chisul and chasil

The Hebrew root חסל is familiar today primarily from the verb חִסֵּל, “to eliminate, destroy, finish off.” But its meaning has changed over time.The verb appears only once in Tanakh, in Devarim 28:38:זֶרַע רַב תּוֹצִיא הַשָּׂדֶה וּמְעַט תֶּאֱסֹף כִּי יַחְסְלֶנּוּ הָאַרְבֶּה“You will take much seed out to the field, but gather little, for the locust will consume it.”The meaning of יַחְסְלֶנּוּ is clear: the locust will consume or finish off the crop. BDB defines the verb as “finish off, consume” and compares it with Aramaic חֲסַל, “come to an end,” and the Aramaic form meaning “bring to an end.” HALOT similarly gives the basic meaning “to finish.”Moshe Held, in his essay, “Studies in Comparative Semitic Lexicography,” argues that the Hebrew and Aramaic meanings are really different uses of the same basic idea. Something can reach its end, or someone can cause it to reach its end. Money can be used up, a task can be completed, and a crop can be consumed. Hayim Tawil later adopts Held’s…