Aramaic word · H3606
כֹּל
kol-
all
"All, every, the whole". With the definite ending -āʾ and no noun after it, it works as a noun meaning "the whole of it" or "everything".
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 82 times in 62 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) all, whole, the whole
1a) the whole of, all
1b) every, any, none
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
"All, every, the whole". With the definite ending -āʾ and no noun after it, it works as a noun meaning "the whole of it" or "everything".
- Against the English
English versions add "this" ("All this"), which is a fair rendering. YLT's "All —" keeps the emphatic front position. The Aramaic has no separate word for "this"; the definite ending points back to everything already said.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Common in Biblical Aramaic, e.g. Dan 2:38, 2:40 and 4:12 (the tree gives 'food for all'). Used in this absolute form in Aramaic documents of the Persian period (e.g., Elephantine papyri) as 'everything'.
- Range of meaning
A fixed connecting phrase: 'because of all this, therefore, accordingly'. Literally 'all in front of this'.
- Against the English
Every version says 'therefore', 'wherefore' or 'so', which is accurate.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Common in Biblical Aramaic (e.g., Daniel 2:12, 24; 3:7, 8; Ezra 4:16; 6:13) and in Imperial Aramaic.
Where it appears
Ezra · 15
Loading…
Daniel · 67
Loading…
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.