Mega Bible · parasha sheet
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הַאֲזִינוּ
Ha'azinu
Deuteronomy 32:1–52 — the Song of Moses
Mega Bible
parasha sheet
theothermatthewmiller.com

The parasha by the numbers

52
verses
616
words
340
distinct roots
11
hapax legomena

Most frequent roots

כי relative conjunction
19
לא not
16
על above
12
בן son
12
אשר who
12
עם people
10
ה' Existent
9
ארץ earth
8
צור cliff
8
הוא he
8
Averaging 11.8 words a verse, and lopsided: the song itself (32:1–43) runs to 463 words, the prose frame around it only 153. The longest verse is 32:49 at 24 words; the shortest, 32:16, has 4.

What the song calls God

ה' the Name (Hashem)
9
צוּר Rock
8
אֵל God
4
אֱלֹהִים God (plural form)
4
אֱלוֹהַּ God (poetic)
2
עֶלְיוֹן Most High
1
Six different designations in one poem, and צוּר — "rock" — is second only to the Name itself: הצור תמים פעלו, צור ישעתו, צור ילדך תשי. That concentration is what the first note below is about. The word Ha'azinu turns into a divine name is the word modern Israel turned into a national one.

Eleven words that occur nowhere else in the Bible

32:2 כִּשְׂעִירִם like rain-showers on grass
32:5 פְּתַלְתֹּל twisted, crooked
32:10 יְלֵל howling (waste)
32:14 חָמֶר foaming wine
32:15 כָּשִׂיתָ you grew gross with fat
32:18 תֶּשִׁי you neglected, forgot
32:24 מְזֵי drained, wasted (by hunger)
32:24 מְרִירִי bitter destruction
32:26 אַפְאֵיהֶם I will blow them away
32:34 כָּמֻס sealed up in store
32:35 וְשִׁלֵּם and requital
Hapax legomena, counted against the whole Tanakh: eleven of this parasha's 340 roots are used exactly once in all of Scripture, and 255 more appear only once here. The archaism runs through the grammar too: seven words carry the old poetic ־מוֹ plural ending (לָמוֹ, עָלֵימוֹ, אֱלֹהֵימוֹ, זִבְחֵימוֹ) where ordinary Hebrew would use ־הֶם. Much of the poem's difficulty is that there is nothing else to compare its words to.
Counts computed from the OSHB/WLC morphology across the full Tanakh 1 / 2

Biblical → Modern Hebrew

אבינו שבשמים, צור ישראל וגואלו, ברך את מדינת ישראל, ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו
National Library of Israel collection
FL212006723
32:4 הַצּוּר / צוּר יִשְׂרָאֵל
divine epithet “the Rock” becomes the civil-religious national formula צור ישראל

Ha’azinu makes צור “rock” a recurring name for God: הצור תמים פעלו, צור ישעתו, צור ילדך תשי. In modern Israel the epithet becomes a civil-religious formula: the 1948 Declaration of Independence closes ומתוך בטחון בצור ישראל, a phrase religious and secular signatories could each read their own way, and the Prayer for the State opens אבינו שבשמים, צור ישראל וגואלו. In everyday speech the physical “rock” is סלע; צור is literary/elevated, and צור ישראל is heard mainly as a national-liturgical name.

Attested · National Library of Israel
אבינו שבשמים, צור ישראל וגואלו, ברך את מדינת ישראל, ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו
A poster quoting the opening of the Prayer for the State of Israel (catalogued under Elections — Israel).
גבינה שמנה - גבינה כחושה תנובה
Otto Wallish for Tnuva
FL212082264
32:13 תְּנוּבֹת שָׂדָי / תְּנוּבָה
poetic “produce/yield” becomes the name of the national dairy cooperative Tnuva

וַיֹּאכַל תְּנוּבֹת שָׂדָי: תנובה is the yield or produce of the land, a rare poetic noun. Zionist agricultural Hebrew adopted it as the name of Tnuva, the cooperative that marketed the produce of Jewish farms (founded 1926), and Otto Wallish’s mid-century posters made תנובה a household brand. The common noun still exists in elevated or technical register (“yield”), but for most Israeli speakers the word now first evokes the dairy company.

Attested · National Library of Israel
גבינה שמנה - גבינה כחושה תנובה
Otto Wallish advertisement for Tnuva’s full-fat and low-fat cheeses.
חמאה מלוחה תנובה
Otto Wallish for Tnuva, 1968
FL212081970
חנות מיוחדת לבצים, חמאה וגבינה
National Library of Israel collection
FL5402406
32:14 חֶמְאַת בָּקָר / חֶמְאָה
curdled milk / cream specializes to “butter”

חמאת בקר וחלב צאן lists חמאה among the rich dairy of the land. Biblical חמאה is a cultured or curdled milk product that can be drunk: Yael, asked for water, gives Sisera milk, בספל אדירים הקריבה חמאה (Judges 5:25), and Abraham serves חמאה וחלב (Genesis 18:8). Modern Hebrew narrows חמאה to “butter,” the solid churned fat, as on Tnuva’s 1968 poster חמאה מלוחה (“salted butter”); other cultured milks get new names (לבן, יוגורט, שמנת).

Attested · National Library of Israel · 1968
חמאה מלוחה תנובה
Otto Wallish poster for Tnuva “salted butter”: חמאה is plainly butter.
Attested · National Library of Israel
חנות מיוחדת לבצים, חמאה וגבינה
A shop sign for “eggs, butter and cheese”: חמאה listed as an ordinary grocery item.

How the Levites divided it

הַאֲזִינוּ
32:1–6
63 words
זְכֹר
32:7–12
62 words
יַרְכִּבֵהוּ
32:13–18
68 words
וַיַּרְא
32:19–26
86 words
לוּלֵי
32:27–35
87 words
כִּי יָדִין
32:36–43
97 words
At the Shabbat additional offering the Levites sang Ha'azinu not all at once but one section a week, six weeks to a cycle, under the mnemonic הַזִּי"ו לָ"ךְ — the opening letter of each section (Rosh Hashanah 31a). Rav adds that the song is divided the same way in the synagogue, which is why Ha'azinu still gets six aliyot rather than seven — and the sections grow steadily longer as the poem turns from teaching to judgement, 63 words to 97.

My notes

Nothing recorded yet — the notes field is empty for every verse of Deuteronomy 32.
Modern-usage notes traced through Ma'agarim · poster scans from the National Library of Israel (מאוסף הספרייה הלאומית), used under the Library's fair-use terms 2 / 2

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