Pt1 Solomon, Ashmedai, and the Shamir: Demonology, Temple-Building, and the Reversal of Royal Power (Gittin 68a-b)

This is the first part of a three-part series. The outline of the series is below.

Intro

The sugya begins with a verse from Ecclesiastes (2:8): “I got myself sharim and sharot, and human pleasures, shidda and shiddot.” The sugya first parses the verse phrase by phrase, then pivots into an extended narrative about Solomon, the Temple’s construction constraints, the shamir, and the capture of Ashmedai, “king of the demons.”

The sugya then continues past the shamir episode into Solomon’s later confrontation with Ashmedai, Solomon’s deposition, and a dispute about whether Solomon ultimately returned to the throne.

Outline

Intro

Outline

The Passage - Solomon, Ashmedai, and the Shamir: Demonology, Temple-Building, and the Reversal of Royal Power (Gittin 68a-b)

Part 1

Lexical glosses and regional readings (Ecclesiastes 2:8)

1. “Sharim/sharot,” “human pleasures,” and “shidda/shiddot” - Babylon reads shidda/shiddot as male/female demons; Eretz Yisrael reads it as “carriages” - Ecclesiastes 2:8

2. R Yoḥanan - “300 kinds of demons” in Shiḥin, yet admits ignorance of what a “demon” essentially is

The Temple-building problem and the shamir (I Kings 6:7)

1. Temple construction constraint: Solomon needs a non-iron stone-cutting solution, prompting the search for the shamir - I Kings 6:7

2. First attempt: coercing demons - Solomon captures a male and female demon to extract information

3. The demons deny knowledge and refer upward to Ashmedai, king of the demons

Ashmedai’s described routine and guarded water (mountain, seal, dual study halls)

1. Ashmedai’s ascetic routine: Ashmedai is described as guarding a sealed water-pit

2. ... and alternating between a heavenly and earthly study-hall—portrayed as disciplined and “pious”

Benayahu’s mission and the controlling implements (chain, ring, name, wool, wine)

1. Benayahu’s tools of control: Solomon dispatches Benayahu with chain and ring engraved with the Divine Name (=Tetragrammaton - ‘YHWH’) plus wool and wine

2. The trap: replacing water with wine - Benayahu drains Ashmedai’s water and substitutes wine

Ashmedai’s resistance via verses, then intoxication and capture

1. Ashmedai initially resists, citing verses against intoxication

   1. (Proverbs 20:1)

   2. (Hosea 4:11)

2. ... but eventually drinks, becomes intoxicated, and falls asleep

3. Capture via the usage of the Divine Name (Tetragrammaton): Benayahu shackles Ashmedai with the chain

4. Ashmedai struggles but is warned that “The name of your Master (=God) is upon you”

Part 2

Transit to Jerusalem: destructive force, restraint, and a proverb applied

1. Destructive power and restraint - Ashmedai casually fells a palm and a house

2. Confronted by a widow’s plea, he physically bends away and breaks a bone - Prov 25:15

Five observed actions on the road (help, cry, laugh)

1. A List of Ashmedai’s 5 inexplicable acts - guides a blind man and a drunk to safety; cries at a wedding; laughs at a shoe-order for seven years; laughs at a sorcerer

The three-day delay and brick pantomime (drink more; reduce food)

1. Symbolic communication about Solomon - While delayed three days from meeting Solomon, Ashmedai uses bricks as pantomime to signal “give him more drink”

Before Solomon: the four cubits rebuke (grave allotment vs conquest)

1. Memento mori rebuke: Before Solomon, Ashmedai measures four cubits (a grave’s allotment) to rebuke imperial overreach - even world-conquest ends in a minimal burial plot

The shamir’s custodian and the hoopoe stratagem (oath, glass, theft, suicide)

1. Access to the shamir: Ashmedai says the shamir is held by the sea’s ministering angel and entrusted to the hoopoe (wild rooster/dukhifat)

2. ... who uses it to split mountains and make them habitable by seeding

3. Etiology for “cutter of mountains”

4. Solomon’s agents exploit the bird’s parental care with glass over the nest

5. ... the bird brings the shamir to crack it, they steal it, and the bird commits suicide for violating its oath

Decoding the five actions: heaven’s proclamations and hidden knowledge

1. Decoding Ashmedai’s 5 odd reactions: Ashmedai explains

   1. #1 - The blind man is proclaimed wholly righteous (helping him gains World-to-Come)

