Hebrew word · H2120
זֹחֶ֫לֶת
hazochelet
Serpent's
The name of a landmark stone. It is related to the verb zachal, 'to crawl, glide, slink' (compare zochalei ʿafar, 'crawlers in the dust', meaning snakes, in Deut 32:24 and Mic 7:17). Possible meanings: 'Serpent's Stone', or a 'sliding / slippery stone', perhaps a steep rock face.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
Zoheleth = "serpent"
a boundary stone near Jerusalem where Adonijah slew sheep and oxen
Another name of en ro.gel (עֵין רֹגֵל "En-rogel" H5883)
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
- Range of meaning
The name of a landmark stone. It is related to the verb zachal, 'to crawl, glide, slink' (compare zochalei ʿafar, 'crawlers in the dust', meaning snakes, in Deut 32:24 and Mic 7:17). Possible meanings: 'Serpent's Stone', or a 'sliding / slippery stone', perhaps a steep rock face.
- Against the English
Most English versions just transliterate it as 'Zoheleth' (BSB, KJV, WEB, NASB, NIV). ESV translates it as 'the Serpent's Stone', which is a reasonable reading but gives a guess as if it were certain.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The name appears only here in the Bible. Some modern scholars (from Clermont-Ganneau onward) connect it with a rock ledge called ez-Zehweleh near the village of Silwan, south-east of the old city, but the link is debated. Early Jewish translators also disagreed on the meaning.
Where it appears
1 Kings · 1
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1 Kings 1:9 הַזֹּחֶ֔לֶת <the> Zoheleth
And Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fattened calves near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel. He invited all his royal brothers and all the men of Judah who were servants of the king.
Here: The name of the stone. It has 'the' in front of it and comes from a root meaning 'to crawl, glide, slip', so it probably meant 'the Serpent's Stone' or 'the Sliding Stone'. Its exact meaning is uncertain.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.