Hebrew word · H4396

מִלֻּאָה

milu'at

setting

The verb mālē' means to fill or be full, to complete, and (with "hand") to install someone in priestly office. The related noun millu'āh means a filling, and in jewelry the inset or setting of a stone.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

setting (of jewel)

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 Exodus 28:17

Range of meaning

The verb mālē' means to fill or be full, to complete, and (with "hand") to install someone in priestly office. The related noun millu'āh means a filling, and in jewelry the inset or setting of a stone. A related plural, millu'îm, has two uses: "stones for setting" ('avnê millu'îm, Exod 25:7; 35:9; 1 Chr 29:2), and the "ordination" (literally the "filling") offerings and ram of Exod 29:22–34 and Lev 8.

Against the English

English "mount" or "set" is accurate for the craft. What it cannot keep is the Hebrew repetition "fill it with a filling", or the echo of the same root used a few verses later for ordaining Aaron (28:41, "fill their hand").

Used elsewhere in the period

The parallel account of the work being done uses the same verb: "they filled in it four rows of stone" (39:10). The Greek Septuagint did not translate it as "fill" at all. It reads "you shall weave into it a woven work set with stones, four-rowed", treating the stones as worked into the fabric.

Where it appears

Exodus · 3

  1. Exodus 28:17 מִלֻּ֣אַת a setting of

    And mount on it a setting of gemstones, four rows of stones: In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz, and an emerald;

    Here: "A filling of": a noun from the same root as the verb, so the line literally says "fill it with a filling". It means the inset, the stones placed into their mounts. The word appears only here, in 28:20 and in 39:13.

  2. Exodus 28:20 בְּמִלּוּאֹתָֽם׃ in settings their

    and in the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. Mount these stones in gold filigree settings.

  3. Exodus 39:13 בְּמִלֻּאֹתָֽם׃ in settings their

    and the fourth row had a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. These stones were mounted in gold filigree settings.

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