Hebrew word · H6383
פִּלְאִי
feli
incomprehensible
The root pl' describes what is extraordinary, beyond normal human limits: too hard to do, too hard to judge, too deep to understand. Its noun pele' and the plural niphal form nifla'ot ('wonders') mostly name God's own deeds, like the Exodus wonders (Exod 15:11; Ps 77:11, 14).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
wonderful, incomprehensible, extraordinary
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
- Range of meaning
The root pl' describes what is extraordinary, beyond normal human limits: too hard to do, too hard to judge, too deep to understand. Its noun pele' and the plural niphal form nifla'ot ('wonders') mostly name God's own deeds, like the Exodus wonders (Exod 15:11; Ps 77:11, 14). The adjective pil'î is the angel's answer when asked his name in Judges 13:18: 'it is wonderful', meaning beyond you. With 'from' (min) it means 'too much for someone'.
- Against the English
KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV and NASB all say 'too wonderful'. In 1611 'wonderful' meant 'full of wonder, astonishing', which fits the Hebrew well. Today 'wonderful' usually means 'delightful, very nice'. WEB's 'beyond me' and NLT's 'too great for me to understand' keep the sense of being out of reach, but they lose the word's link to God's 'wonders'.
- How it drifted
Over the last two centuries English 'wonderful' weakened from 'causing astonishment' into a general word of praise. The Hebrew word is about the limits of human capacity, not about pleasantness.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 18:14: 'Is anything too wonderful/hard (hayippālē') for the LORD?' Deut 17:8: a legal case 'too hard for you' (yippālē' mimmekhā) goes to the priests. Deut 30:11: the commandment is 'not too hard for you' (lō' niple't hî' mimmekhā). Ps 131:1: 'I do not busy myself with things too great and too wonderful for me (niplā'ôt mimmennî).' Prov 30:18: 'Three things are too wonderful for me.' Job 42:3: 'things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.' Isa 9:6 names the coming king pele' yô'ēṣ, 'Wonder-Counsellor'. The Septuagint here uses ἐθαυμαστώθη, 'was made marvellous'.
Where it appears
Judges · 1
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Judges 13:18 פֶ֛לִאי׃ ס [is] incomprehensible
“Why do you ask my name,” said the angel of the LORD, “since it is beyond comprehension?”
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 139:6 פְּלִ֣יאָֽה [is too] wonderful
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Here: Placed first for emphasis: 'beyond reach!' The word belongs to the pl' family, used for whatever goes past human ability to do or understand, usually God's own acts. It is the predicate of 'knowledge', and with the 'from me' that follows it means 'too extraordinary for me'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.