chayil · strength; wealth, army

What it means

chayil (חַיִל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “strength; wealth, army”.

Strength, ability; depending on the passage, wealth, an army, or valor.

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. Strength and ability: the brave man in war, the capable and worthy person.
2. The goods and wealth someone gathers.
3. A body of soldiers, a king's armed force.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Strength, ability. BDB notes that it probably means a force, of men, means or other resources: an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength.

• Valor: “valiant warrior” Judges 6:12
• A person's worth: “a woman of worth” Ruth 2:1Ruth 3:11Proverbs 31:10
• An army Exodus 14:4
• Wealth, goods Deuteronomy 8:17Deuteronomy 8:18Genesis 34:29
• “Capable men” Exodus 18:21

How we translate it

“Army” 51 times, “wealth” 30, “valor” 28, “force” 22, “valiant” 18, “forces” 14, “capable” 11, “strength” 10, “worth” 10. The word is one; English chooses according to the passage. גִּבּוֹר חַיִל is “valiant warrior”; said of Boaz, “a man mighty {and} of worth”, and אֵשֶׁת חַיִל, “a woman of worth”, with the same word in Ruth 3:11 and Proverbs 31:10.

How it is translated

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

• army ×51
• wealth ×30
• valor ×28
• force ×22
• valiant ×18
• forces ×14
• capable ×11
• strength ×10
• worth ×10
• warriors ×9
• others ×31

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×7
• Numbers×3
• Deuteronomy×5
• Joshua×4
• Judges×7
• Ruth×3
• 1 Samuel×9
• 2 Samuel×12
• 1 Kings×9
• 2 Kings×16
• 1 Chronicles×26
• 2 Chronicles×23
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×3
• Esther×2
• Job×6
• Psalms×18
• Proverbs×5
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×32
• Ezekiel×14
• Daniel×6
• Joel×2
• Obadiah×2
• Micah×1
• Nahum×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 34:29

  All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives they took captive and plundered, and all that was in the house.

• Genesis 47:6

  The land of Egypt is before you; in the best of the land settle your father and your brothers; let them live in the land of Goshen. And if you know that there are among them capable men, put them as chiefs over livestock, over what is mine.”

• Exodus 14:4

  I will make Pharaoh’s heart obstinate, and he will pursue them, and I will gain glory over Pharaoh and over all his army; and the Egyptians will know that I am YHWH.” And they did so.

• Exodus 14:9

  The Egyptians pursued them and overtook them camping by the sea, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

• Exodus 14:17

  And I, look, I am making the heart of the Egyptians obstinate, so that they will go in after them; and I will gain glory over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen.

• Exodus 14:28

  The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the army of Pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea; not even one of them remained.

• Exodus 15:4

  Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has cast into the sea; and his choicest captains were sunk in the Sea of Reeds.

• Exodus 18:21

  And you shall look for, from all the people, capable men, who fear Elohim, men of truth, who hate unjust gain; and place them over them as chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens.

• Exodus 18:25

  Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens.

• Numbers 24:18

  And Edom shall be a possession, and Seir, his enemies, shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly.

• Numbers 31:9

  The sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and all their animals and all their livestock and all their wealth they looted.

• Numbers 31:14

  Moses was angry with the appointed officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who came from the army of the war.

• Deuteronomy 3:18

  I commanded you at that time, saying, “YHWH your Elohim has given you this land to take possession of it. Armed, you shall cross over before your brothers, the sons of Israel, all the valiant men.

• Deuteronomy 8:17

  and you say in your heart, “My strength and the might of my hand have made for me this wealth.”

• Deuteronomy 8:18

  Remember YHWH your Elohim, for it is he who gives you strength to make wealth, in order to establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

• Deuteronomy 11:4

  and what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and to its chariots, how he made the waters of the Sea of Reeds flow over their faces when they pursued you, and YHWH made them perish to this day;

• Deuteronomy 33:11

  Bless, YHWH, his strength, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of those who rise up against him and of those who hate him, so that they do not rise again.”

• Joshua 1:14

  Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall live in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross in battle formation before your brothers, all the mighty warriors, and help them,

• Joshua 6:2

  YHWH said to Joshua, “See, I have given into your hand Jericho and its king, its mighty warriors.

• Joshua 8:3

  So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them out by night.

• Joshua 10:7

  So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty warriors.

• Judges 3:29

  They struck Moab at that time, about ten thousand men, all robust and all men of valor; and not a man escaped.

• Judges 6:12

  The angel of YHWH appeared to him and said to him, “YHWH is with you, valiant warrior.”

• Judges 11:1

  Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, and he was the son of a woman, a prostitute; and Gilead fathered Jephthah.

• Judges 18:2

  So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, as far as the house of Micah, and spent the night there.

• Judges 20:44

  And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.

• Judges 20:46

  So all who fell of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword on that day; all these were men of valor.

• Judges 21:10

  So the community sent there twelve thousand men of the men of valor, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.

• Ruth 2:1

  Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a man mighty and of worth, of the clan of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.

• Ruth 3:11

  And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All that you say I will do for you, for all the gate of my people knows that you are a woman of worth.

• Ruth 4:11

  And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “Witnesses. May YHWH make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and like Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. Act with worth in Ephrathah and have renown in Bethlehem.

• 1 Samuel 2:4

  The bow of the mighty is broken, and those who stumbled have girded on strength.

• 1 Samuel 9:1

  There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, son of a Benjaminite, a mighty man of worth.

• 1 Samuel 10:26

  Saul also went to his house at Gibeah, and there went with him the valiant men whose hearts Elohim had touched.

• 1 Samuel 14:48

  He acted with valor and struck Amalek and delivered Israel from the hand of the one who plundered it.

• 1 Samuel 14:52

  The war was fierce against the Philistines all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he gathered him to himself.

• 1 Samuel 16:18

  One of the young men answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who knows how to play, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and discerning in speech, and a man of fine figure; and YHWH is with him.”

• 1 Samuel 17:20

  David rose early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up and went, as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army that was going out to the battle line was shouting for war.

• 1 Samuel 18:17

  Saul said to David, “Look, my elder daughter Merab: her I will give to you as wife; only be for me a valiant man and fight the wars of YHWH.” For Saul said, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

• 1 Samuel 31:12

  all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

And 194 more times.