Aramaic word · H2257

חֲבָל

chaval

harm

Damage, injury or harm, whether to a person or to a state's interests.

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

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

What it means

hurt, damage, injury

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 3:25

Range of meaning

Damage, injury or harm, whether to a person or to a state's interests.

Against the English

KJV 'no hurt', BSB/NIV 'unharmed' and WEB 'unharmed' all convey the sense well.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezra 4:22 (letting the matter cause 'damage' to the kings). Daniel 6:23: Daniel comes out of the lions' den and 'no harm (ḥăbāl) was found on him'. That parallel phrasing ties the two rescue stories together.

From the study of Daniel 6:23

Range of meaning

Harm, damage, injury, ruin. The verb ḥăḇal means "to harm, destroy." The noun is used of physical damage to people (Dan 3:25, the three men in the furnace have "no harm" on them) and of damage to a kingdom's interests (Ezra 4:22). The related noun ḥăḇûlāh (6:22) means "a harmful act, wrongdoing."

Against the English

BSB "no wounds whatsoever" and NIV "no wound" narrow it to visible injury. KJV "no manner of hurt," WEB and ESV "no kind of harm" and NASB "no injury whatever" keep the wider sense. NLT's "not a scratch" is vivid and keeps the totality of the claim.

Used elsewhere in the period

Dan 3:25 (furnace story: "no harm in them"), Dan 6:22 (verb and noun), Ezra 4:15, 22 (harm to kings). Daniel 3:27 makes the same point about the furnace survivors: not a hair singed, no smell of fire.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 4:22 חֲבָלָ֔א damage the

    See that you do not neglect this matter. Why allow this threat to increase and the royal interests to suffer?

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 3:25 וַחֲבָ֖ל and hurt

    “Look!” he exclaimed. “I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire—and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”

    Here: 'And harm.' It means bodily damage or injury. Placing it first in its clause stresses it: 'and harm? There is none.'

  2. Daniel 6:23 חֲבָל֙ hurt

    The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den, and when Daniel was lifted out of the den, no wounds whatsoever were found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

    Here: "Harm" of any kind, not only open wounds. It picks up Daniel's words in 6:22: the lions "did not harm me" (ḥabbəlûnî), and he had done no "harm/wrong" (ḥăḇûlāh) to the king.

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