bala · swallow

What it means

bala (בָּלַע) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “swallow”.

Swallow up; hence, destroy.

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 make something disappear inside oneself, or to finish it off completely.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To swallow: to gulp down at once. Figuratively, to destroy completely, to make disappear, like the earth that opens or an enemy that devours.

• The earth opens its mouth and swallows Numbers 16:32Exodus 15:12
• Aaron’s staff swallowed the staffs Exodus 7:12Genesis 41:7
• The great fish that swallows Jonah Jonah 1:17
• Enemies who swallow Israel Psalms 124:3Jeremiah 51:34Lamentations 2:2
• “He will swallow up death forever” Isaiah 25:8

Historical and cultural background

Korah and his followers disappear when “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them” (Numbers 16:32), as Moses had announced: “if YHWH creates something new” (16:30).

How we translate it

Always “swallow” in its forms, also figuratively, to keep the image (“swallowed” 24 times, “swallow” 13, “swallows” 6): “to swallow him up for nothing” (Job 2:3, with a note giving the sense ‘ruin him’); “He will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8); “the lips of the senseless swallow him up” (Ecclesiastes 10:12).

How it is translated

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

• swallowed ×24
• swallow ×13
• swallows ×6
• he will swallow up ×2
• swallow him up ×2
• even for an instant ×1
• swallowing up ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×2
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×1
• 2 Samuel×3
• Job×7
• Psalms×7
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×1
• Lamentations×5
• Hosea×2
• Jonah×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 41:7

  The thin ears swallowed the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, and look, it was a dream.

• Genesis 41:24

  The thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. I told it to the magicians, but there is no one who can declare it to me.”

• Exodus 7:12

  Each man threw down his staff, and they became serpents; but the staff of Aaron swallowed their staffs.

• Exodus 15:12

  You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

• Numbers 4:20

  But they shall not go in to see the holy things even for an instant, or they will die.”

• Numbers 16:30

  But if YHWH creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all that is theirs, and they go down alive to Sheol, then you shall know that these men have spurned YHWH.”

• Numbers 16:32

  And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all the goods.

• Numbers 16:34

  And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us!”

• Numbers 26:10

  The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korah when the community died, when the fire consumed two hundred fifty men, and they became a sign.

• Deuteronomy 11:6

  and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their houses and their tents and all that existed at their feet, in the midst of all Israel.

• 2 Samuel 17:16

  Now then, send quickly and tell David, saying, ‘Do not spend the night tonight in the plains of the wilderness, but be sure to cross over, or the king and all the people who are with him will be swallowed up.’”

• 2 Samuel 20:19

  I am among the peaceful and faithful of Israel. You are seeking to put to death a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of YHWH?”

• 2 Samuel 20:20

  Joab answered and said, “Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy!

• Job 2:3

  YHWH said to the Satan, “Have you set your heart on my servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing Elohim and turning away from evil; and he still holds fast to his integrity, though you incited me against him to swallow him up for nothing.”

• Job 7:19

  How long will you not look away from me, nor let me go until I swallow my spittle?

• Job 8:18

  If one swallows him up from his place, it denies him: ‘I have not seen you.’

• Job 10:8

  Your hands shaped me and made me altogether all around, and you swallow me up.

• Job 20:15

  Wealth he swallowed, and he will vomit it up; from his belly El will drive it out.

• Job 20:18

  He gives back what he toiled for, and does not swallow it; according to the wealth of what he got in exchange, he does not rejoice.

• Job 37:20

  Will it be told him that I would speak? Has anyone said that he would be swallowed up?

• Psalms 21:9

  You will make them like a furnace of fire at the time of your presence; YHWH, in his anger, will swallow them up, and fire will devour them.

• Psalms 35:25

  Let them not say in their heart, “Aha, our desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

• Psalms 55:9

  Swallow them up, Adonai, divide their tongue, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

• Psalms 69:15

  Let not the current of waters sweep me away, nor the depths swallow me, nor the well close its mouth over me.

• Psalms 106:17

  The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.

• Psalms 107:27

  They reeled and staggered like a drunkard, and all their wisdom was swallowed up.

• Psalms 124:3

  then alive they would have swallowed us when their anger burned against us;

• Proverbs 1:12

  let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

• Proverbs 19:28

  A perverse witness mocks justice, and the mouth of the wicked swallows wickedness.

• Proverbs 21:20

  Desirable treasure and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a senseless man swallows it up.

• Ecclesiastes 10:12

  The words of the mouth of a wise man are favor, but the lips of the senseless swallow him up.

• Isaiah 3:12

  My people — its oppressors are children, and women rule over it. My people, those who guide you lead you astray, and the way of your paths they have swallowed up.

• Isaiah 9:16

  And those who guide this people have been leading it astray, and those guided by them are swallowed up.

• Isaiah 19:3

  And the spirit of Egypt will be emptied out within it, and its counsel I will swallow up; and they will consult the idols and the charmers and those who call up the dead and the spiritists.

• Isaiah 25:7

  And he will swallow up on this mountain the surface of the veil, the veil that is over all the peoples, and the covering that is spread over all the nations.

• Isaiah 25:8

  He will swallow up death forever, and Adonai YHWH will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will remove from all the earth, for YHWH has spoken.

• Isaiah 28:4

  And the fading flower, the adornment of its beauty, which is on the head of the valley of fatness, will be like an early fig before the summer, which the one who sees sees it, and while it is still in his hand he swallows it.

• Isaiah 28:7

  But these also stagger with wine and stray with intoxicating drink; priest and prophet stagger with intoxicating drink; they are swallowed by wine, they stray because of intoxicating drink; they stagger in vision, they stumble in giving verdict.

• Isaiah 49:19

  For your ruins and your desolate places and the land of your destruction surely now will be too narrow for the inhabitant, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

• Jeremiah 51:34

  “He has devoured me, he has crushed me, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he has set me down as an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like the sea monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has driven me out.

And 9 more times.