Hebrew word · H973

בָּחֵל

bachalah

to loath

To feel loathing, disgust or weariness toward something. In biblical Hebrew it is essentially a one-time word. The only other possible case is the written (ketiv) form of Prov 20:21, where the reading is disputed.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

to loathe, abhor, feel loathing

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 Zechariah 11:8

Range of meaning

To feel loathing, disgust or weariness toward something. In biblical Hebrew it is essentially a one-time word. The only other possible case is the written (ketiv) form of Prov 20:21, where the reading is disputed.

Against the English

KJV/YLT "abhorred", WEB "loathed", BSB/ESV/NIV "detested", NASB (1995) "was weary of". The strong renderings fit the meaning attested later. "Weary of" is weaker.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Hebrew and Aramaic use the root for being disgusted or fed up with something (see the lexicons BDB and HALOT, and Jastrow for rabbinic usage). The Septuagint's "were howling against me" and the Vulgate's "variavit" ("wavered, turned") show that ancient translators found the word difficult.

Similar words

Where it appears

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 11:8 בָּחֲלָ֥ה it loathed

    And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.

    Here: A very rare verb, found clearly only here in the Bible, meaning to feel revulsion or weariness toward someone. They were not merely uninterested. They were sick of him.

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