יָעַל

1 Samuel 12:21 יוֹעִ֛ילוּ they will benefit

Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.

Here: 'They do no good, they are of no use.' The verb is plural, so the singular 'emptiness' stands for a group of beings or objects, meaning the idols. This verb is the prophets' stock description of idols.

Job 15:3 יוֹעִ֥יל anyone profits

Should he argue with useless words or speeches that serve no purpose?

Job 21:15 נּ֝וֹעִ֗יל will we gain

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

Job 30:13 יֹעִ֑ילוּ they benefit

They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.

Job 35:3 אֹ֝עִ֗יל will I profit

For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

Proverbs 10:2 י֭וֹעִילוּ they profit

Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

Here: "They are of no use." The verb describes something that cannot help when help is needed. In the Hebrew Bible it is used almost only in the negative, often of idols and lies that "do not profit" (1 Sam 12:21; Jer 2:8; Isa 44:9). The tense describes what always happens: this is the way the world works.

Proverbs 11:4 יוֹעִ֣יל it profits

Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

Here: "It is of no use, it does not help." The tense describes something that is always true. Elsewhere the phrase "does not profit" is used again and again of idols (1 Sam 12:21; Jer 2:8), which hints that wealth is a false thing to rely on when it counts.

Isaiah 30:5 יוֹעִ֣ילוּ לְהוֹעִ֔יל they will confer profit, to confer profit

everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”

Isaiah 30:6 יוֹעִֽילוּ׃ they will confer profit

This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.

Here: 'They will be of no benefit.' It repeats verse 5 almost word for word. Elsewhere this verb with 'not' is a stock description of idols and false gods (1 Sam 12:21; Jer 2:8, 11), so Egypt is quietly set beside the useless idols.

Isaiah 44:9 יוֹעִ֑ילוּ they confer profit

All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

Here: "They do (not) profit." This is a stock charge against idols in the prophets: they bring no benefit, no help and no rescue. Verse 10 repeats it.

Isaiah 44:10 הוֹעִֽיל׃ to confer profit

Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?

Isaiah 47:12 הוֹעִ֖יל to profit

So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

Here: 'To do any good', 'to be of use'. In Isaiah 40–48 this is the stock word for what idols cannot do (44:9–10). Only Israel's God 'teaches you to profit' (48:17).

Isaiah 48:17 לְהוֹעִ֔יל to profit

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

Here: 'To be of use / for real benefit.' In Isaiah this verb mostly appears in the negative: idols and sorceries 'do not profit' (44:9–10; 47:12). YHWH's teaching is what actually helps.

Isaiah 57:12 יוֹעִילֽוּךְ׃ they will benefit you

I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not profit you.

Here: "They will be of no use to you." This is the standard verb in Israel's mockery of idols: idols "do not profit" (Isa 44:9–10; 1 Sam 12:21; Jer 2:8, 11). Using it here puts the people's religious works in the same class as idols.

Jeremiah 2:8 יוֹעִ֖לוּ they profited

The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

Here: '[Things that] do not profit,' a stock description of idols (1 Sam 12:21; Isa 44:9-10). It also echoes the sound of ba'al just before it: Baal is the Lord who does no good.

Jeremiah 2:11 יוֹעִֽיל׃ it profits

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

Here: 'What does not profit': something that gives no benefit and cannot help or save anyone. It repeats v.8, where the prophets 'walked after things that do not profit' and prophesied by Baal, so the phrase is a scornful nickname for Baal and the idols.

Jeremiah 7:8 הוֹעִֽיל׃ to profit

But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

Here: 'To be of use, to do any good.' In Jeremiah and the prophets this verb is used for idols and false gods that 'do not profit' (Jer 2:8, 2:11; 16:19). Hearers would have caught the hint that the temple slogan has become a useless idol of its own.

Jeremiah 12:13 יוֹעִ֑לוּ they have profited

They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

Here: 'They do not profit' or 'gain nothing'. In Jeremiah this word is closely tied to idols, 'things that do not profit' (2:8, 2:11). The people who chased what cannot profit now find that their own labour does not profit.

Jeremiah 16:19 מוֹעִֽיל׃ a [thing that] profits

O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

Here: "One that profits": a thing that actually does you good. This is the prophets' stock verdict on idols: they cannot deliver, rescue or help (Jer 2:8, 11; Hab 2:18).

Jeremiah 23:32 וְהוֹעֵ֛יל יוֹעִ֥ילוּ and certainly <to benefit>, they benefit

“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

Here: A verb form placed before the main verb for emphasis (an "infinitive absolute"): "as for helping…". It sets up the strong denial that follows.

Habakkuk 2:18 הוֹעִ֣יל does it profit

What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

Here: 'What has it benefited / what good does it do?' The perfect tense states a settled truth: idols have never produced any real benefit. The verb is a stock term in Israel's polemic against idols (Isa 44:9–10; Jer 2:8, 11).