רְכוּשׁ

The word appears 28 times in Tanakh, and in many of the cases it is difficult to determine whether it connotes general monetary possessions or specifically animal possessions. As livestock was a very significant component of a person's wealth in Biblical times, it is possible that רְכוּשׁ was initially a term for livestock (and related to רֶכֶשׁ), and later its semantic field expanded to include all property.¹ See also the verb רכש.

• Bereshit 13:5-6 and 36:6 – Both of these cases describe an overcrowding due to an abundance of רְכוּשׁ, presumably referring to livestock.
• Bereshit 15:14 – Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael Bo (Pischa 14) reads this as referring to gold and silver. Cf. Abarbanel Shemot 3 and R. Hirsch Shemot 11:2 who connect the fulfillment of this promise with the gold and silver articles taken from the Egyptians before leaving Egypt. Alternatively, it refers to livestock, as Shemot 12:38 emphasizes the "צֹאן וּבָקָר מִקְנֶה כָּבֵד מְאֹד" which left Egypt with them. [Surprisingly, though, the Mekhilta reads that very verse as also referring to gold and silver.] R. Yonah ibn JanachSefer HaShorashim s.v. רכשAbout Ibn Janach mentions both possibilities but prefers the first. For further discussion, see Reparations and Despoiling Egypt.
• Bemidbar 16:32 and Divrei HaYamim II 21:17 – In each of these cases, the רְכוּשׁ is connected to a destroyed or plundered house. R. Yonah ibn JanachSefer HaShorashim s.v. רכשAbout Ibn Janach, assuming that animals would not have lived in the house, attempts to prove from here that the word must refer to inanimate possessions. However, even accepting Ibn Janach's debatable assumption that animals were kept in separate premises, it is not clear from either of these verses that the רְכוּשׁ was located in the house.
• Bemidbar 35:3 – This is the one case where R. Yonah ibn JanachSefer HaShorashim s.v. רכשAbout Ibn Janach thinks רְכוּשׁ means some type of livestock, as it appears in between "לִבְהֶמְתָּם" and "וּלְכֹל חַיָּתָם". Cf. Sforno who distinguishes between three categories of animals. However, see Bavli Nedarim 81a and Rashi Bemidbar who interpret differently.
• Divrei HaYamim I 27:25-32 and Divrei HaYamim II 32:27-29 – In both of these cases, the word רְכוּשׁ appears in the context of a summary statement following a list of royal possessions. In each case, the list includes all types of assets but concludes with various categories of livestock, leaving doubt as to whether רְכוּשׁ refers to the entire list or just to the animals at the end. Here, too, R. Yonah ibn JanachSefer HaShorashim s.v. רכשAbout Ibn Janach argues for the first option.
• Divrei HaYamim II 31:3 and 35:7 – These verses describe kings giving sacrifices from their רְכוּשׁ, presumably their animal possessions.

1. General Possessions

2. Livestock

Intra-Biblical

Rabbinic Hebrew

Modern Hebrew