Hebrew word · H2474
חַלּוֹן
chalon
window
A window or wall-opening, from a root meaning to bore through or pierce. Used of house windows (Josh 2:15; 2 Kgs 9:30), the ark's opening (Gen 8:6), temple windows (1 Kgs 6:4), and figuratively of the "windows" death climbs through (Jer 9:21).
Appears 31 times in 27 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
window (piercing of the wall)
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 Proverbs 7:6
- Range of meaning
A window or wall-opening, from a root meaning to bore through or pierce. Used of house windows (Josh 2:15; 2 Kgs 9:30), the ark's opening (Gen 8:6), temple windows (1 Kgs 6:4), and figuratively of the "windows" death climbs through (Jer 9:21).
- Against the English
"Window" is right, but a modern reader pictures glass. This was an open hole, usually small and high, sometimes with a lattice or shutter.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The "woman at the window" is a common subject on Phoenician-style ivory plaques of the 9th–8th centuries BC found at Nimrud, Arslan Tash and Samaria. They show a woman's face framed by a window with a balustrade. Biblical scenes of women at windows (Sisera's mother, Michal, Jezebel) draw on a similar picture.
From the study of 1 Samuel 19:12
- Range of meaning
Any opening in a wall that lets in light and air: house windows, windows in the temple and palaces, and in poetry the 'windows of heaven' (Gen 7:11). In Israelite houses these were small, unglazed and usually high on the wall or on an upper floor, sometimes with a lattice.
- Against the English
English 'window' suggests a glass pane at a height you can step through. A ḥallon was a gap in a mud-brick or stone wall, often high off the street. That is why David had to be lowered.
- How it drifted
Glass windows in ordinary houses are a much later development. The English word is right, but the picture it brings to mind is modern.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Windows show up again and again in the Bible as places where women look out or act: Sisera's mother (Judg 5:28), Rahab (Josh 2:15, 21), Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30), and Michal herself in 2 Samuel 6:16. Phoenician carved ivories of the Iron Age often show a 'woman at the window.'
From the study of 2 Kings 9:30
- Range of meaning
A window or opening in a wall, usually high up, sometimes latticed. Windows are where people are watched and where people watch: Rahab's window (Josh 2:15), Sisera's mother (Judg 5:28), Michal (2 Sam 6:16), and Ahaziah's fall through a lattice (2 Kgs 1:2).
- Against the English
English renders it accurately. What the reader misses is the picture the image brought to mind.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ninth- and eighth-century ivory plaques from Samaria (Ahab's capital), Nimrud and Arslan Tash show a recurring "woman at the window": a woman's face, often with a distinctive hairstyle, framed in a balustraded window. Her identity (goddess, priestess, royal woman, or a decorative stock image) is debated. In biblical narrative, the woman at the window is repeatedly a royal woman whose hopes are about to fail: Sisera's mother waits for a son who will never come home, and Michal despises a king she will never give an heir.
Where it appears
Genesis · 2
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Genesis 8:6 חַלּ֥וֹן [the] window of
After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
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Genesis 26:8 הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן the window
When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
Joshua · 3
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Joshua 2:15 הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן the window
Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, since the house where she lived was built into the wall of the city.
Here: 'The window', an opening in the wall of her house which, because the house is built into the fortification, opens on the outside of the city. It is the same window where the scarlet cord will hang (2:18, 21).
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Joshua 2:18 בַּֽחַלּוֹן֙ in the window
unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother and brothers and all your family into your house.
Here: 'In the window.' Her house was built into the city wall (2:15), so this window faced outward toward the attackers. The escape route becomes the place where the marker hangs.
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Joshua 2:21 בַּחַלּֽוֹן׃ in the window
“Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. And when they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
Here: "In the window." This is the same opening in the town wall through which she let the spies down (verse 15). The way out that saved them now becomes the mark that will save her household.
Judges · 1
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Judges 5:28 הַחַלּ֨וֹן the window
Sisera’s mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice and lamented: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’
1 Samuel · 1
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1 Samuel 19:12 הַחַלּ֑וֹן the window
So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.
