Aramaic word · H6992

קְטַל

katel

to slay

In Biblical and Imperial Aramaic this is the ordinary verb for 'kill, put to death'. It covers executions by royal order, killing in war and violent death generally. The form קְטִיל is the simple passive, 'was killed', and it does not name the killer.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 7 times in 6 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to slay, kill

1a) (P'al) to be slain

1b) (Pael) to slay

1c) (Ithp'al) to be slain

1d) (Ithpael) to be slain

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 Daniel 5:30

Range of meaning

In Biblical and Imperial Aramaic this is the ordinary verb for 'kill, put to death'. It covers executions by royal order, killing in war and violent death generally. The form קְטִיל is the simple passive, 'was killed', and it does not name the killer.

Against the English

'Slain' (KJV, BSB) and 'killed' (most modern versions) are both accurate. 'Slain' sounds a little more formal and martial. Neither English word carries the echoes the Aramaic verb picks up within Daniel itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb is common in Imperial Aramaic, for example in the Elephantine papyri and in the Story of Ahiqar, where a royal order to kill the sage drives the plot. In Biblical Aramaic it is used almost entirely in Daniel: of the decree that the wise men be killed (2:13–14), the men killed by the furnace's heat (3:22), Nebuchadnezzar who 'killed whom he wished' (5:19), and the fourth beast that 'was killed' (7:11). Daniel 7:11 uses the same passive form as this verse.

Where it appears

Daniel · 7

  1. Daniel 2:13 מִֽתְקַטְּלִ֑ין לְהִתְקְטָלָֽה׃ פ [were] about to be killed, to be killed

    So the decree went out that the wise men were to be executed, and men went to look for Daniel and his friends to execute them.

  2. Daniel 2:14 לְקַטָּלָ֔ה to kill

    When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, went out to execute the wise men of Babylon, Daniel responded with discretion and tact.

  3. Daniel 3:22 קַטִּ֣ל it killed

    The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the fiery flames killed the men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

  4. Daniel 5:19 קָטֵ֗ל killing

    Because of the greatness that He bestowed on him, the people of every nation and language trembled in fear before him. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished; he exalted whom he wished and humbled whom he wished.

  5. Daniel 5:30 קְטִ֕יל he was killed

    That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,

    Here: 'Was killed.' The form is passive and says nothing about who did the killing. It is the same verb used in 5:19 for Nebuchadnezzar's absolute power ('whom he wished, he killed'). Here the royal power to kill turns against a Babylonian king.

  6. Daniel 7:11 קְטִילַ֤ת it was killed

    Then I kept watching because of the arrogant words the horn was speaking. As I continued to watch, the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.

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