pisse'aḥ

The adjective פִּסֵּחַ, formed from the root פסח, is glossed "lame" without variation across BDB, HALOT, and DCH, which arrange its fourteen occurrences by referent rather than by distinct sense: of persons (Lev 21:18; 2 Sam 5:6, 8; 9:13; 19:26, Hebrew 19:27; Job 29:15; Prov 26:7; Isa 33:23; 35:6; Jer 31:8) and of sacrificial animals (Deut 15:21; Mal 1:8, 13). The lexica connect the adjective to the attested sense "to limp" of the verb פסח (1 Kgs 18:21, 26); the derivation of the Passover sense "to spare, pass over" from the same root is unsettled and has no bearing on the adjective's meaning. Priestly and prophetic usage locates lameness within the class of physical defects (מוּם, "blemish") that bar an animal from the altar and disqualify a priest of Aaron's line from officiating, while Lev 21:22 preserves the blemished priest's right to eat the holy food; Olyan and Schipper have analysed the social logic of these provisions and the narrative function of Mephibosheth's lameness in the succession narrative. The live cruxes are exegetical rather than lexical: the referent of "the blind and the lame" in the Jebusite taunt of 2 Sam 5:6, 8, where commentators weigh literal defenders, a proverbial insult, and the city's tutelary images (McCarter); the syntax of דַּלְיוּ שֹׁקַיִם מִפִּסֵּחַ in Prov 26:7; and the text of Isa 33:23b, where פִּסְחִים בָּזְזוּ בַז is read either as hyperbole for universal participation in the spoil or as a corrupt colon. On Mal 1:8, 13 the commentaries stress that a lame beast is a legally unacceptable offering, not merely an inferior one.