Hebrew word · H3631

כִּלָּיוֹן

kilayon

failing

Kilyon comes from kalah, 'to be complete, finished, used up, consumed.' It occurs only here and in Isa 10:22 ('destruction is decreed'). 'Eyes that fail/are consumed' (kalu ʿeinayim) is a fixed Hebrew idiom for eyes worn out with longing, watching, and waiting for help that does not come.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) completion, destruction, consumption, annihilation

2) failing, pining

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 Deuteronomy 28:65

Range of meaning

Kilyon comes from kalah, 'to be complete, finished, used up, consumed.' It occurs only here and in Isa 10:22 ('destruction is decreed'). 'Eyes that fail/are consumed' (kalu ʿeinayim) is a fixed Hebrew idiom for eyes worn out with longing, watching, and waiting for help that does not come.

Against the English

'Failing eyes' (BSB, ESV) and 'failing of eyes' (KJV, WEB, YLT) are literal, but modern readers easily hear 'poor eyesight.' NIV's 'eyes weary with longing' renders the idiom's sense.

How it drifted

In English, 'failing eyes' is a set phrase for declining vision, usually from age. The Hebrew idiom is about exhausted hope.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 28:32: your sons and daughters given to another people, 'your eyes looking and failing (kalot) for them all day long.' Lam 4:17: 'our eyes failed, looking in vain for help.' Ps 69:3: 'my eyes fail, waiting for my God.' Ps 119:82, 123. Lev 26:16 (mekhallot ʿeinayim) and 1 Sam 2:33 pair 'consuming the eyes' with grief of the nefesh, just as here.

From the study of Isaiah 10:22

Range of meaning

A noun from kālâ, 'to be complete, finished, used up, consumed.' It means coming to an end, wasting away (Deuteronomy 28:65, of eyes failing), and here destruction that finishes something off, annihilation. Its relative kālâ in verse 23 means 'a full end, complete destruction' (also Isaiah 28:22; Jeremiah 4:27; Nahum 1:8–9).

Against the English

KJV 'consumption' meant 'a consuming, using up'. Today it suggests eating, buying, or tuberculosis. Modern versions say 'destruction', which is correct but loses the sense of 'finishing, bringing to an end.'

How it drifted

In 1611 'consumption' still carried the Latin sense of consummatio / consumptio ('a making-an-end'). The word has narrowed in English since then.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Hebrew Bible only here and Deuteronomy 28:65. The pairing 'full end… decreed' (kālâ wǝneḥĕrāṣâ) appears in Isaiah 10:23 and 28:22. Daniel 9:27 takes it up ('until the full end that is decreed is poured out'). The Vulgate has consummatio, 'a completing.'

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 28:65 וְכִלְי֥וֹן and failing of

    Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

    Here: "And the wasting away of": from kalah, 'to be finished, used up.' The eyes are worn out, not just blurry.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 10:22 כִּלָּי֥וֹן annihilation

    Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

    Here: From kālâ, 'to be finished, used up.' Here it means destruction that brings things to an end, a 'finishing off.' It occurs only here and in Deuteronomy 28:65 ('failing' of eyes).

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