Pt2 ‘Due to Sin [X], Occurs [Y]’: Divine Justice and Human Responsibility for Suffering and Death (Shabbat 32b-33a)

Appendix 1 - Child Cannibalism in Classical Jewish Sources

This is the second part of a three-part series. Part 1 is here; the outline for the series can be found there.

Debates on the Divine Causes of Children's Premature Deaths: Vows, Neglect of Torah Study (Bitul Torah), Mezuza, and Tzitzit (Jeremiah 2:34)

The Talmud discusses which sins cause young children to die. The passage presents multiple opinions, attributing child mortality to various religious infractions, primarily related to vows, Torah study, and mitzvot like mezuza and tzitzit.

• R' Elazar ben Shimon: Attributes it to the sins related to vows (as in previous sections).

• R' Yehuda HaNasi: Attributes it to neglecting Torah study.¹

• R' Ḥiyya bar Abba & R' Yosei: One attributes it to failing to affix a mezuza, the other to neglecting Torah study.

• R' Meir & R' Yehuda: One attributes it to the sin of mezuza, the other to not wearing ritual fringes (tzitzit).

תנו רבנן:

בעון נדרים בנים מתים, דברי רבי אלעזר ברבי שמעון.

רבי יהודה הנשיא אומר: בעון ביטול תורה.

[...]

פליגי בה רבי חייא בר אבא ורבי יוסי:

חד אמר: בעון מזוזה.

וחד אמר: בעון ביטול תורה.

[...]

פליגי בה רבי מאיר ורבי יהודה:

חד אמר: בעון מזוזה,

וחד אמר: בעון ציצית.

[...]

In order to clarify which sins cause one’s young children to die, the Gemara cites what the Sages taught in a baraita:

For the sin of vows, one’s children die, this is the statement of R' Elazar, son of R' Shimon.

R' Yehuda HaNasi says: For the sin of dereliction in the study of Torah.

[...]

On the same topic, R' Ḥiyya bar Abba and R' Yosei disagree.

One said that children die due to the sin of not affixing a mezuza to one’s doorpost.

And one said children die due to the sin of dereliction in the study of Torah.

[...]

The tanna’im R' Meir and R' Yehuda also disagreed about this.

One said: Children die due to the sin of mezuza,

and one said children die due to the sin of not affixing ritual fringes.

[...]

Divine Consequence of Baseless Hatred (Sinat Hinam) is Domestic strife, miscarriages, and early death of children

R' Neḥemya teaches in a baraita that the sin of “baseless hatred”² leads to severe consequences: discord³ within one's home, miscarriages, and the premature death of one's children.

תניא,

רבי נחמיה אומר:

בעון שנאת חנם --

1. מריבה רבה בתוך ביתו של אדם,

2. ואשתו מפלת נפלים,

3. ובניו ובנותיו של אדם מתים כשהן קטנים.

It was taught in a baraita,

R' Neḥemya says:

Due to the sin of gratuitous hatred that one has for another, the punishment is

1. great discord within a person’s home,

2. and his wife miscarries,

3. and his sons and daughters die when they are young.

Consequence for the failure to separate Ḥallah is Financial curses and famine (Leviticus 26:16)

R' Elazar ben Yehuda states that failing to separate ḥalla (mentioned earlier) results in misfortune: grain stores (מכונס) lack blessing, crop prices (שערים) rise, and others consume what one has sown.

He supports this by homiletically reading “behala” (terror) in Leviticus 26 (the Tokhakha, the section of curses for disobedience - specifically Leviticus 26:16) as “beḥalla”, linking the curses to neglecting ḥalla.

רבי אלעזר ברבי יהודה אומר:

בעון חלה --

1. אין ברכה במכונס,

2. ומארה משתלחת בשערים,

3. וזורעין זרעים ואחרים אוכלין,

שנאמר:

״אף אני אעשה זאת לכם:

והפקדתי עליכם בהלה

את השחפת, ואת הקדחת

מכלות עינים, ומדיבות נפש

וזרעתם לריק זרעכם, ואכלהו אויביכם״.

אל תקרי ״בהלה״ אלא ״בחלה״.

[...]

R' Elazar, son of R' Yehuda, said:

Due to the sin of failure to separate ḥalla from the dough,

1. no blessing takes effect on the grain gathered in the storehouse

2. and a curse spreads to the prices of crops, which increase,

3. and they plant seeds and others eat their yield,

as it is stated:

“I also will do this unto you:

I will appoint terror [behala] over you,

even consumption and fever,

that shall make the eyes to fail and the soul to languish;

and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it” (Leviticus 26:16).

