Hebrew word · H1538

גֻּלְגֹּ֫לֶת

legulgelotam

head

The skull or cranium. Because a skull can be counted, the word also became a counting unit, 'per head' or 'per person' (Exodus 16:16; 38:26; Numbers 1:2, 'by their polls'). The root suggests something round or rolling (compare galgal, 'wheel').

Appears 12 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) head, poll, skull

1a) skull

1b) head, poll (of census)

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 1 Chronicles 10:10

Range of meaning

The skull or cranium. Because a skull can be counted, the word also became a counting unit, 'per head' or 'per person' (Exodus 16:16; 38:26; Numbers 1:2, 'by their polls'). The root suggests something round or rolling (compare galgal, 'wheel').

Against the English

BSB, KJV, WEB, ESV and NIV all say 'head.' YLT alone keeps 'skull.' 'Head' is not wrong, since it is the same body part v. 9 mentions. But it hides the fact that the writer switched from the everyday word roʾsh in v. 9 to the bonier, more object-like gulgolet here.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word appears in a famous killing scene: a woman drops a millstone on Abimelech's head 'and crushed his skull' (Judges 9:53). Jezebel's skull is among the few remains found (2 Kings 9:35). The Aramaic form gulgulta gives the Gospel place-name Golgotha, 'Place of a Skull' (Mark 15:22).

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 16:16 לַגֻּלְגֹּ֗לֶת for the head

    This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’”

  2. Exodus 38:26 לַגֻּלְגֹּ֔לֶת for the head

    a beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.

Numbers · 5

  1. Numbers 1:2 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃ to heads their

    “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

  2. Numbers 1:18 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃ to heads their

    and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation and recorded their ancestry by clans and families, counting one by one the names of those twenty years of age or older,

  3. Numbers 1:20 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָ֔ם to heads their

    From the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, according to the records of their clans and families, counting one by one the names of every male twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,

  4. Numbers 1:22 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָ֔ם to heads their

    From the sons of Simeon, according to the records of their clans and families, counting one by one the names of every male twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,

  5. Numbers 3:47 לַגֻּלְגֹּ֑לֶת for the head

    you are to collect five shekels for each one, according to the sanctuary shekel of twenty gerahs.

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 9:53 גֻּלְגָּלְתּֽוֹ׃ skull his

    But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 9:35 הַגֻּלְגֹּ֛לֶת the skull

    But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.

1 Chronicles · 3

  1. 1 Chronicles 10:10 גֻּלְגָּלְתּ֥וֹ skull his

    They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung his head in the temple of Dagon.

    Here: 'His skull.' Verse 9 used the ordinary word for head (roʾsh). Here the word is the hard, bony one, the same root behind Aramaic gulgolta, 'Golgotha.' It turns the head into a trophy object.

  2. 1 Chronicles 23:3 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם֙ to skulls their

    The Levites thirty years of age or older were counted, and the total number of men was 38,000.

  3. 1 Chronicles 23:24 לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָ֔ם to skulls their

    These were the descendants of Levi by their families—the heads of families, registered individually by name—those twenty years of age or older who worked in the service of the house of the LORD.

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