Hebrew word · H8437
תּוֹלָל
vetolaleinu
tormentor
This word appears only here in the whole Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from the parallel line and from possible roots. The main options: (1) from yālal, 'to howl, wail', meaning 'those who make us wail', i.e.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) tormentor, plunderer
1a) meaning doubtful
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
This word appears only here in the whole Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from the parallel line and from possible roots. The main options: (1) from yālal, 'to howl, wail', meaning 'those who make us wail', i.e. tormentors (BDB's main suggestion); (2) from tālal / hātal, 'to mock, trifle with' (cf. Elijah's mocking in 1 Kings 18:27), meaning 'our mockers'; (3) from tēl, 'a ruin-heap', meaning 'those who turned us into heaps of rubble' (medieval Jewish commentators such as Kimchi); (4) a scribal slip for šôlālênû, 'our plunderers', from šālal, 'to plunder', which would match 'our captors' exactly in sound and sense.
- Against the English
Most modern versions say 'tormentors' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV, NASB). KJV's 'they that wasted us' follows the 'ruin-heap' derivation, in the older English sense of 'laid waste to us'. YLT's 'spoilers' (plunderers) follows the 'plunder' idea. The Greek Septuagint has 'those who led us away'.
- How it drifted
No drift in the usual sense. The uncertainty is old. But KJV's 'wasted' now sounds to modern ears like squandering, or like slang for drunkenness, and no longer like destroying a city.
- Used elsewhere in the period
No other biblical or early Hebrew occurrence. Septuagint Psalm 136:3: hoi apagagontes hēmas, 'those who led us away'. Jerome's Latin translation from the Hebrew: qui adfligebant nos, 'those who afflicted us'. Rabbinic and medieval commentators debate the root.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 137:3 וְתוֹלָלֵ֣ינוּ and mockers our
for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
Here: 'And our tormentors'. The word appears nowhere else in the Bible. It stands in parallel with 'our captors' and means something like those who made us wail, mocked us, plundered us or left us in ruins (see the study).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.