Do not read it behala; rather, read it as beḥalla. Due to negligence in the separation of ḥalla from the dough, these punishments come.

[...]

Consequence for the failure to give tithes is Drought and economic hardship (Job 24:19)

Failure to give terumot and tithes causes drought,⁴ financial hardship,⁵ and unsuccessful efforts to earn a livelihood (פרנסתן).

This is derived from Job 24:19, which the school of R' Yishmael (בי רבי ישמעאל) interprets to mean that neglecting summer (ימות החמה) tithes leads to a loss of rain in winter (ימות הגשמים).

בעון ביטול תרומות ומעשרות --

1. שמים נעצרין מלהוריד טל ומטר,

2. והיוקר הוה,

3. והשכר אבד,

4. ובני אדם רצין אחר פרנסתן, ואין מגיעין,

שנאמר:

״ציה גם חום יגזלו מימי שלג

שאול חטאו״.

מאי משמע?

תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל:

בשביל דברים שצויתי אתכם בימות החמה, ולא עשיתם,

יגזלו מכם מימי שלג בימות הגשמים.

[...]

They also said: Due to the sin of abrogation of terumot and tithes,

1. the heavens are prevented from pouring down dew and rain,

2. and expense prevails,

3. and profit is lost,

4. and people pursue their livelihood but do not attain it,

as it is stated:

“Drought and heat consume the snow waters;

so does the netherworld those that have sinned” (Job 24:19).

The Gemara asks: What is the inference? How is that concept derived from this verse?

The school of R' Yishmael taught that it should be explained as follows:

Due to the things that I commanded you during the summer, separating terumot and tithes from the summer crops, and you did not do them,

the snow waters will be robbed from you during the rainy season.

[...]

Divine Consequences of Robbery

Prooftext 1: Locusts, famine, and parents consuming their children (Amos 4:1,6)

Robbery (גזל) leads to devastating consequences: locusts (גובאי), famine (רעב), and even parents consuming their own children.⁶

The proof comes from Amos 4:1, where wealthy oppressors in Bashan and Samaria⁷ are condemned (followed by Amos 4:6, which describes famine).

Rava illustrates (כגון) the “cows of Bashan” with the rich and indulgent women of Meḥoza, “who eat and don’t work”.⁸

בעון גזל --

1. הגובאי עולה,

2. והרעב הווה,

3. ובני אדם אוכלים בשר בניהן ובנותיהן,

שנאמר:

״שמעו הדבר הזה,

פרות הבשן, אשר בהר שומרון

העושקות דלים, הרוצצות אביונים״.

אמר רבא:

כגון הני נשי דמחוזא,

דאכלן ולא עבדן.

Due to the sin of robbery,

1. locusts emerge,

2. and famine prevails,

3. and people eat the flesh of their sons and daughters,

as it is stated:

“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria,

that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords: Bring, that we may feast” (Amos 4:1).

Afterward it says: “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places” (Amos 4:6), which refers to famine.

Rava said:

The cows of Bashan; like those women of the city of Meḥoza,

who eat and do nothing to support themselves, and cause their husbands to commit the sin of theft.

Prooftext 2: Agricultural Devastation (Amos 4:9)

Amos 4:9 describes divine punishment on all forms of crops⁹ through blight (שדפון), mildew (ירקון), and the destruction of crops by the “gazam”.¹⁰

וכתיב:

״הכיתי אתכם בשדפון ובירקון

הרבות

1. גנותיכם

2. וכרמיכם

3. ותאניכם

4. וזיתיכם

יאכל הגזם״

And it is written:

“I have smitten you with blight and mildew;

the multitude of

1. your gardens

2. and your vineyards

3. and your fig trees

4. and your olive trees

has the palmerworm devoured” (Amos 4:9).

Prooftext 3: Sequential Plagues of Locusts (Joel 1:4)

Joel 1:4¹¹ details a worsening cycle of destruction, where successive waves of locusts consume the crops that remain after the previous infestation:

1. “Gazam”¹²

2. Locust (אַרְבֶּה)¹³

3. “Yelek” (ילק)

4. “Ḥasil” (חסיל)

וכתיב:

1. ״יתר הגזם אכל הארבה

2. ויתר הארבה אכל הילק

3. ויתר הילק אכל החסיל״.