   2. #2 - The drunk is wholly wicked - helping him exhausts reward in this world

   3. #3 - The groom will die within 30 days leaving a young widow who needs to wait for levirate marriage (tragic future)

   4. #4 - The shoe-buyer has <7 days

   5. #5 - The sorcerer sits atop the royal treasury without knowing it

Part 3

Solomon’s final exchange: testing superiority, the ring, deposition, and restoration dispute

1. Solomon asks what makes demons greater than humans - Numbers 24:8

2. Ashmedai demands removal of the chain and receipt of the ring

3. once unbound, he swallows the ring, expands cosmically, and hurls Solomon 400 parasangs

4. Autobiographical lament - Ecclesiastes 1:3

5. Dispute of Rav and Shmuel - What remained in Solomon’s hand? Staff or Cloak - Ecclesiastes 2:10

6. Solomon wanders begging, repeating “I was king” - Ecclesiastes 1:12

7. ... prompting Sanhedrin suspicion, since a madman doesn’t fixate on one claim

8. They test the reigning “king” via the queens: he hides his feet (nonhuman tell) and demands sex during menstruation and from Bathsheba

9. Imposture exposed; Solomon is re-armed with ring/chain; Ashmedai flees

10. Solomon remains fearful - Song 3:7–8

11. Rav/Shmuel debate whether Solomon’s arc is “king → commoner” or “king → commoner → king,” leaving the restoration either partial or complete

Appendix - Major folkloric themes in this sugya, with comparative parallels

1. Solomonic demon-control via the Divine Name and a signet-ring

2. The “trickster capture” pattern: intoxication, substitution, and binding

3. Ascetic/“pious demon” and boundary-crossing

4. Etiology and “explaining a name”

5. Sacred construction constraint and the “non-iron” temple

6. The magical tool guarded by a nonhuman custodian; acquisition by exploiting parental care

7. Oath-keeping to the point of self-destruction

8. Memento mori as anti-imperial speech

9. Interpretive “odd acts” list and retrospective decoding

10. The changeling/impostor king and the “double on the throne”

11. Recognition tests focused on bodily markers and sexual transgression

The Passage

Gittin.68a.5-68b.20

Lexical glosses and regional readings (Ecclesiastes 2:8)

The Talmud assigns concrete referents to each clause of Ecclesiastes 2:8:

• “Sharim (שרים) and sharot”: “types of musical instruments.”

• “Human pleasures”: “pools and bathhouses.”

• “Shidda (שדה) and shiddot”: the sugya notes a disputed interpretation between Babylonia and Eretz Yisrael.

  • “Here” (Babylonia): “male demons (shidda) and female demons (shiddetin).”

  • “In the West” (Eretz Yisrael): “carriages.”¹

A further statement is attributed to R. Yoḥanan: “There were three hundred types of demons in Shiḥin,” followed immediately by a confession of ignorance: “but the female demon (‘shidda’) itself—I do not know what it is” .²

“Sharim/sharot,” “human pleasures,” and “shidda/shiddot” - Babylon reads shidda/shiddot as male/female demons; Eretz Yisrael reads it as “carriages” - Ecclesiastes 2:8

״עשיתי לי שרים ושרות

ותענוגות בני האדם,

שדה ושדות״;

§ After mentioning the spirit named kordeyakos on the previous daf the Talmud relates other matters connected to spirits and demons.

It is written: “I got myself sharim and sharot,

and human pleasures,

shidda and shiddot” (Ecclesiastes 2:8).

1. ״שרים ושרות״ –

   1. אלו מיני זמר,

2. ״ותענוגות בני האדם״ –

   1. אלו בריכות ומרחצאות,

3. ״שדה ושדות״ –

   1. הכא תרגימו: שידה ושידתין.

   2. במערבא אמרי: שידתא.

The Talmud explains:

1. “Sharim and sharot”:

   1. These are types of musical (זמר) instruments.

2. “And human pleasures”:

   1. These are pools (בריכות) and bathhouses (מרחצאות)

3. “Shidda and shiddot”:

   1. Here, in Babylonia, they interpreted these words in the following manner: Male demons [shidda] and female demons [shiddetin].

   2. In the West, Eretz Yisrael, they said that these words are referring to carriages

R Yoḥanan - “300 kinds of demons” in Shiḥin, yet admits ignorance of what a “demon” essentially is

אמר רבי יוחנן:

שלש מאות מיני שדים היו בשיחין,

ושידה עצמה איני יודע מה היא.

