Aramaic word · H989

בְּטֵל

uvatilu

to cease

In its simple form it means 'to cease, stop, be idle'. In the form used here (Pael, which expresses causing) it means 'to make cease, halt, stop someone'. The related Hebrew bāṭal ('to cease', Eccl 12:3) is rare. In later Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew the word becomes common for 'idle' or 'annulled'.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) (P'al) to cease

1a) to cease

1b) to make to cease

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 Ezra 4:21

Range of meaning

In its simple form it means 'to cease, stop, be idle'. In the form used here (Pael, which expresses causing) it means 'to make cease, halt, stop someone'. The related Hebrew bāṭal ('to cease', Eccl 12:3) is rare. In later Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew the word becomes common for 'idle' or 'annulled'.

Against the English

'To cease' (KJV, WEB, YLT), 'to stop' (BSB, NIV). The renderings agree, but most English versions do not let readers see that the same verb returns in vv. 23 and 24.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Biblical Aramaic uses are concentrated in Ezra 4:21, 23, 24; 5:5; 6:8. The verb is common in Imperial and later Aramaic for stopping work or suspending an obligation.

From the study of Ezra 4:23

Range of meaning

In its basic form, bəṭēl means 'to cease, come to a stop, be idle'. In the causing form used here, it means 'to make someone stop, halt, put an end to' work or activity. It belongs to the vocabulary of official stoppage orders.

Against the English

'Made them to cease' (KJV, WEB, ESV) keeps the causing sense. BSB's 'stopped them' is accurate but plainer. What no English version can easily show is that the same verb is repeated across 4:21–24.

Used elsewhere in the period

Biblical Aramaic uses the root in Ezra 4:21 (the king's order to stop the men), 4:23 (carrying it out), 4:24 twice (the narrator's summary that the temple work 'ceased' and 'remained stopped'), 5:5 ('they did not stop them'), and 6:8 ('without delay', literally 'not to be stopped'). Later Hebrew borrowed the root (biṭṭēl, 'cancel, nullify'), and it became a standard rabbinic legal term.

Where it appears

Ezra · 6

  1. Ezra 4:21 לְבַטָּלָ֖א to make to cease

    Now, therefore, issue an order for these men to stop, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order.

    Here: 'To make … stop', an infinitive in the form that means causing an action. The same root comes back in vv. 23–24 ('they made them cease'; 'the work ceased'), and the narrator uses that repetition to tie the episode together.

  2. Ezra 4:23 וּבַטִּ֥לוּ and they made to cease

    When the text of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them.

    Here: 'And they made [them] stop'. A causing form of the verb 'cease'. It is the same verb as the king's order in 4:21 ('to make these men cease') and the narrator's line in 4:24 ('ceased… remained stopped'). The officials carried out the decree to the letter.

  3. Ezra 4:24 בְּטֵלַת֙ בָּֽטְלָ֔א it ceased, ceasing

    Thus the construction of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

  4. Ezra 5:5 בַטִּ֣לוּ they made cease

    But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they were not stopped until a report was sent to Darius and written instructions about this matter were returned.

  5. Ezra 6:8 לְבַטָּלָֽא׃ to make to cease

    I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered.

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