Hebrew word · H3175

יָחִיל

veyachil

waiting

The root y-ḥ-l means 'to wait, tarry' (Gen 8:12; 1 Sam 10:8) and, very often, 'to wait with hope, to hope for' (Ps 130:5, 7; 131:3; Job 13:15; Mic 7:7). It always looks forward. It is used next to qwh, 'to wait/hope eagerly', which appears in v. 25. The form yāḥîl occurs only here.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

waiting, hoping

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 Lamentations 3:26

Range of meaning

The root y-ḥ-l means 'to wait, tarry' (Gen 8:12; 1 Sam 10:8) and, very often, 'to wait with hope, to hope for' (Ps 130:5, 7; 131:3; Job 13:15; Mic 7:7). It always looks forward. It is used next to qwh, 'to wait/hope eagerly', which appears in v. 25. The form yāḥîl occurs only here.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'hope' brings out the expectation. BSB/ESV/NIV 'wait' brings out the delay and the endurance. Each covers only half. The Hebrew means waiting that is full of hope.

How it drifted

Modern 'wait' is often passive: passing time until something happens. The Hebrew carries trust that something is coming. Older English 'wait upon' / 'wait for' was nearer to that.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 130:5–7 ('I wait for YHWH… O Israel, hope in YHWH'), Ps 38:15, Ps 42:5, 11 ('hope in God'), Mic 7:7 ('I will wait for the God of my salvation'). The Micah line closely matches this verse: waiting (y-ḥ-l) joined to yešaʿ, 'rescue'. The Septuagint renders the form here as the verb hypomenei, 'he will endure / wait patiently'.

Similar words

Where it appears

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:26 וְיָחִיל֙ and waiting

    It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

    Here: From the root y-ḥ-l, 'to wait in hope'. This is the same root the speaker used in vv. 21 and 24: 'therefore I will hope.' Whether you read it as a describing word ('one who waits') or a verb ('that one should wait'), it means looking ahead to something, not idling.

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