bala · wear out

What it means

bala (בָּלָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “wear out”.

Grow old with time; wear something out.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To become old and worn out through use or time, like clothing.
2. To consume someone little by little, with suffering or oppression.
3. To relish the fruit of one's own work.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• worn out ×5
• will wear out ×3
• consume ×2
• wear out ×2
• wears out ×1
• will enjoy to the full ×1
• wore away ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Deuteronomy×3
• Joshua×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×3
• Isaiah×3
• Lamentations×1

• Genesis 18:12

  So Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am worn out, will I have pleasure, and my lord is old?”

• Deuteronomy 8:4

  Your cloak did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these forty years.

• Deuteronomy 29:5

  “I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your cloaks have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot.

• Joshua 9:13

  And these wineskins that we filled new, look, they have split; and these cloaks of ours and our sandals have worn out from the very great length of the journey.”

• 1 Chronicles 17:9

  And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them, and they will dwell in their own place and will tremble no more; and unjust men will not again consume them as at the beginning,

• Nehemiah 9:21

  Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

• Job 13:28

  And he wears out like a rotten thing, like a garment that the moth has eaten.

• Psalms 32:3

  When I kept silent, my bones wore away through my roaring all the day.

• Psalms 49:14

  Like sheep for Sheol they are put; death shepherds them; and the upright will rule over them in the morning; and their form is for Sheol to consume, far from its dwelling.

• Psalms 102:26

  They will perish, but you will remain; and all of them like a garment will wear out; like clothing you will change them, and they will pass away.

• Isaiah 50:9

  Look, Adonai YHWH helps me; who is he who will condemn me? Look, all of them like a garment will wear out; the moth will eat them.

• Isaiah 51:6

  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens like smoke will vanish, and the earth like a garment will wear out, and its inhabitants likewise will die; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be shattered.

• Isaiah 65:22

  They will not build and another live there; they will not plant and another eat; for like the days of the tree will be the days of my people, and the work of their hands my chosen ones will enjoy to the full.

• Lamentations 3:4

  He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.

And 1 more times.