Aramaic word · H1965

הֵיכַל

heikhal

temple

Palace or temple: a "great house" belonging to a king or a god. The word goes back through Akkadian ekallu to Sumerian É.GAL, "great house."

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 13 times in 10 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) palace, temple

1a) palace

1b) temple (in Jerusalem)

1c) temple (pagan)

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 Daniel 5:2

Range of meaning

Palace or temple: a "great house" belonging to a king or a god. The word goes back through Akkadian ekallu to Sumerian É.GAL, "great house."

Against the English

"Temple" is right here. The same word means Nebuchadnezzar's palace in Dan 4:4 and 4:29, and Belshazzar's palace in 5:5. The chapter thus sets two "great houses" side by side: God's temple, which has been plundered, and the king's palace, where the plunder is profaned.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew hêkāl means palace (1 Kgs 21:1; Ps 45:8) and the temple or its main hall (1 Kgs 6:3–5). Aramaic hêkal is used for the Jerusalem temple in Ezra 5:14–15 and 6:5.

From the study of Ezra 5:14

Range of meaning

From Sumerian É.GAL, 'great house,' through Akkadian ekallu. It can mean a palace or a temple. In Biblical Aramaic it means a royal palace (Daniel 4:4, 29) or a temple (Ezra 5:14–15, 6:5).

Against the English

All the major versions have 'temple.' That is correct here. The word itself does not say whether a god or a king lives in the 'great house.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew hêkhal names the main hall of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:3). The Akkadian ekallu is common in Mesopotamian inscriptions. Daniel 1:2 says Nebuchadnezzar put the vessels in 'the treasure house of his god.'

From the study of Ezra 5:15

Range of meaning

The word means a palace or a temple. It is ultimately borrowed from Sumerian é.gal, 'great house', through Akkadian ekallu, 'palace'. In Biblical Aramaic it is used for a royal palace (Dan 4:4, 29; 5:5; 6:18) and for temples (Ezra 5:14–15; 6:5). In Hebrew, hekhal can also mean the main hall of the temple, in front of the inner sanctuary.

Against the English

English 'temple' is accurate. What it can hide is that the same word names both the Babylonian temple and the Jerusalem one in back-to-back verses (5:14, 5:15), so the contrast is built into the wording.

Used elsewhere in the period

Akkadian ekallu is used for palaces throughout Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. In Hebrew, hekhal YHWH appears for the Shiloh sanctuary (1 Sam 1:9) and the Jerusalem temple (1 Kgs 6:3). The Aramaic papyri from Elephantine in Egypt use related temple terms in their petition to rebuild a Jewish temple. That petition is a close parallel: a Persian-period appeal to authorities for permission to rebuild a destroyed temple of YHW.

Where it appears

Ezra · 7

  1. Ezra 4:14 הֵֽיכְלָא֙ palace the

    Now because we are in the service of the palace and it is not fitting for us to allow the king to be dishonored, we have sent to inform the king

  2. Ezra 5:14 הֵֽיכְלָא֙ לְהֵיכְלָ֖א הֵֽיכְלָא֙ temple the, to temple the

    He also removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and carried there from the temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus gave these articles to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor

    Here: 'The temple,' here the Jerusalem sanctuary. The word goes back to Sumerian/Akkadian 'great house.'

  3. Ezra 5:15 בְּהֵיכְלָ֖א in temple the

    and instructed, ‘Take these articles, put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its original site.’

    Here: 'In the temple', meaning the sanctuary at Jerusalem. The same word was just used (5:14) for the temple in Babylon. The verse sets one 'temple' against another: the vessels leave a foreign god's house and return to their own.

  4. Ezra 6:5 הֵיכְלָ֥א לְהֵיכְלָ֤א temple the, to temple the

    Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.

Daniel · 6

  1. Daniel 4:4 בְּהֵיכְלִֽי׃ in palace my

    I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.

  2. Daniel 4:29 הֵיכַ֧ל [the] palace of

    Twelve months later, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,

  3. Daniel 5:2 הֵיכְלָ֖א temple the

    Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

    Here: "The temple." The word means "great house" and can refer to a palace or a god's house. Verse 3 makes clear it is "the house of God."

  4. Daniel 5:3 הֵֽיכְלָ֛א temple the

    Thus they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king drank from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

  5. Daniel 5:5 הֵיכְלָ֖א palace the

    At that moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. As the king watched the hand that was writing,

    Here: 'The palace'. The same word was just used for the Jerusalem temple whose vessels were being drunk from (5:2–3). The holy house was robbed, and now the king's house is written on.

  6. Daniel 6:18 לְהֵֽיכְלֵהּ֙ to palace his

    Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No entertainment was brought before him, and sleep fled from him.

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