And it is written:

1. “That which the palmerworm has left the locust has eaten;

2. and that which the locust has left the cankerworm has eaten;

3. and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten” (Joel 1:4).

Prooftext 4: Famine, Desperation, and Cannibalism (Isaiah 9:19)

Isaiah 9:19 depicts extreme hunger, where people seize food but remain unsatisfied.

The phrase "the flesh of his own arm (זרועו)" (=autocannibalism) is homiletically (via wordplay) read to state "the flesh of his own offspring (זרעו)”.¹⁴

וכתיב:

״ויגזור על ימין, ורעב

ויאכל על שמאל, ולא שבעו

איש בשר זרועו יאכלו״

אל תקרי ״בשר זרועו״, אלא ״בשר זרעו״.

And it is written:

“And one snatches on the right hand, and is hungry;

and he eats on the left hand, and is not satisfied;

they eat every man the flesh of his own arm [besar zero’o]” (Isaiah 9:19).

Do not read it: The flesh of his own arm [besar zero’o]; rather, the flesh of his own offspring [besar zaro]. All the punishments for theft listed above were explicitly mentioned in the verses.

Appendix 1 - Child Cannibalism in Classical Jewish Sources

See Wikipedia, “Child cannibalism”:

Child cannibalism or fetal cannibalism is the act of eating a child or fetus. Children who are eaten or at risk of being eaten are a recurrent topic in myths, legends, and folktales from many parts of the world.

False accusations of the murder and consumption of children were made repeatedly against minorities and groups considered suspicious, especially against Jews as part of blood libel accusations.

Actual cases of child cannibalism have been documented, especially during severe famines in various parts of the world.

Cannibalism sometimes also followed infanticide, the killing of unwanted infants […]

Children who are eaten or at risk of being eaten are a recurrent topic in mythology and folktales from many parts of the world […]

In Greek mythology, several of the major gods were actually eaten as children by their own father or just barely escaped such a fate […]

Other Greek myths tell of children killed and served to their clueless parents in an act of revenge […]

The (actual or attempted) consumption of children is a topic of many European folk and fairy tales […]

Since the 12th century, Jews were repeatedly accused of murdering children in order to use their blood in religious rituals.

Often this antisemitic canard included the charge that the blood was used for the baking of matzah eaten during Passover.

In Muslim countries, such blood libels are still sometimes repeated in the 21st century.

During the witch-hunts in the early modern period, women suspected of witchcraft were repeatedly charged with killing, roasting, and eating babies in Satanic rituals

Stories of women eating their children during the destruction of the Temple appears in multiple classical Jewish sources, including the Bible, Josephus' The Jewish War, and the Talmud.

See Wikipedia, ibid., section “Bible episodes and Christian legends“:

The Bible contains several episodes of children being eaten by their own mothers and sometimes fathers during severe famines.

Possibly the most well known of them is about two women who made a survival pact during a siege of Samaria: "first they will kill and eat one woman's son, then the other's".

After the first child had been eaten, however, the second mother hid her own son, prompting the first woman to appeal to the king that he make the other woman keep her part of the bargain.

The king, much dismayed at the state into which the population had fallen, "tore his clothes" rather than responding to the woman's request.

The story appears in II_Kings.6.24-29, where Ben-Hadad besieges Samaria (6:24–33) in mid-9th century BCE:

ויהי אחרי־כן ויקבץ בן־הדד מלך־ארם את־כל־מחנהו

ויעל ויצר על־שמרון

Sometime later, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army

And marched upon Samaria and besieged it.

ויהי רעב גדול בשמרון

והנה צרים עליה

עד היות ראש־חמור בשמנים כסף

ורבע הקב (חרי) [דב־]יונים בחמשה־כסף

[…]

There was a great famine in Samaria,

and the siege continued

until a donkey’s head sold for eighty [shekels] of silver

and a quarter of a kab of doves’ dung for five shekels.

[… ]

ויאמר־לה המלך מה־לך

ותאמר

האשה הזאת אמרה אלי

תני את־בנך ונאכלנו היום

ואת־בני נאכל מחר

what troubles you?” the king asked her.

The woman answered,

“That woman said to me,

‘Give up your son and we will eat him today;

and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’

ונבשל את־בני ונאכלהו

ואמר אליה ביום האחר

תני את־בנך ונאכלנו

ותחבא את־בנה

So we cooked my son and we ate him.

