Hebrew word · H4251

מַחֲלוּי

bemachaliyim

suffering

Sicknesses, diseases, states of weakness; from the root ḥ-l-h, 'be weak, sick, wounded.' The noun occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 07, 2026

What it means

1) sickness, suffering

1a) caused by wounds

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Sicknesses, diseases, states of weakness; from the root ḥ-l-h, 'be weak, sick, wounded.' The noun occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.
Against the English: KJV and YLT translate the word itself ('great diseases', 'many diseases'); BSB, WEB and most modern versions translate what they take it to mean in context ('severely wounded').
How it drifted: Not drift but a judgment call: the root covers both illness and the weakness caused by wounds (compare 2 Kgs 8:29, where Joram is 'sick' from wounds, using the same root).
Used elsewhere in the period: The related verb ḥalah is used of kings wounded in battle (1 Kgs 22:34 'I am wounded'; 2 Chr 18:33; 2 Kgs 8:29). The Septuagint renders it with a general word for weakness or illness (malakia).

2 Chronicles · 1

2 Chronicles 24:25 בְּמַחֲלוּיִ֣ם with sicknesses

And when the Arameans had withdrawn, they left Joash severely wounded. His own servants conspired against him for shedding the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

Here: 'In sicknesses' — a rare word from the root 'to be weak/sick.' In context these are almost certainly battle wounds that left him bedridden, but the Hebrew word itself speaks of a sick, weakened condition, not of a cut or blow.

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