Hebrew word · H5936

עֲלוּקָה

la'alukah

leech

This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning comes from related languages and early translations. Arabic ʿalaq / ʿalaqa means 'leech' and comes from a root meaning 'to cling, hang on'. Syriac ʿalûqā also means leech.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

leech

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 Proverbs 30:15

Range of meaning

This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning comes from related languages and early translations. Arabic ʿalaq / ʿalaqa means 'leech' and comes from a root meaning 'to cling, hang on'. Syriac ʿalûqā also means leech. The root idea of clinging fits an animal that attaches itself and feeds.

Against the English

Most modern versions have 'leech'. The KJV has 'horseleach', the older English name for a large leech. Nothing major is lost either way.

How it drifted

'Horseleach' is now obscure, and some readers take it as a leech that attacks horses. In early modern English it just meant a big leech, and it was used figuratively for a greedy person.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint translates it bdella (leech) and the Vulgate sanguisuga ('bloodsucker'). The Aramaic Targum and Syriac also read 'leech'. A minority of scholars have pointed to an Arabic word for a ghoul or vampire-like demon and suggested a demonic figure. The Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 17a) reads the ʿalûqâ as Gehenna, the place of punishment, which is an interpretive reading, not a definition.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 30:15 לַֽעֲלוּקָ֨ה׀ [belong] to a leech

    The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

    Here: "To the leech" (meaning "the leech has"). The word appears only here in the Bible. Related words in Arabic and Syriac name the bloodsucking leech, and it opens the verse with a picture of something that clings and drains.

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