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grav´el (חצץ, hÌ£aÌ„caÌ„c, from root חצץ, hÌ£aÌ„cac, “to divide.†Kindred roots have the meaning of “to cut,†“to hew,†“to sharpen,†hence ×—×¥, hÌ£eÌ„c, “arrow†(; and often); compare Arabic hÌ£asÌ£sÌ£a, “to fall to the lot of,†hÌ£isÌ£sÌ£ah, “portionâ€): In , we have:
“Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man;
But afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.â€
And in :
“He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he hath covered me with ashes.â€
The only other occurrence of the word is in , where it is the equivalent of ḥēc, “arrow†(see supra):
“The clouds poured out water;
The skies sent out a sound:
Thine arrows also went abroad.â€
and both suggest the frequent occurrence of grit in the coarse bread, the source of the grit being not necessarily the grindstone, but possibly even small stones originally mingled with the wheat and never properly separated from it.