Pensée juive sur Josué 5:2

THE word ẓur (rock) is a homonym. First, it denotes “rock,” as “And thou shalt smite the rock” (ẓur) (Exod. 17:6). Then, “hard stone,” like the flint, e.g., “Knives of stone” (ẓurim) (Josh. 5:2). It is next employed to signify the quarry from which the stones are hewn; comp. “Look unto the rock (ẓur) whence ye are hewn” (Isa. 51:1). From this latter meaning of the term another figurative notion was subsequently derived, viz., “the root and origin” of all things. It is on this account that after the words “Look to the rock whence ye are hewn,” the Prophet continues, “Look unto Abraham your father,” from which we evidently may infer that the words “Abraham your father” serve to explain “the rock whence ye are hewn”; and that the Prophet meant to say, “Walk in his ways, put faith in his instruction, and conduct yourselves according to the rule of his life! for the properties contained in the quarry should be found again in those things which are formed and hewn out of it.”