no Hebrew semantics from them.
nechot (נכאת)
A trade good in the Yishmaeli caravan (Bereishis 37:25) and among the gifts Yaakov sends to the viceroy (43:11). Standard identification: a spice, ladanum; Ibn Janach: carobs. The Midrashic and Targumic line makes it wax. In 43:11 the item just before it is me'at dvash, "a little honey," which is the natural support for a beeswax reading.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "wax" absorbs donag, shaavah, and kira without remainder. Where a passage sets a Biblical verse beside a Mishnaic ruling, keep them apart by register: "wax" for donag in a pasuk, "candle wax" or "beeswax" for shaavah in a halachic line.
- A donag pasuk almost always turns on melting ("as wax melts before fire," Tehillim 68:3). Do not translate it as an inert material; the melting is the point of the image.
- Where the Gemara glosses shaavah with keirosa, it is giving a foreign equivalent, not a second Hebrew synonym; say so rather than writing "wax, that is, wax."
- Nechot: "spice" in the body, with the Midrashic "wax" in a note.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pick your Wax - Chanukah," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 19 Kislev 5781 (2020-12-05): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8953-pick-your-wax-chanukah.md. Primary loci cited: Michah 1:4; Tehillim 22:15, 68:3, 97:5; Kiddushin 70a; Rav Hirsch to Shemos 29:20; Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg, Shorashei Leshon HaKodesh (Warsaw 1897); Mishnah Shabbos 2:1, 8:4, 22:3 and Keilim 10:2, 17:17, 24:7; Shabbos 20b; Bava Metzia 40a; Berachos 56b; Shabbos 110b, 133b; Pesachim 8a; Yevamos 76a; Bereishis Rabbah 85:4 and 91:11; Bereishis 37:25, 43:11; Rashi to Bereishis 37:25; Ramban to Shemos 30:34; Chullin 111b; Yechezkel 31:8; Rema to Orach Chaim 673:1. The article's non-traditional etymologies (Even-Shoshan's Akkadian dumqu, Fleischer's Arabic danj, and a modern academic identification of nechot) are omitted here under house rule 9.