R’ Yoḥanan says:

There were 300 types of demons in a place named Shiḥin,

but I do not know what the form or nature of a female demon (שידה) itself is.

The Temple-building problem and the shamir (I Kings 6:7)

The sugya then asks: if Ecclesiastes is read in Babylonia as referring to male and female demons, “why was it necessary for Solomon to have them?” The answer turns to a constraint drawn from I Kings 6:7: during the Temple’s construction, “neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron” was heard in the house while it was being built. Solomon’s problem is framed as a practical question to the rabbis: how can stone be precisely cut without iron tools?³

They answer that there exists a “creature called a shamir” that cuts stone, and they tie it to an earlier Mosaic use: Moses “brought” it and used it “to cut the stones of the ephod.” Solomon asks where it is found. The rabbis advise a coercive information-gathering tactic: bring a male demon and a female demon, “torture them together,” and perhaps they will reveal the location.

Solomon follows this advice. He brings the demons and tortures them; they deny knowledge and redirect him upward in the demonic hierarchy: “Perhaps Ashmedai, king of the demons, knows.”

Temple construction constraint: Solomon needs a non-iron stone-cutting solution, prompting the search for the shamir - I Kings 6:7

אמר מר:

הכא תרגימו: שידא ושידתין.

שידה ושידתין למאי איבעי ליה?

The Master said:

Here they interpreted it: Male demons and female demons.

The Talmud asks: Why was it necessary for Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, to have male demons and female demons?

דכתיב:

״והבית בהבנותו

אבן שלמה מסע נבנה וגו׳״

אמר להו לרבנן: היכי אעביד?

אמרו ליה:

איכא שמירא

דאייתי משה לאבני אפוד.

The Talmud answers: As it is written with regard to the building of the Temple:

“For the house, when it was being built,

was built of stone made ready at the quarry;

and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built” (I Kings 6:7).

Solomon said to the rabbis: How shall I make it so that the stone will be precisely cut without using iron?

They said to him:

There is a creature called a shamir that can cut the stones,

which Moses brought and used to cut the stones of the ephod.

First attempt: coercing demons - Solomon captures a male and female demon to extract information

אמר להו: היכא אישתכח?

אמרו ליה:

אייתי שידה ושידתין

כבשינהו אהדדי,

אפשר דידעי

ומגלו לך.

Solomon said to them: Where is it found?

They said to him:

Bring a male demon and a female demon

and torture them⁴ together.

It is possible that they know where,

and due to the torture they will reveal the place to you.

The demons deny knowledge and refer upward to Ashmedai, king of the demons

אייתי שידה ושידתין

כבשינהו אהדדי,

אמרי:

אנן לא ידעינן,

דילמא אשמדאי מלכא דשידי, ידע.

Solomon brought a male demon and a female demon

and tortured them together,

and they said:

We do not know where to find the shamir.

Perhaps Ashmedai, king of the demons, knows.

Ashmedai’s described routine and guarded water (mountain, seal, dual study halls)

Solomon asks where Ashmedai is. The response locates him “on such-and-such a mountain,” where he has prepared a private water system:

• He digs a pit, fills it with water, covers it with a rock, and seals it with his seal.⁵

• He follows a strict daily cycle: “every day he ascends to Heaven and studies in the heavenly study hall”,⁶ then “descends to the earth and studies in the earthly study hall.”

• He checks the seal, uncovers the pit, drinks, covers it again, reseals it, and leaves.

Ashmedai’s ascetic routine: Ashmedai is described as guarding a sealed water-pit

אמר להו: היכא איתיה?

אמרי ליה:

איתיה בטורא פלן.

כריא ליה בירא,

ומליא ליה מיא,

ומיכסיא בטינרא,

וחתימה בגושפנקיה;

Solomon said to them: Where is Ashmedai?

They said to him:

He is on such-and-such a mountain.

He has dug a pit for himself there,

and filled it with water,

and covered it with a rock,

and sealed it with his seal.

... and alternating between a heavenly and earthly study-hall—portrayed as disciplined and “pious”

וכל יומא

• סליק לרקיעא

  • וגמר מתיבתא דרקיעא,

• ונחית לארעא

  • וגמר מתיבתא דארעא;

And every day

• he ascends to Heaven

  • and studies in the heavenly study hall

• and he descends to the earth

  • and studies in the earthly study hall.

