Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

   Interestingly, the  primary meaning of the noun לחם in Arabic is 'meat'.
   There are various derivations from the meaning of the root, some related 
to 'war'.

   Uri Hurwitz



The verb 'to fight' is לחם. But it not from the same word root as the word 
for bread. There are two Hebrew roots לחם:


  1.  לחם: to fight
  2.  לחם: to eat a meal with someone (eg. Prov 23.1).

The word for bread is related to the second of these roots, but not the 
first. The two roots just happen to be homonyms but with different meanings 
(like English tease, which can mean either to make fun of, or to pull/comb 
out).

You can see when there are homonymous roots in a lexicon by the fact that 
they usually prefix a Roman numeral before the root (eg. I לחם and II לחם). 
Thus, for example, you'll notice that the root ענה has four entries.


GEORGE ATHAS
Dean of Research,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia