Hebrew word · H5764
עוּל
'ul
infant
A nursing infant, a suckling. It comes from a verb meaning 'to give suck', which is also used of nursing ewes. The noun itself is rare (here and Isa 65:20). The related ʿolel/ʿolal ('infant, small child') is common, especially in Lamentations.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
suckling, sucking child
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 Isaiah 49:15
- Range of meaning
A nursing infant, a suckling. It comes from a verb meaning 'to give suck', which is also used of nursing ewes. The noun itself is rare (here and Isa 65:20). The related ʿolel/ʿolal ('infant, small child') is common, especially in Lamentations.
- Against the English
KJV 'sucking child', BSB/ESV/WEB 'nursing child', NIV 'the baby at her breast'. All are accurate. English 'baby' can lose the point that the child is still feeding from her.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The verb form appears for nursing ewes in Gen 33:13 and Ps 78:71. It appears in Isa 40:11, where God the shepherd 'gently leads those that are nursing', so it is the same image of tender care at the start of this section of Isaiah. The related ʿolel is used for the starving infants of besieged Jerusalem (Lam 2:11, 19, 20; 4:4). Weaning came late: Hannah keeps Samuel until he is weaned (1 Sam 1:22–24), and the mother in 2 Macc 7:27 says 'I nursed you for three years.'
From the study of Isaiah 65:20
- Range of meaning
ʿûl comes from a verb meaning 'to give suck.' It means a nursing infant (Isa 49:15, 'can a woman forget her nursing child?'). Joined to 'days' it makes a set phrase: a suckling of days, an infant whose life is counted in days.
- Against the English
KJV's 'infant of days' keeps the Hebrew but is opaque today. BSB's 'live but a few days', WEB's 'only lives a few days' and similar modern renderings unpack it correctly. YLT's 'suckling of days' is literal.
- How it drifted
No real change of meaning. The issue is only that the archaic literal phrase is unclear.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint is generally given as rendering it with a word for one who dies 'untimely' or 'before his season' (ἄωρος). That reading takes the phrase as being about early death, which confirms the sense. Infant death was the most common bereavement in ancient Israel. Archaeologists and historians commonly estimate that a large share of children, perhaps a third or more, did not reach adulthood.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 2
-
Isaiah 49:15 עוּלָ֔הּ sucking child her
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
Here: 'Her suckling', a baby still at the breast. In that world a child nursed for up to about three years, so this is a child who still depends on its mother's body for food.
-
Isaiah 65:20 ע֤וּל a sucking child of
No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
Here: A baby still at the breast. In Israel weaning came around age two or three, so this is the most fragile stage of life.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.