Hebrew word · H6424

פָּלַס

pales

to watch

Two connected senses show up in the Hebrew Bible. (1) To make level or smooth, to clear a way (Isa 26:7, where it parallels 'straight': 'you level the path of the righteous'). The related noun peles means a balance or scale (Prov 16:11; Isa 40:12). Lexicons split on whether this is one root or two.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) (Piel) to weigh, make level, balance

1a) to weigh out

1b) to make level or smooth

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 4:26

Range of meaning

Two connected senses show up in the Hebrew Bible. (1) To make level or smooth, to clear a way (Isa 26:7, where it parallels 'straight': 'you level the path of the righteous'). (2) To weigh out or weigh up, to assess (Ps 58:2 [Eng 58:2/Heb 58:3], 'your hands weigh out violence'; Prov 5:21, the LORD 'weighs/examines all his paths'). The related noun peles means a balance or scale (Prov 16:11; Isa 40:12). A scale that is 'level' is in balance, so the two senses meet naturally. Lexicons split on whether this is one root or two.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'ponder'. BSB and WEB have 'make level'. Strong's gives 'watch', and NASB follows a similar 'watch' sense. The NIV takes it as 'give careful thought to'. These are not wild guesses. They follow different ends of the word's range.

How it drifted

'Ponder' comes from Latin ponderare, 'to weigh'. In 1611 it still carried the sense of weighing something up in order to judge it. Today it suggests quiet, open-ended musing, which loses both the practical road-work picture and the testing a scale does.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint translates it ὀρθὰς τροχιὰς ποίει, 'make straight tracks', so it read the word as road-making. The Latin Vulgate has dirige, 'make straight, direct'. Hebrews 12:13 reuses the Greek wording: 'make straight paths for your feet'. Isaiah 26:7 pairs the verb with yāshār, 'straight, upright'.

From the study of Isaiah 26:7

Range of meaning

HALOT and BDB separate two related senses. (1) 'Make level, smooth, prepare (a road)': Prov 4:26; 5:6; Ps 78:50, 'he levelled a path for his anger'. (2) 'Weigh', linked to peles, 'balance, scale' (Prov 16:11; Isa 40:12, 'weighed the mountains in a scale'), and from there 'weigh out' (Ps 58:2) and possibly 'weigh up, consider'.

Against the English

KJV 'dost weigh' and YLT 'dost ponder' take sense (2). BSB 'clear', WEB/ESV 'make level', and NIV 'make smooth' take sense (1). The supplied gloss 'to watch' does not match the standard lexicons. It probably reflects the 'weigh/consider' line of interpretation, or Prov 5:21 understood as 'watches'.

How it drifted

Not modern drift but an old translation choice. Following the 'weigh' sense, the KJV turns a picture of road-building into one of God assessing or inspecting the path.

Used elsewhere in the period

Here the object is a road (maʿgal), and the first line has just called the road 'level'. Together with Prov 4:26 and Ps 78:50, where pālas takes a road as its object, this strongly favours 'make level'. The Greek LXX has paraskeuazō, '(the way) is prepared', which also points to road-preparation.

From the study of Proverbs 5:21

Range of meaning

Two related senses are attested. (1) To make level, clear or lay out a road: Isaiah 26:7 ("you make level the path of the righteous"), Psalm 78:50 ("he leveled a path for his anger"). (2) To weigh or measure out, a verb built on peles, the balance or scale (Proverbs 16:11; Isaiah 40:12): Psalm 58:2, "your hands weigh out violence." Lexicons split these differently. BDB keeps them together. HALOT separates "make level" from "weigh." Some modern commentators argue that in Proverbs the word comes close to "survey, observe," which is the sense the supplied data glosses as "to watch."

Against the English

KJV and ESV have "ponder" (in older English, "weigh"). BSB, WEB and NIV have "examines." NASB has "watches." The supplied interlinear reads "making level." Each English choice keeps one strand and drops the others.

How it drifted

KJV's "pondereth" comes from Latin ponderare, "to weigh" (compare the Vulgate's considerat). Today "ponder" means to muse or think something over, which makes God sound like he is quietly reflecting. The Hebrew picture is weighing on a scale, or surveying and grading a road.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Proverbs the same verb appears three times in this one sequence. In 4:26 the son is told: "Level (or weigh) the track of your feet." In 5:6 the adulteress "does not level (or weigh) the path of life." In 5:21 the LORD "levels (or weighs) all his tracks." The Greek translation (Septuagint) renders it skopeuei, "he keeps watch over." The Vulgate has considerat, "he examines closely."

Where it appears

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 58:2 תְּפַלֵּֽסֽוּן׃ you weigh out !

    No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

    Here: "You weigh out." It is related to pelles, a balance or scales. Judges whose job was to weigh cases fairly instead measure out violence as if it were a sentence. A less common reading is "you clear a path for" (see debates).

  2. Psalm 78:50 יְפַלֵּ֥ס he made level

    He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

Proverbs · 3

  1. Proverbs 4:26 פַּ֭לֵּס make level

    Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

    Here: A command to the son: smooth out, even up the track. The same root gives the word for a balance-scale, so 'weigh up' sits in the background. The road picture of verses 25–27 favours 'level'. The command form says this is something you actively do, not something that happens to you.

  2. Proverbs 5:6 תְּפַלֵּ֑ס she should make level

    She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

    Here: Either 'make (a path) level and straight' or 'weigh out, examine closely'. The form can mean 'she' or 'you'. On the usual reading she never lays out a level road toward life, or never weighs it up.

  3. Proverbs 5:21 מְפַלֵּֽס׃ [he is] making level

    For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

    Here: A participle, meaning ongoing action: the LORD "is leveling / weighing" every track. The verb can mean laying out or smoothing a road, or weighing something on a scale. Either way the LORD is not a passive onlooker. He surveys the man's roads and assesses them as their judge, and he is the one who lays them out.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 26:7 תְּפַלֵּֽס׃ you make level

    The path of the righteous is level; You clear a straight path for the upright.

    Here: Second-person verb in an intensive form, in the tense Hebrew uses for ongoing or habitual action: 'you level', 'you keep smoothing'. This is God's continuing work on the road, not a single act. A second sense of the root, 'to weigh as on a scale', lies behind the KJV's 'dost weigh'.

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