ואתי סייר ליה לגושפנקיה

ומגלי ליה ושתי,

ומכסי ליה וחתים ליה ואזיל.

And he comes and checks his seal to ensure that nobody has entered his pit,

and then he uncovers it and drinks from the water in the pit.

And then he covers it and seals it again and goes.

Benayahu’s mission and the controlling implements (chain, ring, name, wool, wine)

Solomon dispatches Benayahu son of Jehoiada.⁷ He provides a set of tools explicitly described as having a sacred name engraved:

• A chain (שושילתא) engraved (חקיק) with a divine name.

• A ring (עזקתא) engraved with a divine name.

• Fleeces of wool⁸

• Wineskins (זיקי) of wine.

The plan is a trap using substitution: remove the guarded water and replace it with wine.

Benayahu goes to the mountain and engineers two auxiliary pits:

1. A lower pit beneath Ashmedai’s pit: he drains the water and plugs the drainage with wool, emptying Ashmedai’s supply.

2. An upper pit above Ashmedai’s pit: he pours wine so that the wine fills Ashmedai’s pit, then plugs what he dug.

He then climbs and waits in a tree.

Benayahu’s tools of control: Solomon dispatches Benayahu with chain and ring engraved with the Divine Name (=Tetragrammaton - ‘YHWH’) plus wool and wine

שדריה לבניהו בן יהוידע,

יהב ליה שושילתא דחקיק עלה שם,

ועזקתא דחקיק עלה שם,

וגבבי דעמרא,

וזיקי דחמרא.

Solomon sent for Benayahu, son of Jehoiada, a member of the royal entourage,

and gave him a chain onto which a sacred name of God (=Tetragrammaton - ‘YHWH’) was carved,

and a ring onto which a sacred name of God was carved,

and fleeces of wool

and wineskins of wine.

The trap: replacing water with wine - Benayahu drains Ashmedai’s water and substitutes wine

אזל,

כרא בירא מתתאי,

ושפינהו למיא,

וסתמינהו בגבבי דעמרא;

וכרא בירא מעילאי,

(ושפכינהו) [ושפכיה] לחמרא;

וטמינהו.

סליק יתיב באילנא

What did Benayahu do?

He went

and dug a pit lower down the mountain, below the pit dug by Ashmedai,

drained the water,

and plugged it with the fleeces of wool so that Ashmedai’s pit was emptied.

And he dug a pit higher up the mountain, above Ashmedai’s pit.

And he poured the wine into it so that the wine filled Ashmedai’s pit,

and he plugged the lower and upper pits that he dug.

He climbed up and sat in a tree.

Ashmedai’s resistance via verses, then intoxication and capture

Ashmedai arrives, checks his seal, opens the pit, and finds wine. He initially refuses to drink and cites two verses against intoxication:

• Proverbs 20:1: “Wine is a mocker… and whoever errs with it is not wise.”

• Hosea 4:11: “Fornication, wine, and new wine take away the heart.”

Despite the citations, thirst overcomes him: he drinks, becomes intoxicated, and falls asleep. Benayahu descends, throws the chain around him, and encloses him within it. Upon waking, Ashmedai struggles to remove the chain. Benayahu restrains him verbally with a repeated warning: “The name of your Master is upon you”.⁹

Ashmedai initially resists, citing verses against intoxication

כי אתא

סייריה לגושפנקא,

גלייה,

אשכחיה חמרא.

When Ashmedai came

he checked his seal,

opened the pit,

and found it to be filled with wine.

(Proverbs 20:1)

אמר:

כתיב:

״לץ היין הומה שכר,

וכל שוגה בו לא יחכם״,

He said that

it is written:

“Wine is a mocker,

strong drink is riotous;

and whosoever wallows in it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1),

(Hosea 4:11)

וכתיב:

1. ״זנות

2. ויין

3. ותירוש

יקח לב״.

and it is written:

1. “Fornication (זנות)

2. wine,

3. and new wine (תירוש)

take away the heart” (Hosea 4:11).

... but eventually drinks, becomes intoxicated, and falls asleep

לא אישתי.

כי צחי,

לא סגיא ליה;

אישתי,

רוא

וגנא.

He concluded: I will not drink this wine.

Eventually, when he became thirsty (צחי),

he was unable to resist the wine

and he drank,

became intoxicated,

and fell asleep (גנא).

