maal · be unfaithful

What it means

maal (מָעַל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “be unfaithful”.

Break the loyalty owed; especially, keep for oneself what belongs to God.

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 break the faith that is owed, above all to God, and act against his word.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• unfaithful ×11
• committed ×8
• have been unfaithful ×4
• he committed ×3
• acting unfaithfully ×2
• acts of unfaithfulness ×2
• committing ×2
• acts ×1
• commit ×1
• commits ×1
• others ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Leviticus×3
• Numbers×3
• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×4
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×9
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×2
• Proverbs×1
• Ezekiel×7
• Daniel×1

• Leviticus 5:15

  “When a person acts unfaithfully and sins inadvertently in regard to the holy things of YHWH, he shall bring his guilt offering to YHWH, a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation in shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary, as a guilt offering.

• Leviticus 6:2

  “When a person sins and commits unfaithfulness against YHWH by lying to his neighbor about a deposit or a pledge or a robbery, or has exploited his neighbor,

• Leviticus 26:40

  But they will confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their unfaithfulness that they committed against me, and also that they walked with me in opposition,

• Numbers 5:6

  “Speak to the sons of Israel: When a man or a woman commits any of the sins of human beings, acting unfaithfully against YHWH, and that person becomes guilty,

• Numbers 5:12

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

• Numbers 5:27

  When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be that if she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse shall enter into her to become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh sag, and the woman shall become an imprecation among her people.

• Deuteronomy 32:51

  because you broke faith with me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.

• Joshua 7:1

  But the sons of Israel committed an act of unfaithfulness regarding the things devoted to destruction: Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the things devoted to destruction, and the anger of YHWH burned against the sons of Israel.

• Joshua 22:16

  “Thus says the whole community of YHWH: ‘What is this unfaithfulness that you have committed against the Elohim of Israel, turning back today from following YHWH by building yourselves an altar, to rebel today against YHWH?

• Joshua 22:20

  Did not Achan son of Zerah commit unfaithfulness with the things devoted to destruction, and anger came upon the whole community of Israel? And he, one man, did not expire alone in his iniquity.’”

• Joshua 22:31

  And Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben, to the sons of Gad, and to the sons of Manasseh, “Today we know that YHWH is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithfulness against YHWH. Now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of YHWH.”

• 1 Chronicles 2:7

  And the sons of Carmi: Achar, the one who brought ruin on Israel, who committed an act of unfaithfulness regarding the thing devoted to destruction.

• 1 Chronicles 5:25

  But they committed unfaithfulness against the Elohim of their fathers, and prostituted themselves after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom Elohim had destroyed before them.

• 1 Chronicles 10:13

  So Saul died for his unfaithfulness that he committed against YHWH, because of the word of YHWH that he did not keep, and also for asking by calling up the dead, to consult,

• 2 Chronicles 12:2

  And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem— because they had been unfaithful to YHWH—

• 2 Chronicles 26:16

  But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his own destruction; he was unfaithful to YHWH his Elohim, and went into the temple of YHWH to burn incense on the altar of incense.

• 2 Chronicles 26:18

  They stood against Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to YHWH, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and this will not be for your honor from YHWH Elohim.”

• 2 Chronicles 28:19

  For YHWH humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had cast off restraint in Judah and had been greatly unfaithful to YHWH.

• 2 Chronicles 28:22

  In the time of his distress he was even more unfaithful to YHWH, he, King Ahaz.

• 2 Chronicles 29:6

  For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what is evil in the eyes of YHWH our Elohim; they abandoned him, and turned their faces away from the dwelling of YHWH, and turned their backs.

• 2 Chronicles 30:7

  Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who were unfaithful to YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, so that he gave them over to horror, as you see.

• 2 Chronicles 36:14

  Also all the officials of the priests and the people multiplied acts of unfaithfulness according to all the abominations of the nations, and they made unclean the house of YHWH that he had sanctified in Jerusalem.

• Ezra 10:2

  Then Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our Elohim and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; but now there is hope for Israel concerning this.

• Ezra 10:10

  And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.

• Nehemiah 1:8

  Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded Moses your servant, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples;

• Nehemiah 13:27

  And shall we listen to you and do all this great evil, acting unfaithfully against our Elohim by marrying foreign women?”

• Proverbs 16:10

  Divination is on the lips of a king; in judgment his mouth will not be unfaithful.

• Ezekiel 14:13

  “Son of man, a land, when it sins against me by committing a breach of faith, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its staff of bread and send famine into it and cut off from it human being and beast,

• Ezekiel 15:8

  And I will make the land a desolation because they have committed a breach of faith, declares Adonai YHWH.”

• Ezekiel 17:20

  And I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for his breach of faith that he committed against me.

• Ezekiel 18:24

  But when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does injustice, according to all the abominations that the wicked man has done, will he do so and live? All his righteous deeds that he has done will not be remembered; for his breach of faith that he committed and for his sin that he sinned, for them he will die.

• Ezekiel 20:27

  Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, ‘Thus says Adonai YHWH: In this also your fathers reviled me, in committing a breach of faith against me.

• Ezekiel 39:23

  And the nations will know that for their iniquity the house of Israel went into exile, because they were unfaithful to me, and I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell by the sword, all of them.

• Ezekiel 39:26

  And they will bear their shame and all their infidelity with which they were unfaithful to me, when they live on their own ground securely, and no one makes them afraid,

• Daniel 9:7

  To you, Adonai, belongs righteousness, but to us shame of face, as at this day, to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, those near and those far away, in all the lands where you have driven them because of their unfaithfulness that they have committed against you.

And 1 more times.