כָּלָא

Genesis 8:2 וַיִּכָּלֵ֥א and it was restrained

The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

Genesis 23:6 יִכְלֶ֥ה he will withhold

“Listen to us, sir. You are God’s chosen one among us. Bury your dead in the finest of our tombs. None of us will withhold his tomb for burying your dead.”

Exodus 36:6 וַיִּכָּלֵ֥א and it was restrained

After Moses had given an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: “No man or woman should make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing more,

Numbers 11:28 כְּלָאֵֽם׃ restrain them

Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

1 Samuel 6:10 כָּל֥וּ they shut up

So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

1 Samuel 25:33 כְּלִתִ֜נִי you have restrained me

Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

Psalm 40:9 אֶכְלָ֑א I restrain

I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.

Here: 'I hold back / I will not hold back.' It is the verb for penning animals in, stopping rain, or keeping someone locked up. The speaker has not kept the news penned behind closed lips. The unfinished verb form can mean 'I do not' or 'I will not.'

Psalm 40:11 תִכְלָ֣א you will withhold

O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.

Here: To hold something back or shut it in. The word for a prison (kele') comes from the same root. It echoes verse 9 (Hebrew v. 10), 'my lips I did not restrain (lo' ekhla')'. The psalmist did not hold back his praise, and God will not hold back his compassion.

Psalm 88:8 כָּ֝לֻ֗א [I am] shut up

You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.

Here: 'Shut in': a passive participle, meaning a lasting state of confinement. It is the word for being locked up or detained, as with Jeremiah held in the guard's courtyard (Jer 32:2–3).

Psalm 119:101 כָּלִ֣אתִי I have restrained

I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word.

Here: 'I have held back.' The verb is used for shutting in or withholding something that would otherwise go out, such as rain or a prisoner. The tense presents this as an established and continuing practice ('I have held back' or 'I hold back'), not a single act.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 לִכְל֣וֹא to restrain

As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

Here: To pen something in or hold it back, the way rain is 'restrained' in Gen 8:2. The picture is of trying to keep the wind, or the departing breath, from getting out.

Isaiah 43:6 תִּכְלָ֑אִי you withhold

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth—

Here: "Hold back, shut in, detain." The same root gives the noun for "prison" (kele'), so the South is pictured as a jailer told not to keep its prisoners locked up.

Jeremiah 32:2 כָלוּא֙ shut up

At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

Jeremiah 32:3 כְּלָא֔וֹ he had shut up him

For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

Here: 'He had confined him.' It picks up the passive form kālûʾ ('confined') in verse 2. It names physical custody, not a death sentence. The point was to stop the prophet's public activity.

Ezekiel 31:15 וַיִּכָּלְא֖וּ and they were restrained

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the day it was brought down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it; I held back its rivers; its abundant waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

Haggai 1:10 כָּלְא֥וּ כָּלְאָ֥ה they have withheld, it has withheld

Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops.

Here: 'They have shut up / held back.' The verb pictures closing something in. A related noun means 'prison'. The perfect form describes a settled situation the hearers are already living in, not a threat about the future.