Capture via the usage of the Divine Name (Tetragrammaton): Benayahu shackles Ashmedai with the chain

נחית,

אתא,

שדא ביה שושילתא,

סתמיה.

Benayahu descended from the tree,

came,

and threw the chain around Ashmedai,

and enclosed him (סתמיה) within it.

Ashmedai struggles but is warned that “The name of your Master (=God) is upon you”

כי אתער,

הוה קא מיפרזל;

אמר ליה:

שמא דמרך עלך!

שמא דמרך עלך!

When Ashmedai awoke

he struggled¹⁰ to remove the chain.

Benayahu said to him:

The name of your Master is upon you,

the name of your Master is upon you

1. Assuming that shida here means “female demon, demoness” (see Hebrew Wiktionary, “שֵׁד”, and see next note), this means that he can enumerate kinds and locales yet cannot define the essential nature or form of the female demon. However, see the next note.

2. shiddeta.

See Jastrow (modernized):

שִׁידְּתָא

= Hebrew: שִׁידָּה, chest, box.

Plural: שִׁידָּתָא.

• Gittin 68a:5 (explaining Ecclesiastes 2:8, see שִׁידָּה) - במערבא אמרי שידתא - “in Eretz Yisrael they say, shiddah v’shiddoth means chests (of all kinds)” (Rashi: שִׁידְּתָא singular a coach for women and nobles).

• [Yerushalmi Shabbat I, 4a שידתא … עבדא, read as Jerusalem Talmud Beitzah 3:2:4 top: שיירתא … עברה].

On the word shida, see Hebrew Wiktionary, “שִׁדָּה“, and see Jastrow (modernized):

שִׁידָּה

(Biblical Hebrew(?); probably from שָׁדַד = שָׂדַד to join) strong box, chest.

• Mishnah Kelim 15:1.

• Mishnah Kelim 18:1.

• Mishnah Mikvaot 6:5.

• Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 2:1:13 (referring to Jonah 3:8) - מה שהיה בכף … בשידה וכ׳ - “what robbery they had in their hands, they restored; what they had in the safe, chest, or closet they did not restore”

• and elsewhere.

Plural: שִׁידּוֹת, שִׁדִּים.

• Ibid. 4, 69a bottom of page (=Jerusalem_Talmud_Taanit.4.5.16) - שמנים שידות של וכ׳ - “eighty metal chests were in Shiḥin; but Rabbi G. said, a shiddah did not exist in our days”

• Gittin 68a:5 - שלש מאות מיני שדים … ושידה עצמה איני יודע מה היא (not ושידת) - “there were three hundred kinds of shiddim (chests) in Shiḥin, but what a shiddah really is, I do not know”; [commentaries erroneously read שֵׁידָה, שֵׁדִים].

See next entry

שֵׁידָה

demoness, see שׁד.

שֵׁידָה #2:

Aramaic same.

Plural: שׁידָתִין, שׁידָתֵי.

• Gittin 68a:8 (explaining שדה ושדות, Ecclesiastes 2:8).

• Gittin 68a:5 (explaining שדה ושדות, Ecclesiastes 2:8) - הכי תרגימו שידה ושידתין - “they translate it thus, demoness and demonesses”, i.e. all sorts of female demons;

• Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 968:1 - שדה ושדתין.

• Gittin see above - אייתי שידה ושדתין וכ׳ - “let the demons come, and press them against one another, maybe they know”

• אייתי שידה ושידתי וכ׳ - “he summoned the demons etc.”

For the full context of Jerusalem_Talmud_Taanit.4.5.16:

1. אמר רבי יוחנן: שמונים זוגים אחים כהנים נישאו לשמונים זוגות אחיות כהנות בלילה אחד בהדא גופנא.

   1. חוץ מאחים בלא אחיות.

   2. מאחיות בלא אחים.

   3. חוץ מלוים.

   4. חוץ מישראל.

2. אמר רבי יוחנן: שמונים חנויות שלאורגי פלגס היו במגדל צבעייא.

3. אמר רבי חייה בר בא: שמונים חנויות שלמוכרי טהרות היו בכפר אימרא.

4. רבי ירמיה, בשם רבי חייה בר בא: שמונים שידות שלמתכת היו בשיחין.

5. אמר רבי יניי. שידה לא היתה בימינו.

