Hebrew word · H8585

תְּעָלָה

te'alah

conduit

Te'alah is a channel, trench or watercourse (1 Kings 18:32, Elijah's trench; Job 38:25, a channel for rain). Berekhah is a man-made pool or reservoir. Elyon is "upper" or "higher." The phrase means "the channel of the Upper Pool," a named feature of Jerusalem's water system.

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

conduit, water course, trench

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 Isaiah 36:2

Range of meaning

Te'alah is a channel, trench or watercourse (1 Kings 18:32, Elijah's trench; Job 38:25, a channel for rain). Berekhah is a man-made pool or reservoir. Elyon is "upper" or "higher." The phrase means "the channel of the Upper Pool," a named feature of Jerusalem's water system.

Against the English

"Conduit" (KJV, ESV) is accurate. "Aqueduct" (BSB, WEB, NIV) can call up Roman arches on stilts, but this was a channel cut in rock or earth. NLT's paraphrase, "the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool," commits to a view of how the water flowed that the Hebrew does not state.

How it drifted

"Aqueduct" makes modern readers think of Roman-style raised waterworks. Those came centuries later.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact same place is named in Isaiah 7:3, where Isaiah meets King Ahaz. Hezekiah's water works are recorded in 2 Kings 20:20 ("the pool and the conduit," hatte'alah) and 2 Chronicles 32:3–4, 30 (stopping "the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon"). Isaiah 22:9–11 criticises Jerusalem's water preparations against attack. The Siloam Tunnel inscription records the cutting of a water tunnel, usually linked to Hezekiah.

From the study of 2 Kings 18:17

Range of meaning

Te'alah: a dug channel, trench or watercourse (used of the trench around Elijah's altar in 1 Kings 18:32, 35, and of irrigation channels). Berekah: pool or reservoir. 'Elyonah: upper, higher.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV 'conduit', BSB 'aqueduct'. 'Aqueduct' may suggest a Roman-style arched bridge, which is too grand. The Hebrew means a channel, possibly rock-cut or partly covered.

Used elsewhere in the period

The identical phrase 'the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the Fuller's Field' appears in Isaiah 7:3. There Isaiah met King Ahaz (about 734 BC) and urged him to trust Yahweh and not call on Assyria. 2 Chronicles 32:3–4, 30 and 2 Kings 20:20 describe Hezekiah's work on Jerusalem's water supply before the siege, including the tunnel from the Gihon spring.

From the study of Jeremiah 30:13

Range of meaning

Spelled the same as a word for "water channel, conduit" (2 Kgs 18:17), but here it is a separate word from ʿālâ, "go up": the flesh that "comes up" as a wound fills in and closes, so healing seen as the wound actually closing.

Against the English

BSB "recovery", KJV "healing". Both are fine, but they lose the concrete picture of new skin forming over raw flesh.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only in Jer 30:13 and 46:11. The same idea appears with a different noun and the same verb in Jer 30:17: "I will make new flesh (ʾărūkâ) come up (ʾaʿăleh) for you", and in Jer 8:22, "why has the new flesh of my people not come up?"

Where it appears

1 Kings · 3

  1. 1 Kings 18:32 תְּעָלָ֗ה a trench

    And with the stones, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

  2. 1 Kings 18:35 הַתְּעָלָ֖ה the trench

    So the water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

  3. 1 Kings 18:38 בַּתְּעָלָ֖ה [was] in the trench

    Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water in the trench.

    Here: The ditch Elijah dug around the altar (v. 32). Elsewhere the word means a water channel or conduit, such as Hezekiah's water channel (2 Kgs 20:20).

2 Kings · 2

  1. 2 Kings 18:17 בִּתְעָלַת֙ at [the] conduit of

    Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

    Here: 'At the water channel of…'. A te'alah is a dug channel or trench that carries water. Standing at the city's water supply was itself a threat.

  2. 2 Kings 20:20 הַתְּעָלָ֔ה the conduit

    As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, along with all his might and how he constructed the pool and the tunnel to bring water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Job · 1

  1. Job 38:25 תְּעָלָ֑ה a channel

    Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 7:3 תְּעָלַת֙ [the] conduit of

    Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,

  2. Isaiah 36:2 בִּתְעָלַת֙ at [the] conduit of

    And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

    Here: "At the channel of." A te'alah is a dug watercourse or trench. Here it is part of Jerusalem's water system, which mattered enormously in a siege.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 30:13 תְּעָלָ֖ה healing

    There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.

    Here: From "come up": the new skin that grows up over a wound as it closes. "Remedies" are what you put on; this is the result you hope for. She has neither.

  2. Jeremiah 46:11 תְּעָלָ֖ה [is] healing

    Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.

    Here: The fresh skin that 'comes up' over a wound as it closes. It comes from the same root as 'go up' at the start of the verse, so the verse ends on a pun: go up, but nothing will come up over your wound.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 31:4 תְּעָלֹתֶ֣יהָ channels its

    The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.

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