The next day I said to her,

‘Give up your son and let’s eat him’;

but she hid her son.”

Biblical Source (Deuteronomy and Lamentations)

The concept of extreme famine leading to cannibalism is predicted in Deuteronomy 28:53-57 (=the Tochacha) as part of the curses for disobedience. See Deuteronomy.28.53-57:

ואכלת פרי־בטנך

בשר בניך ובנתיך

אשר נתן־לך יהוה אלהיך

במצור ובמצוק אשר־יציק לך איבך

you shall eat your own issue,

the flesh of your sons and daughters

that your God יהוה has assigned to you,

because of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you.

האיש הרך בך והענג מאד

תרע עינו באחיו ובאשת חיקו וביתר בניו אשר יותיר

The householder who is most tender and fastidious among you

shall be too mean to his brother and the wife of his bosom and the children he has spared

מתת  לאחד מהם מבשר בניו אשר יאכל

מבלי השאיר־לו כל במצור ובמצוק

אשר יציק לך איבך בכל־שעריך

to share with any of them the flesh of the children that he eats,

because he has nothing else left as a result of the desperate straits

to which your enemy shall reduce you in all your towns.

הרכה בך והענגה

אשר לא־נסתה כף־רגלה הצג על־הארץ מהתענג ומרך

תרע עינה באיש חיקה ובבנה ובבתה

And she who is most tender and dainty among you,

so tender and dainty that she would never venture to set a foot on the ground,

shall begrudge the husband of her bosom, and her son and her daughter,

ובשליתה היוצת  מבין רגליה

ובבניה אשר תלד

כי־תאכלם בחסר־כל, בסתר

במצור ובמצוק

אשר יציק לך איבך בשעריך

the afterbirth that issues from between her legs

and the babies she bears;

she shall eat them secretly, because of utter want,

in the desperate straits

to which your enemy shall reduce you in your towns.

Later, Lamentations 4:10 laments that compassionate women have boiled their own children due to starvation during the Bablynian siege of Jerusalem, at the time of the Destrucion of the First Temple in 586 BCE:

ידי נשים רחמניות

בשלו ילדיהן

היו לברות למו

בשבר בת־עמי

With their own hands, tenderhearted women
Have cooked their children;
Such became their fare,
In the disaster of my poor people.

And in Lamentations.2.20:

אם־תאכלנה נשים פרים

עללי טפחים
Alas, women eat their own fruit,
Their new-born babes!

Josephus’ Account

Josephus, in The Jewish War (6.201-213, and here), tells the gruesome story of Mary of Bethezuba (Josephus notes that “the name means ‘House of Hyssop’ “ - בית אזובא - presumably it’s the name of a town that she or her familly was from), a wealthy woman who was trapped in Jerusalem during the Roman siege. Starving and desperate, she killed, roasted, and ate her own child.

See one scholarly discussion in Mo Pareles, “Cannibal Maria in the Siege of Jerusalem: New approaches“ (2003):

This essay traces the far-reaching legend of Maria/Miriam of Bethezuba, sometimes called Mary, Marie, or Marion, a starving Jewish woman who (according to Flavius Josephus's The Jewish War) ate her own baby during the 70 CE Roman Siege of Jerusalem.

This episode of maternal infanticide and cannibalism under occupation is the culmination of Biblical curses and prophecies […]

The Cannibal Mary episode, as it is sometimes called in English, originates in book six of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus's Greek-language The Jewish War (Bellum Judaicum), the only eye-witness chronicle of the end of the Second Temple period.

Josephus, a former rebel commander who had surrendered to the Roman Empire and become a Roman citizen, describes the Roman imperial occupation of Palestine, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the fall of Jerusalem as divinely ordained punishments for his people's impiety.

According to Josephus, Maria is a wealthy single Jewish mother from provincial Bethezuba caught in the enforced famine and mass death of the 70 CE Siege of Jerusalem. After being robbed and raided by Jewish insurgents, she starves to the point that she wishes to die. Finally, she eats her own son, a nursing infant, publicizing this act and offering to share her meal with the combatants.

This central episode, so effective that it shames some of the insurgents and provokes Titus into a frenzy of pity and horrified determination, not only takes inspiration from secular Greek and Roman literary tropes […]; it also fulfills Hebrew Biblical curses.

Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Ezekiel all foresee times of famine when, brought low by disobedience and wrongdoing, some portion of the people Israel will starve to the point that they will eat their children.

