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Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary: The Old Testament Hebrew word: בלע

Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Dictionary/b/b-l-ay.html

בלע

Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary

בלע

The verb בלע (bala') means to swallow up or down - people their food (Isaiah 28:4), snakes their prey (Exodus 7:12), the earth rebels (Numbers 16:30). This verb is often used to mean ruin and destruction (Lamentations 2:2).

In Psalm 55:10 this verb (or as HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament proposes, a whole other, derived verb) is used to mean confuse, much like the verb בלל (balal), confuse, mix, as used in Genesis 11:7.

This root's only derivative is the masculine noun בלע (bela), meaning a swallowing (= a destruction; Psalm 52:6) or a thing swallowed (Jeremiah 51:44).


Associated Biblical names