A Near-and-Dear Pipe Post

I read on Shabbat a cool paper on the meaning of the word "tzinor" (צינור) as it appears in Tanach. The paper, titled "ויגע בצינור", is by linguist Tzion Okashi and was published very recently in a festschrift for linguist Dr. Uri Melammed, "לקט אורות: אסופת מאמרים לכבוד ד"ר אורי מלמד בהגיעו לשיבה", Yerushalayim 2024, pp. 253-263.

The tzinor was most famously mentioned by David in relation to his conquest of Yerushalayim. The near-and-dear bit in the post's title refers to the blog's banner, which is a drawing of a midrashic imagining of another of David's conquests, that of an Amalekite city (see more here). Both conquests featured Yoav ben Tz'ruyah in a lead role. The word tzinor in modern Hebrew means "pipe" but in context doesn't make sense as the meaning of the tanachic word.

Shmuel 2:5:6-9:

"The king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, “You will never get in here! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back.” But David captured the stronghold of Zion; it is now the City of David. On that occasion David said, “Those who attack the Jebusites shall reach the <tzinor> and *touch* the lame and the blind, who are hateful to David.” That is why they say: “No one who is blind or lame may enter the House.” David occupied the stronghold and renamed it the City of David; David also fortified the surrounding area, from the Millo inward."

A common explanation - and that is what is used in the current Sefaria translation - is that it refers to a water channel of sorts, perhaps the Gichon spring or a related water system. This preserves the modern Hebrew meaning in a certain sense and offers some strategic basis for David's plan: sneaking into the city via the water channel. Though this doesn't really explain the thing with the blind and lame.

Okashi explained the difficulties in this interpretation, which I won't get into right now. One point I will mention is that after centuries of excavations in Yerushalayim it's still unclear what water channel would have been referred to, as the Shiloach tunnel was built centuries later. In other words, to explain tzinor as water channel necessitates inventing a hypothetical yet-undiscovered water channel.

He suggested, instead, an etymological solution: There's a similar parallel to the word "tzinor" (צינור) from Aramaic, the word "tinara" (טינרא), which means "sharp rock" and is synonymous with "tura" (טורא), the Aramaic word for "tzor" (צור), again meaning sharp rock (צינור + צור = טינרא + טור). Okashi suggested that David and his men decided to enter the city from a spot that was difficult to ascend, a cliff or hillside that was made up of sharp rocks. This was an unexpected move. The blind and the lame is a term that probably referred to the weakest of the guards, who were stationed there because the Yevusites did not think anyone would try to scale the sharp rocks.

Okashi then went on to explain how this new suggested meaning works with the other appearance of tzinor in Tanach, Tehillim 42:8ץ There, waves crash upon tzinorot. In this case, the waves would be crashing upon sharp rocks, as waves sometimes tend to do.

In short, this sounds like a very plausible explanation to me.