And according to Lamentations and to later rabbinical writings, the curse is not, or not merely, figurative: mothers had already been driven to such extremity during the 586 BCE Siege of Jerusalem: “With their own hands, tenderhearted women/Have cooked their children” (יְדֵי נָשִׁים רַחֲמָנִיּוֹת בִּשְּׁלוּ יַלְדֵיהֶן; Lamentations 4:10 […])

Talmudic Story (Yoma 38b)

The Talmud also mentions such an event in Yoma.38b.4-5, at the time of the Roman siege of Jerusalem that culminated with the Desctrucion of the Second Temple in 70 CE, where it’s connected with the prophecy in Lamentations.

The incident is with a child named “Doeg, son of Joseph“ (Doeg is a biblical name, meaning “worry”) . In the late Second Temple era Doeg ben Yosef’s father died, leaving him to be raised by his mother.

She cherished him greatly and, as he grew, measured his height in handbreadths (טפחים), donating an equivalent weight in gold to the Temple (hekdesh).

However, when the famine struck as Romans besieged the city, she was ultimately driven to slaughter (טבחתו) and eat the child.

This event is homiletically said to have been lamented (קונן) by the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before, when he asked, “Shall the women eat their fruit, their children in their care?” (Lamentations 2:20).¹⁵

The full talmudic passage states:¹⁶

מעשה בדואג בן יוסף,

שהניחו [אביו] בן קטן לאמו.

בכל יום היתה אמו מודדתו בטפחים

ונותנת משקלו של זהב לבית המקדש,

וכשגבר אויב,

טבחתו ואכלתו.

ועליה קונן ירמיה:

״אם תאכלנה נשים פרים,

עוללי טפוחים״,

an incident that transpired during the Second Temple era. There was an incident involving Doeg ben Yosef,

whose father died and left him as a young child to his mother, who loved him.

Each day his mother measured his height in handbreadths

and donated a measure of gold equivalent to the weight that he gained to the Temple.

Later, when the enemy prevailed and there was a terrible famine in the city,

she slaughtered and ate him.

And with regard to her and others like her Jeremiah lamented:

“Shall the women eat their fruit,

their children in their care [tipuḥim]?” (Lamentations 2:20).

The Gemara interprets the term tipuḥim homiletically as referring to this baby, who was measured in handbreadths [tefaḥim]. Even he was eaten by his mother.

1. ביטול תורה.

On this sin, a major talmudic trope, see Hebrew Wikipedia, ביטול תורה, my translation:

In [rabbinic] Judaism, bitul Torah refers to the neglect of Torah study without a justified reason, despite the commandment of Torah study, about which it is said: "This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate upon it day and night" (Joshua 1:8) [...]

The entry then cites a number of examples from the Talmud on the severity of this sin::

[Suffering as a Consequence of Neglecting Torah Study]
”Rava, and some say Rav Ḥisda, said: If a person sees that suffering is befalling him, he should examine his deeds, as it is stated: “Let us search and examine our ways, and return to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:40). If he examined and found no sin, he should attribute it to bitul Torah (neglect of Torah study), as it is stated: “Blessed is the man whom You discipline, O Lord, and teach from Your Torah” (Psalms 94:12)” [...]

[Neglecting Torah for Idle Talk]
”Yosei ben Yoḥanan of Jerusalem, says: Let your house be open wide, and let the poor be members of your household. And do not engage in excessive conversation with a woman. This was said concerning one’s own wife—how much more so with another man’s wife! From here, the sages said: Anyone who engages in excessive conversation with a woman causes harm to himself, neglects (בטל) words of Torah, and in the end will inherit Gehenna.”

[Neglect of Torah as a Cause of Destruction]
”Due to the sins of perverting justice, corrupting judgment, distorting legal rulings, and neglecting Torah study, destruction, plunder, plague, and famine come upon the world. People will eat and not be satisfied, and they will eat their bread by weight, as it is written: “And I will bring upon you a sword avenging the vengeance of the covenant” “(Leviticus 26:25).

[Punishment for Not Engaging in Torah Study]
”Anyone who is able to engage in Torah study but does not, God brings upon him degrading and afflictive sufferings, as it is stated: “I was mute with silence; I kept silent from good, but my pain was stirred” (Psalms 39:3) — and "good" refers to Torah.”

2. שנאת חנם.

This idiom is biblical, see Psalms.35.19 (and same expression in Psalms.69.5):

אל־ישמחו־לי איבי שקר

שנאי חנם יקרצו־עין

Let not my treacherous enemies rejoice over me,

or those who hate me without reason (שנאי חנם) wink their eyes.

