The Hebrew word lechem means “bread,” but it originally had the broader meaning of “food.” In Hebrew society, flour was the basis of the staple diet, so lechem came to refer specifically to bread. However, in languages like Arabic, where meat was a more central food, the cognate lahm means “meat.” In Hebrew, the town of Bethlehem – Beit Lechem – means “house of bread.” In Arabic, the same town is called Beit Lahm, meaning “house of meat.”
There are biblical verses where Hebrew retains the broader, non-bread meaning of lechem. For example, in Tzefania 1:17, we find the phrase: “Their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh (lechum) like dung.”
Two other Hebrew words share the same root as lechem: milchama (“war”) and halchama (“welding”). Scholars suggest that both may also be related to lechem. The connection between war and welding becomes clearer when we consider that, in ancient times, combat involved close physical contact – just as welding fuses elements together.
As for the link to lechem, several proposals have been made. One suggests that people feel a deep closeness to lechem as food, or that lechem (in the sense of flesh) lies close to the bone. Another approach points out that in Hebrew and other Semitic languages, there are many roots associated with both food and violence – such as teref, tzayad, and zan. Lechem may belong to this group as well. Its original sense might have been “food obtained through hunting or slaughter,” which later developed into both the violent meaning of war and the broader meaning of food.
