Mega Bible parasha sheet theothermatthewmiller.com
The parasha by the numbers
52
verses
616
words
340
distinct roots
11
hapax legomena
Most frequent roots
כיrelative conjunction
19
לאnot
16
עלabove
12
בןson
12
אשרwho
12
עםpeople
10
ה'Existent
9
ארץearth
8
צורcliff
8
הואhe
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
צוּרRock
8
אֵלGod
4
אֱלֹהִיםGod (plural form)
4
אֱלוֹהַּGod (poetic)
2
עֶלְיוֹןMost 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
32:2כִּשְׂעִירִםlike rain-showers on grass
32:5פְּתַלְתֹּלtwisted, crooked
32:10יְלֵלhowling (waste)
32:14חָמֶרfoaming wine
32:15כָּשִׂיתָyou grew gross with fat
32:18תֶּשִׁיyou neglected, forgot
32:24מְזֵיdrained, wasted (by hunger)
32:24מְרִירִיbitter destruction
32:26אַפְאֵיהֶםI will blow them away
32:34כָּמֻסsealed up in store
32:35וְשִׁלֵּםand 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 Tanakh1 / 2
Biblical → Modern Hebrew
National Library of Israel collection FL212006723
32:4הַצּוּר / 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).
Otto Wallish for Tnuva FL212082264
32:13תְּנוּבֹת 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.
Otto Wallish for Tnuva, 1968 FL212081970 National Library of Israel collection FL5402406
32:14חֶמְאַת 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 terms2 / 2