Hebrew word · H1561

גֵּל

begelei

dung

Animal or human excrement, often in its dried form, which was used as cooking fuel. It is a coarse, low-register word. In Job it is a deliberate insult, not a medical term.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

dung, ball of dung

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 Job 20:7

Range of meaning

Animal or human excrement, often in its dried form, which was used as cooking fuel. It is a coarse, low-register word. In Job it is a deliberate insult, not a medical term.

Against the English

Most versions say "dung" (KJV, BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV). Some soften it to "refuse" or "garbage," which loses both the crudeness and the fuel image. "Dung" is accurate, but modern readers may not see the picture of something burned until nothing is left.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 14:10: "I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung (gālāl) until it is all gone." There it is an image of total disappearance, the same use as here. Ezekiel 4:12, 15 mentions bread baked over human or cattle dung, which shows dung used as fuel. Zephaniah 1:17 says the flesh of the condemned will be poured out "like dung." In each case the word means worthless, used up, gone without a trace.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 20:7 כְּֽ֭גֶלֲלוֹ like own dung his

    he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’

    Here: "Like his (own) dung." A deliberately crude, insulting comparison. It probably pictures dried dung cakes, which were burned as fuel and left nothing behind. The word comes first in the Hebrew, so the insult hits before the verb does.

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 4:12 בְּגֶֽלְלֵי֙ in [the] dung<s> of

    And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

  2. Ezekiel 4:15 גֶּלְלֵ֣י [the] dung<s> of

    “Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

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