6. רבי זעורה, בשם רב חונא: אימר היא היתה קטנה שבמשמרות. והיא היתה מוציאה שמונים וחמשה אלף פירחי כהונה.

1. R’ Yoḥanan said: 80 pairs of priestly brothers married 80 pairs of priestly sisters at Gufna in one night,

   1. not counting brothers but not sisters,

   2. sisters but not brothers,

   3. not counting Levites,

   4. not counting Israel.

2. R’ Yoḥanan said: in Magdala of the dyers (מגדל צבעייא - “Dyers’ Tower”) there were 80 establishments of fustian (פלגס)

3. R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba said, 80 stores selling in purity were in Kefar Imra.

4. R’ Yeremiah in the name of Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba: 80 metal shidda were in Shiḥin.

5. R’ Yannai said: in our time was no shidda.

6. R’ Ze`ira in the name of Rav Ḥuna: Immer was the smallest of the watches (משמרות - i.e. priestly divisions), and it was producing 85,000 young priests.

3. For another Talmudic story relating to Solomon building the Temple, see my “Debating With the Temple’s Gates: The Dramatic Story of Solomon’s Temple Dedication, based on 1 Kings 8 and Psalms 24:7-10 (Shabbat 30a)“.

4. כבשינהו - literally: “press, squeeze, conquer”.

5. גושפנקיה - from Persian (ultimately related to Persian angošt - “finger”), see Hebrew Wiktionary, “גֻּשְׁפַּנְקָה”, section “גיזרון“.

See ibid., sense #1, my translation:

A stopper that seals the mouth of a receptacle

It can also broadly mean a “[royal] seal”, see sense #2 ibid.; see for example in my “Rome’s Hands, Jacob’s Voice: A Talmudic Lament Over the Destruction (Gittin 57b-58a)“, section “The Emperor’s Offer and the Son’s Retort“, where I summarize:

The emperor tries to spare the final child through a ruse: if the son merely bends down to pick up a royal seal (גושפנקא), onlookers will assume he submitted [to worshipping him].

6. מתיבתא דרקיעא - on this institution, see my initial note on “Between Heaven and Earth: The Tale of Shmuel and the Orphans’ Money (Berakhot 18b)“.

7. For another Talmudic narrative involving Solomon dispatching a servant on a journey, see my “ A man’s feet take him to the place where he is needed: The Story of the Deaths of Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, scribes of Solomon (I Kings 4:3 and Sukkah 53a)”.

8. גבבי דעמרא.

See Jastrow (modernized):

גְּבָבָא

(the preceding word) rakings, see next w.

גבבא דעמרא a ball of clipped wool.

• Bava Batra 74a:5

• Sanhedrin 110a:17 [EB - see below]

• Bamidbar Rabbah 18:20.

• Berakhot 9b:11 - בין גבבא דעמרא חיורא - “between a lump of white wool etc.”

• Berakhot 8a, see חִיזְרָא I.

Plural: גְּבָבֵי.

• Gittin 68a

This is a common material, typically used as an absorbent material, somewhat equivalent to the modern-day cotton ball, sponge, and/or dish towel. Notably, here it seems to be used as a stopper (to stop up wine).

Compare the usage of this material in these pieces of mine:

• “Pt2 The Talmudic Sugya of Remedies (Gittin 69a-b)“, section “Remedies for Nosebleed (69a, #4-7)“, sub-section “Option 4“.

• “Pt2 Wealth, Wives, and Punishment: The Story of Korah’s Rebellion Against Moses in Numbers 16 (Sanhedrin 109b-110a)“, section “Rabba bar bar Ḥana - Personally Saw Gehenna’s smoke from fissures and heard Korah’s men saying ‘Moses and His Torah are true’ “

9. Ed. Steinsaltz interprets here:

do not tear the chain. God’s name is written on this chain, and it is forbidden to destroy it.

Alternatively (and in my opinion, more likely), Benayahu wasn’t issuing a command to Ashmedai, but rather making a descriptive statement: he is simply informing Ashmedai that escape is impossible, because Ashmedai is supernaturally restrained by chains bearing the Divine Name.

10. מיפרזל.

See Jastrow (modernized):

פַּרְזֵל

(Parel of פזל) to turn, twist.

Ithpar. - אִיפַּרְזֵל to twist one’s self, to struggle.

• Gittin 68a:12 - הוה קא מִיפַּרְזֵל - “he struggled (to get rid of the chain)”