On this term in talmudic literature, see Hebrew Wikipedia שנאת חינם, my translation:

"Baseless hatred" is a term originating in [rabbinic] Judaism, expressing irrational hatred in which a person hates another individual or group without any valid reason, as opposed to hatred directed toward a sinner, whom one is commanded to hate.

The first mention of the concept of baseless hatred (sinat chinam) appears in the Talmud, where it is stated that the Second Temple was destroyed due to the baseless hatred that existed in that generation, despite their observance of other commandments:

"The Second Temple, during which people engaged in Torah study, mitzvot, and acts of kindness—why was it destroyed? Because there was baseless hatred among them!"
— Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b

The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza in Tractate Gittin illustrates this kind of unjustified hatred. In the story, a man mistakenly invited to an event hosted by his enemy was publicly humiliated and expelled, despite offering to pay for the entire event, demonstrating an instance of hatred without justification [...]

The term baseless hatred also appears in the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat (=our sugya), where Rashi interprets it as follows:

"Baseless hatred—when one has not seen any transgression in the person that would justify hating them, yet they hate them nonetheless."
— Rashi, Tractate Shabbat 32b

3. מריבה - “quarreling, arguments”. The phrase used here - מריבה רבה - may be based on Numbers.20.13:

המה מי מריבה

אשר־רבו בני־ישראל את־יהוה

Those are the Waters of Meribah (מריבה )

that the Israelites quarrelled (רבו ) with YHWH

4. שמים נעצרין מלהוריד טל ומטר - literally: “the heavens are blocked from lowering dew and rain“.

The phrase “dew and rain” (טל ומטר) is biblical, see I_Kings.17.1:

אם־יהיה השנים האלה טל ומטר

כי אם־לפי דברי

there will be no dew or rain (טל ומטר)

except at my bidding.

5. והיוקר הוה, והשכר אבד - literally: “and expense / high cost (יוקר) prevails, and profit (שכר) is lost”.

Compare in my piece “"On Whom Can We Rely?” Literary Laments of a Fallen Society in the Mishnah (Mishnah Sotah 9:15)“ section “Societal Decline and Turbulent Conditions Preceding the Messianic Era“,lines (#2-3), where the same Hebrew word is used (yoker - יוקר)

ויקר יאמיר,

הגפן תתן פריה, והיין ביקר,

and high costs will pile up.

Although the vine shall bring forth its fruit, wine will nevertheless be expensive.

6. A form of child cannibalism. See my Appendix 1, at the end of this piece.

7. I.e. the wealthy aristocracy of the Kingdom of Israel, c. mid-8th century BCE.

8. עבדן- i.e. and thereby pressure their husbands into theft to sustain their wealthy lifestyles.

9. On “your gardens (גנותיכם) and your vineyards (כרמיכם) and your fig trees (תאניכם) and your olive trees (זיתיכם)”.

10. גָּזָם - a kind of pest.

11. In the “[l]ament over a great locust plague and a severe drought (1:1–2:17)” (Wikipedia, “Book of Joel“, section “Content“.)

12. גזם - this is the same term for locust mentioned earlier.

All these names represent either variations or distinct terms for locusts, many of which carry meanings such as "destroy" or "cut." For further details, see the etymologies provided in the hyperlinked dictionary entries.

Compare with ed. Steinsaltz, who translate these terms as referring to various other crop-devouring pests.

13. See Wikipedia, “Locust“:

[Locusts] form bands of wingless nymphs that later become swarms of winged adults. Both the bands and the swarms move around, rapidly strip fields, and damage crops. The adults are powerful fliers; they can travel great distances, consuming most of the green vegetation wherever the swarm settles.

Locusts have formed plagues since prehistory. The ancient Egyptians carved them on their tombs and the insects are mentioned in the Iliad, the Mahabharata, the Bible and Quran. Swarms have devastated crops and have caused famines and human migrations.

14. I.e. a form of child cannibalism, as previously

15. The Talmud interprets the phrase tipuḥim via wordplay as a reference to Doeg, whose growth had been measured in tefaḥim (handbreadths).

16. See a scholarly discussion of this story by Avigdor Sha’anan:

פרופ' אביגדור שנאן, “גלגולה של אגדת חז"ל: מעשה בבנו של דואג בן יוסף”, מחניים, סיוון תשנ"ד