Here: An unglazed opening in the wall, usually small and set high, sometimes with a lattice. 'The window' is definite: the house's window, the one way out the men watching the door could not cover.
2 Samuel · 1
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2 Samuel 6:16 הַחַלּ֗וֹן the window
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
Here: 'The window', with the article: a window in an upper room of the royal house. It sets up the familiar biblical picture of a royal woman at the window.
1 Kings · 1
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1 Kings 6:4 חַלּוֹנֵ֖י windows of
He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.
2 Kings · 3
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2 Kings 9:30 הַחַלּֽוֹן׃ the window
Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.
Here: "The window." An upper-storey opening in the palace or gate structure. In Israelite stories and Near Eastern art, a royal woman at a window is a well-known picture. Here it also sets up her fall: in v. 33 she is thrown out of this window.
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2 Kings 9:32 הַ֣חַלּ֔וֹן the window
He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” And two or three eunuchs looked down at him.
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2 Kings 13:17 הַחַלּ֛וֹן the window
“Open the east window,” said Elisha. So he opened it and Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And Elisha declared: “This is the LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram, for you shall strike the Arameans in Aphek until you have put an end to them.”
1 Chronicles · 1
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1 Chronicles 15:29 הַחַלּ֗וֹן the window
As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.
Proverbs · 1
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Proverbs 7:6 בְּחַלּ֣וֹן at [the] window of
For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice.
Here: "At / in the window of." A חַלּוֹן is an opening cut through a wall. In an Israelite town house it was a small, unglazed opening, often in an upper room, looking onto the street.
Song of Songs · 1
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Song of Songs 2:9 הַֽחֲלֹּנ֔וֹת the windows
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
Jeremiah · 2
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Jeremiah 9:21 בְּחַלּוֹנֵ֔ינוּ in windows our
For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
Here: 'Into / through our windows'. These were small openings, often latticed and set high in house or city walls. They were the one gap in a closed building, and death gets through it.
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Jeremiah 22:14 חַלּוֹנָ֔י windows my
who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.
Ezekiel · 12
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Ezekiel 40:16 וְחַלֹּנ֣וֹת וְחַלּוֹנ֞וֹת and windows
The gate chambers and their side pillars had beveled windows all around the inside of the gateway. The porticos also had windows all around on the inside. Each side pillar was decorated with palm trees.
Here: Openings in the masonry of the gatehouse walls. The plural sets up a sequence of matching openings, which suits the symmetry of the whole vision.
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Ezekiel 40:22 וְחַלּוֹנָ֤יו and windows its
Its windows, portico, and palm trees had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them.
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Ezekiel 40:25 וְחַלּוֹנִ֨ים כְּהַחֲלֹּנ֖וֹת and windows, like the windows
Both the gateway and its portico had windows all around, like the other windows. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
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Ezekiel 40:29 וְחַלּוֹנ֥וֹת and windows
Its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both the gateway and its portico had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
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Ezekiel 40:33 וְחַלּוֹנ֥וֹת and windows
Its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both the gateway and its portico had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
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Ezekiel 40:36 וְחַלּוֹנ֥וֹת and windows
as did its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico. It also had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
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Ezekiel 41:16 וְהַחַלּוֹנִ֣ים הַֽחַלֹּנ֔וֹת וְהַֽחַלֹּנ֖וֹת and the windows, the windows
as well as the thresholds and the beveled windows and the galleries all around with their three levels opposite the threshold, were overlaid with wood on all sides. They were paneled from the ground to the windows, and the windows were covered.
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Ezekiel 41:26 וְחַלּוֹנִ֨ים and windows
There were beveled windows and palm trees on the sidewalls of the portico. The side rooms of the temple also had canopies.
Joel · 1
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Joel 2:9 הַחַלּוֹנִ֛ים the windows
They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves.
Zephaniah · 1
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Zephaniah 2:14 בַּֽחַלּוֹן֙ in the window
Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie on the threshold, for He will expose the beams of cedar.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.