Hebrew word · H167

אָהַל

vaiye'ehal

to pitch

A verb made from the noun 'ohel ('tent'): to pitch a tent, to camp, to move one's tents from place to place. It is very rare. In Genesis it appears only in 13:12 and 13:18, and elsewhere it appears in Isaiah 13:20 ('no Arab will pitch his tent there').

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

What it means

1) to pitch a tent, to move a tent

1a) (Qal) pitch or remove a tent

1a) (Piel) to pitch one's tent

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 Genesis 13:18

Range of meaning

A verb made from the noun 'ohel ('tent'): to pitch a tent, to camp, to move one's tents from place to place. It is very rare. In Genesis it appears only in 13:12 and 13:18, and elsewhere it appears in Isaiah 13:20 ('no Arab will pitch his tent there').

Against the English

The KJV's 'removed [his] tent' uses 'remove' in its older sense of 'move to another place'. Modern versions say 'moved his tent(s)' or 'pitched his tent'. YLT's 'tenteth' is clumsy but closest to the single Hebrew verb, which makes the tent itself the action.

How it drifted

KJV 'removed' now sounds like 'took away' or 'took down', not 'relocated'.

Used elsewhere in the period

BDB and HALOT treat the verb as made from the noun 'ohel. The rarity matters: the narrator uses the same unusual word only twice, five verses apart.

From the study of Isaiah 13:20

Range of meaning

A verb made from the noun 'ohel, 'tent': to pitch or move one's tent, to camp.

Against the English

All the major versions say 'pitch (his) tent.' NLT recasts it as a refusal (see translations).

Used elsewhere in the period

Very rare. Elsewhere only Genesis 13:12, 18, where Abram and Lot 'moved their tents.' The Masoretic form yahel is irregular. Grammarians (GKC §68k) usually explain it as a shortened form of the tent verb, though the analysis is debated.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 13:12 וַיֶּאֱהַ֖ל and he moved tent

    Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

  2. Genesis 13:18 וַיֶּאֱהַ֣ל and he moved tent

    So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

    Here: A rare verb made from the noun 'ohel, 'tent': literally 'he tented', meaning he took down camp and pitched it again somewhere else. It repeats the verb used of Lot in 13:12, who 'tented as far as Sodom', so the narrator sets the two moves side by side.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 13:20 יַהֵ֥ל he will pitch a tent

    She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.

    Here: A verb made from the noun 'ohel, 'tent': 'to tent, to camp.' The form is unusual and shortened (see textual notes). Not even an overnight camp will be set up on the ruins.

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