מָלֵא

From the study of Habakkuk 2:14

Range of meaning

To be full or to fill; to fulfil or complete a period of time; to fill a hand, which means to ordain a priest. The form here is passive: 'will be filled'.

Against the English

English 'filled' carries this well. What can be missed is the contrast in context.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 14:21 uses the same verb in the same form with the same subject: 'the glory of YHWH will fill all the earth'. Isa 6:3 uses the related adjective 'full'.

From the study of 1 Kings 8:15

Range of meaning

The basic root (Qal) means 'to be full, to fill'. This intensive form (Piel) means to fill up, complete, fulfil (a word, a vow, a set time), or to fill a hand, which is the idiom for ordaining a priest.

Against the English

'Fulfilled' is accurate, but English does not show that this is the everyday verb 'fill'. Hebrew pictures a promise as a container that God has now filled to the brim.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used of fulfilling a word in 1 Kings 2:27 (the word against Eli's house 'fulfilled'), 1 Kings 8:24 and 2 Chronicles 36:21. The Septuagint renders it eplērōsen. That is the same Greek verb behind the New Testament formula 'that it might be fulfilled'.

From the study of Genesis 1:28

Range of meaning

To be full, to fill. It is used for filling a space, completing a period of time, and fulfilling a word. It has no built-in sense of repetition or restoration.

Against the English

KJV "replenish" is the problem. In 1611 "replenish" meant to fill or stock abundantly (the Oxford English Dictionary records this older sense). Today it means "fill again". Modern versions all have "fill".

How it drifted

English "replenish" came from Old French replenir, "to fill up" (Latin replere, which the Vulgate uses here: replete terram). Over later centuries the "re-" came to be heard as "again", and the older sense died out.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same verb is in 1:22, where the KJV itself has "fill the waters in the seas". It describes the outcome in Exod 1:7 ("the land was filled with them"). The Septuagint uses plērōsate, "fill".