Hebrew word · H2912

טָחַן

vetachanu

to grind

To grind grain into flour, or more generally to crush fine (Exod 32:20, the golden calf ground to powder). The related nouns are the hand-mill or millstones (rechayim) and 'grinding women' (Eccl 12:3). In Job 31:10 and in rabbinic usage it can also be a euphemism for sex.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to grind, crush

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Judges 16:21

Range of meaning

To grind grain into flour, or more generally to crush fine (Exod 32:20, the golden calf ground to powder). The related nouns are the hand-mill or millstones (rechayim) and 'grinding women' (Eccl 12:3). In Job 31:10 and in rabbinic usage it can also be a euphemism for sex.

Against the English

KJV 'did grind' and BSB 'forced to grind grain' stay close to the Hebrew. WEB 'ground at the mill' (and some modern versions) can make a reader picture a large millstone turned by walking round it, which is not what Iron Age grinding looked like.

How it drifted

Later art and literature, especially Milton's 'Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves' and countless illustrations of Samson pushing a huge millstone like an ox, drew on Roman-era donkey mills. The rotary mill was a later invention and did not reach the Levant until centuries after the period of the Judges.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exodus 11:5 sets 'the slave girl who is behind the hand-mill' at the bottom of the social ladder, the opposite of Pharaoh. In Isaiah 47:2 proud Babylon is told to 'take the millstones and grind flour' as a sign of her fall into slavery. Lamentations 5:13 laments that 'young men bear the mill', which was shameful because the work belonged to women. Akkadian sources show grinding as standard labour for prisoners, including blinded ones.

Similar words

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 32:20 וַיִּטְחַ֖ן and he ground [it]

    Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 11:8 וְטָחֲנ֣וּ and they ground

    The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 9:21 טָחוֹן֙ grinding [it]

    And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 16:21 טוֹחֵ֖ן grinding

    Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

    Here: 'Grinding.' This is a participle, so after 'he was' it means continuing, day-after-day labour: 'he was a grinder'. In Israel, grinding grain on a hand-mill was the daily drudgery of women and the lowest slaves (Exod 11:5; Isa 47:2).

Job · 1

  1. Job 31:10 תִּטְחַ֣ן let her grind

    then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:3 הַטֹּֽחֲנוֹת֙ the [female] grinders

    on the day the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when those grinding cease because they are few and those watching through windows see dimly,

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 3:15 תִּטְחָ֑נוּ you grind

    Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

  2. Isaiah 47:2 וְטַ֣חֲנִי and grind

    Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

    Here: 'And grind!' Grinding grain was the most menial, exhausting, daily labour in the ancient household, given to the lowest female slave and to captives (Exod 11:5; Judg 16:21).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.