Hebrew word · H945

בּוּל

bul

Bul

A proper name for a month in the autumn (about October–November), the eighth month counting from spring. The meaning of the name is uncertain. Common suggestions link it to rain or to produce/yield (the root ybl, as in yevul, 'produce'), fitting the season of the early rains and the stored harvest.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Bul = "increase: produce"

the eighth Hebrew month, corresponding to modern Oct-Nov (Nov-Dec)

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 1 Kings 6:38

Range of meaning

A proper name for a month in the autumn (about October–November), the eighth month counting from spring. The meaning of the name is uncertain. Common suggestions link it to rain or to produce/yield (the root ybl, as in yevul, 'produce'), fitting the season of the early rains and the stored harvest. Some also compare mabbul, the Flood. None of these is certain.

Against the English

English versions all transliterate it ('Bul'). The issue is not mistranslation but unfamiliarity: modern readers may assume it is a normal Hebrew month like Nisan or Tishri, when it belongs to an older calendar.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used only here in the Hebrew Bible. Attested as a month name in Phoenician inscriptions, most famously the sarcophagus inscription of Eshmunazar II of Sidon (KAI 14, 'in the month of Bul'), and in other Phoenician texts from Cyprus. Its companions in Kings, Ziv (6:1, 37) and Ethanim (8:2), are likewise Phoenician/Canaanite names. After the Exile, Jews used Babylonian-derived names (Nisan, Tishri, Marcheshvan...); the eighth month became Marcheshvan.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 6:38 בּ֗וּל Bul

    In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

    Here: An old Canaanite/Phoenician month name, roughly October–November, the start of the autumn rains. Mentioned only here in the Bible but attested in Phoenician inscriptions.

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