Hebrew word · H3783

כִּשָּׁלוֹן

khishalon

stumbling

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from kashal, 'to stumble, totter, stagger', which is used of feet on a path (Prov 4:12, 19), of weakened knees (Ps 109:24) and of soldiers stumbling in battle.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a stumbling, a fall, a calamity

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 Proverbs 16:18

Range of meaning

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from kashal, 'to stumble, totter, stagger', which is used of feet on a path (Prov 4:12, 19), of weakened knees (Ps 109:24) and of soldiers stumbling in battle.

Against the English

'Fall' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV) gives the end result. 'Stumbling' (YLT, NASB) gives the trip that starts it. The Hebrew points to the misstep.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 4:19: 'the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what they stumble over'. The Septuagint has ptōma, 'a fall'.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 16:18 כִ֝שָּׁל֗וֹן stumbling

    Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

    Here: This noun appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from kashal, 'to stumble, stagger', a word for feet that trip on a path. It is the misstep that starts a fall, and it picks up the 'highway' and 'way' of the verse before (16:17).

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