Hebrew word · H8168

שֹׁ֫עַל

lish'alim

handful

The hollow of the hand, a palm-full or handful. It occurs only three times: Isa 40:12, 'who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand'; 1 Kgs 20:10, 'enough dust for handfuls for all the people'; and here.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 25, 2026

What it means

1) hollow hand, hollow of hand, handful

1a) hollow hand, hollow of hand

1b) handful

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 Ezekiel 13:19

Range of meaning: The hollow of the hand, a palm-full or handful. It occurs only three times: Isa 40:12, 'who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand'; 1 Kgs 20:10, 'enough dust for handfuls for all the people'; and here.
Against the English: BSB, KJV and ESV say 'handfuls', and NIV and NLT add 'a few handfuls'. They are accurate. 'Barley' is sometimes lost as a signal: to an ancient hearer it meant the poor man's grain.
Used elsewhere in the period: Paying a seer in food was ordinary practice (1 Sam 9:7–8; 1 Kgs 14:3, where Jeroboam's wife brings ten loaves to Ahijah). Mic 3:5, 11 condemns prophets whose message depends on what is put in their mouths. Barley and bread also appear as ingredients in Mesopotamian and Hittite rituals, for example flour or grain offerings and divination using flour.

From the study of Isaiah 40:12

Range of meaning: The hollow of the cupped hand, and so a 'handful' as a rough measure of quantity. It is a body measure, not a formal unit.
Against the English: 'Hollow of his hand' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is accurate. The point English can miss is that this is a measure, the amount one scoop holds, not just a place where something rests.
Used elsewhere in the period: It occurs only three times. In 1 Kgs 20:10 Ben-Hadad boasts that the dust of Samaria will not be enough to give his soldiers a handful each. Ezek 13:19 mentions 'handfuls of barley' paid to false prophetesses. The Septuagint renders it simply 'with the hand' (cheiri). For the other 'handful' measure in this verse it uses drax, a fistful.

From the study of 1 Kings 20:10

Range of meaning: The hollow of the hand, and so a handful. Rare: Isa 40:12 (YHWH measures the waters 'in the hollow of his hand'), Ezek 13:19 ('handfuls of barley').
Against the English: All major versions render it 'handfuls' or 'a handful'. The Greek translators apparently read the same consonants as šuʿālîm, 'foxes/jackals'.
Used elsewhere in the period: BDB and HALOT give 'hollow of the hand, handful'. The Septuagint (3 Kgdms 21:10) appears to render it 'for the foxes' (ταῖς ἀλώπεξιν), taking שׁעלים as שׁוּעָלִים.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 1

1 Kings 20:10 לִשְׁעָלִ֕ים for handfuls

Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.”

Here: 'For handfuls', as much as a cupped palm holds (compare Isa 40:12; Ezek 13:19). The picture is each soldier scooping up a palmful and the dust running out first.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 40:12 בְּשָׁעֳל֜וֹ in [the] hollow of hand his

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?

Here: 'In his cupped palm', the amount one hand can scoop. 'His' points back to the unnamed 'who'. It is the smallest measure in the verse, set against the largest thing, the waters.

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 13:19 בְּשַׁעֲלֵ֣י for handfuls of

You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.

Here: 'For handfuls of.' The preposition here marks a price: 'in exchange for'. A sho'al is what a cupped palm holds (Isa 40:12), a tiny quantity.

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