Hebrew word · H1105

בֶ֫לַע

vala'

swallowing

'Swallowing' or 'thing swallowed', from the verb balaʿ, 'to swallow, devour, engulf'. It can be used of eating, of destruction, and of wealth that has been gulped down (Job 20:15).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) a swallowing, devouring (fig. for ruin)

2) a thing swallowed

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Jeremiah 51:44

Range of meaning

'Swallowing' or 'thing swallowed', from the verb balaʿ, 'to swallow, devour, engulf'. It can be used of eating, of destruction, and of wealth that has been gulped down (Job 20:15).

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'that which he hath swallowed up'. BSB: 'make him spew out what he swallowed', which is vivid and close to the image. All of them lose the sound-play between Bel and belaʿ.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 51:34: 'Nebuchadnezzar… has swallowed me (bilaʿani) like a sea-monster (tannin), filled his belly with my delicacies, rinsed me out.' Job 20:15: 'He swallowed wealth and will vomit it up; God will cast it from his belly.' Ezra 1:7 records Cyrus bringing out the temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had put 'in the house of his gods'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 52:4 בָ֗לַע swallowing

    You love every word that devours, O deceitful tongue.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 51:44 בִּלְעוֹ֙ swallowed thing his

    I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.

    Here: 'His swallowed thing', meaning everything Bel/Babylon has gulped down: plunder, captive peoples, temple treasures. It puns on the god's name (Bel / belaʿ).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.