Hebrew word · H1803

דַּלָּה

dalot

poor

Dallāh is a collective from dal, 'low, weak, poor, thin'. It means the poor class or lowest stratum. 'Am hāʾāreṣ, 'people of the land', in Kings is the free Judahite citizen body, often landowners, who act politically (2 Kgs 11:14–20; 21:24; 23:30).

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) poor (usually coll of helpless people)

2)(TWOT) poorest, lowest

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 2 Kings 24:14

Range of meaning

Dallāh is a collective from dal, 'low, weak, poor, thin'. It means the poor class or lowest stratum. 'Am hāʾāreṣ, 'people of the land', in Kings is the free Judahite citizen body, often landowners, who act politically (2 Kgs 11:14–20; 21:24; 23:30). In Ezra–Nehemiah the plural form means the non-exiled locals. In later rabbinic usage it means people ignorant of the law.

Against the English

KJV: 'the poorest sort of the people of the land'. BSB, WEB and ESV: 'the poorest people of the land'. NLT reduces it to the poorest people, without the 'people of the land' phrase. YLT: 'the poor of the people of the land'. All are acceptable. None conveys that 'people of the land' was a recognised civic body.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same phrase recurs at 2 Kgs 25:12 (left as vinedressers and farmers) and Jer 40:7; 52:15–16. Jer 39:10 says Nebuzaradan gave this class vineyards and fields.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 41:19 דַּלּ֨וֹת weak

    After them, seven other cows—sickly, ugly, and thin—came up. I have never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt!

2 Kings · 2

  1. 2 Kings 24:14 דַּלַּ֥ת [the] poor people of

    He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.

    Here: A collective noun from dal, 'weak, poor, low'. It means the lowest stratum, people without property, office or skills worth taking. Babylon left them behind because they were no threat and of no use.

  2. 2 Kings 25:12 וּמִדַּלַּ֣ת and some of [the] poor people of

    But the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 7:5 וְדַלַּ֥ת and [the] hair of

    Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple threads; the king is captured in your tresses.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 38:12 מִדַּלָּ֣ה from [the] loom

    My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.

Jeremiah · 3

  1. Jeremiah 40:7 וּמִדַּלַּ֣ת and some of [the] poor people of

    When all the commanders and men of the armies in the field heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him in charge of the men, women, and children who were the poorest of the land and had not been exiled to Babylon,

  2. Jeremiah 52:15 וּמִדַּלּ֨וֹת and some of [the] poor people of

    Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the craftsmen.

  3. Jeremiah 52:16 וּמִדַּלּ֣וֹת and some of [the] poor people of

    But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

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