Hebrew word · H360
אֱיָלוּת
'eyaluti
strength
'Strength, might.' It appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. The noun is built from a root linked with strength and leading animals: 'eyal ('strength', Ps 88:4), 'ayil ('ram', also 'chief, mighty one'), and 'ayyal / 'ayyalah ('stag', 'hind').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
strength, my help
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
- Range of meaning
'Strength, might.' It appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. The noun is built from a root linked with strength and leading animals: 'eyal ('strength', Ps 88:4), 'ayil ('ram', also 'chief, mighty one'), and 'ayyal / 'ayyalah ('stag', 'hind'). The ending -ut marks an abstract noun, so the sense is 'strength itself'. With 'my' attached it becomes a title for God, 'my Strength'.
- Against the English
KJV, BSB, YLT, and NIV and NLT (which make it a statement, 'You are my strength') keep 'strength'. ESV, NASB and WEB use 'help'. That repeats the next word and loses the picture of God as the speaker's source of strength.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) list it as a word that occurs only once and link it to 'eyal in Ps 88:4 ('a man without strength'). Jerome, translating from the Hebrew, gives fortitudo mea, 'my strength'. The Septuagint does not translate it as a separate title (see textual notes).
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
-
Psalm 22:19 אֱ֝יָלוּתִ֗י O strength my
But You, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
Here: A name for God: 'my Strength', 'you who are my strength'. The word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is related to 'eyal, 'strength' (Ps 88:4), and pictures God as the strength the speaker no longer has (compare v.15, 'my strength is dried up').
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.