Day 74 of 75 · Judgment and liberation

P-L-Ḥ

pulḥana: service

פלחא · פלחא

ܦܠܚܐ · ܦ݁ܰܠܳܚܶܐ

The feel

P-L-Ḥ means to work or till the ground, and also to serve or worship. In the Gospels it appears as palaḥa, a worker (22 times), most often the tenant farmer of a vineyard. The Qala says tenant farmer where the standard rendering is husbandman, because these workers tend ground they do not own.

The root family

Form	Pattern	Transliteration	Script	Standard	Qala rendering
palaḥa	doer-pattern noun	palāḥā	פלחא ܦ݁ܰܠܳܚܳܐ	husbandman, farmer	tenant farmer, vineyard-worker (22×, e.g. Mt 21:33)
plaḥ	Peal verb	plaḥ	פלח ܦܠܚ	to work, till; serve, worship	to work: "Work for the food that lasts" (Jn 6:27); "no one can work" (Jn 9:4)
pulḥana	noun, -ana pattern	pulḥānā	פולחנא ܦܽܘܠܚܳܢܳܐ	service, worship; cultivation	(not in the Gospels)

In the Gospels this family appears as the noun palaḥa, the tenant farmer, and as the Peal verb plaḥ, to work (John 6:27; 9:4; Luke 13:14) or to serve (Matthew 6:24; Luke 15:29).

In his voice

Matthew 21:33

Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, built a watchtower, leased it to tenant farmers, and went away.

lpalāḥe, "to the tenant farmers." These are the root's people, workers entrusted with ground they do not own.

Mark 12:2

When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

palāḥe beside ʿabdā, "tenants … slave." Two serving roots in one sentence, the workers of the ground and the slave sent to them (the ʿ-B-D root of day 73).

Matthew 21:41

"He will bring them to a harsh end," they said, "and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruit in its seasons."

palāḥe, "tenants." The judgment falls on tenants who forgot whose vineyard it was, and the vineyard goes to others who will give the fruit in its seasons.

Practice

Choose one piece of work today, at a desk, a job site or a kitchen. Do it for an hour as work entrusted to you, ask whose fruit it is, and say pulḥana, service.

Connections

ʿ-B-D Z-R-ʿ, sowing palaḥa: tenant farmer

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