Aramaic word · H399

אֲכַל

'akhelah

to devour

Literally 'they ate his pieces'. It is a fixed idiom meaning to slander, denounce or inform against someone maliciously. In Daniel it is used only of hostile accusation before a king: 3:8 (Chaldeans against the Jews) and here.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to eat, devour

1a) (P'al)

1a1) to eat (of beasts)

1a2) to devour

1a3) eat their pieces (in a phrase, that is, slander them)

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 Daniel 6:24

Range of meaning

Literally 'they ate his pieces'. It is a fixed idiom meaning to slander, denounce or inform against someone maliciously. In Daniel it is used only of hostile accusation before a king: 3:8 (Chaldeans against the Jews) and here.

Against the English

KJV and WEB give 'accused', a neutral legal word. BSB and NIV add 'falsely'. ESV and NASB add 'maliciously'. None can keep the image of eating, which the verse depends on.

How it drifted

Nothing drifted over time. The idiom simply has no English equivalent, so translators give its meaning and lose its picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The idiom is borrowed from Akkadian karṣī akālu, 'to eat the pieces (of someone)' = to slander. It is common in Babylonian and Assyrian letters, and it continues in later Aramaic and Syriac (compare the Syriac akhel qartsa, 'slanderer', the word the Peshitta uses for 'devil' as accuser). See HALOT and BDB (Aramaic section) s.v. קְרַץ.

Where it appears

Daniel · 7

  1. Daniel 3:8 וַאֲכַ֥לוּ and they ate

    At this time some astrologers came forward and maliciously accused the Jews,

  2. Daniel 4:33 יֵאכֻ֔ל he ate

    At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.

  3. Daniel 6:24 אֲכַ֤לוּ they had eaten

    At the command of the king, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they and their children and wives. And before they had reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

    Here: First half of the idiom 'eat someone's pieces' = slander, denounce. 'Eat' is set up here so the lions' literal eating in the second half of the verse lands as a grim reversal.

  4. Daniel 7:5 אֲכֻ֖לִי devour!

    Suddenly another beast appeared, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. So it was told, ‘Get up and gorge yourself on flesh!’

  5. Daniel 7:7 אָֽכְלָ֣ה [it was] devouring

    After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.

    Here: Participle, '[it was] devouring'. It describes ongoing predatory action. It echoes the bear's command to 'devour much flesh' (7:5) and anticipates 7:23, where the kingdom 'devours the whole earth'.

  6. Daniel 7:19 אָֽכְלָ֣ה [it was] devouring

    Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others—extremely terrifying—devouring and crushing with iron teeth and bronze claws, then trampling underfoot whatever was left.

  7. Daniel 7:23 וְתֵאכֻל֙ so it may devour

    This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.

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