גָּלָה

From the study of Deuteronomy 29:29

Range of meaning

The root g-l-h basically means to uncover or lay bare: uncovering nakedness, opening the ear (that is, telling someone something), disclosing a secret. In the passive (niphal) it means to be uncovered, to be revealed, or for God to reveal himself (Gen 35:7; 1 Sam 3:21). The same root in another form means to go into exile, 'to be stripped from the land'. That is the source of gôlâ, 'the exile community'.

Against the English

'Things revealed' / 'things that are revealed' is a good rendering. The Hebrew picture is concrete: something that has been uncovered and is now lying open to view. It is not a private inner insight but public disclosure. At Moab, the whole people heard the covenant openly.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy itself is staged as a public disclosure: Moses 'explains this torah' (1:5) to 'all Israel' (29:2, 10). In 1QS 5:11–12, the niglôt are the commands plainly known to everyone, which the wicked break 'with a high hand', that is, defiantly. The Targums keep the hidden/revealed pair: the revealed things are 'given to us'. The Greek Septuagint renders it ta phanera, 'the things that are plain or manifest'.

From the study of Amos 3:7

Range of meaning

Basic sense: 'uncover, lay bare'. Used for revealing (uncovering the ear = confiding, 1 Sam 9:15; 20:2), for exposing nakedness, and, in a related sense, for going into exile (a land 'stripped' of its people).

Against the English

'Reveal' is accurate. It does not carry the root's physical sense of pulling back a covering, or its link with exile.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Sam 9:15: 'YHWH had uncovered Samuel's ear', meaning he told him privately. 2 Sam 7:27: the same idiom for David. Amos uses the root for exile at 1:5, 1:6, 5:5, 5:27, 6:7 and 7:11, 17.

From the study of Isaiah 40:5

Range of meaning

To uncover or lay bare. In the passive-reflexive form used here (the Niphal) it means to be uncovered, to show oneself, to appear. The same root also means 'to go into exile' (literally, to leave the land bare), and it is the word for the deportations (2 Kgs 17:23; 25:21) (BDB; HALOT s.v. גלה).

Against the English

'Revealed' is accurate. A modern reader may still hear it as passing on information, or as 'Revelation' in the end-times sense. The Hebrew picture is a covering pulled back so that someone stands in plain sight.

How it drifted

In English 'revelation' became a technical theological term for God disclosing truths or doctrine, so 'revealed' tends to suggest knowledge more than appearance.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Niphal is used for God appearing in person: Gen 35:7 ('there God revealed himself to him'), 1 Sam 2:27 and 3:21 (Yahweh 'revealed himself' to Samuel at Shiloh). In Isa 53:1 'the arm of the LORD' is 'revealed', again something shown rather than told.