Hebrew word · H2522

חָלַשׁ

vaiyachalosh

to weaken

To overpower, defeat, prostrate (Exodus 17:13); intransitively, to be weak or lie prostrate (Job 14:10). Rare.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

1) to be weak, be prostrate

1a) (Qal) to be prostrate

2) to weaken, disable, prostrate

2a) (Qal) to disable, prostrate

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: To overpower, defeat, prostrate (Exodus 17:13); intransitively, to be weak or lie prostrate (Job 14:10). Rare.
Against the English: KJV 'which didst weaken'; BSB 'destroyer'; WEB/ESV 'laid… low'; YLT 'weakener'.
Used elsewhere in the period: Exodus 17:13: 'Joshua overpowered Amalek.' Job 14:10: 'a man dies and is laid low.' Later Hebrew and Aramaic have a ḥ-l-š meaning 'cast lots', and some scholars have suggested 'who cast lots over the nations', meaning dividing them as plunder. This is a minority proposal.

Range of meaning: To be weak or powerless. In active use it means to overpower or lay low: Joshua 'laid low' Amalek with the sword (Exod 17:13), and the king of Babylon is 'you who laid the nations low' (Isa 14:12). The related adjective ḥallāš means 'weakling' (Joel 4:10).
Against the English: BSB, WEB, NIV and ESV have 'is laid low'. NASB has 'lies prostrate'. YLT has 'becometh weak'. KJV has 'wasteth away', which suggests a slow decline before death. NLT has 'their strength is gone'.
How it drifted: KJV's 'wasteth away' follows the Vulgate's 'consumptus' ('consumed') and points the reader toward decay or illness. The Hebrew order (dies, then ḥālaš) shows the word describes the state after death: flattened, without power.
Used elsewhere in the period: Rare in the Hebrew Bible (3 occurrences). The Greek translation (LXX) seems to render the clause with a verb meaning 'is gone, departs'. The Vulgate has 'nudatus atque consumptus' ('stripped and consumed'). Older translators clearly found the word hard.

Exodus · 1

Exodus 17:13 וַיַּחֲלֹ֧שׁ and he defeated

So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.

Job · 1

Job 14:10 וַֽיֶּחֱלָ֑שׁ and he was weak

But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?

Here: A rare verb. Elsewhere it describes defeating or flattening an enemy (Exod 17:13; Isa 14:12). Here it is the dead man's state: he lies flat and powerless. It describes the corpse, not a long illness before death.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 14:12 חוֹלֵ֖שׁ O defeater

How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.

Here: 'You who laid low': an active participle describing what he habitually did, overpowering and prostrating others. The same verb is used for Joshua overpowering Amalek (Exodus 17:13). The conqueror is now the one laid low.

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