עָלָה

ala · go up, offer up

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H5927 · appears 889 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?

Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

ala (עָלָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “go up, offer up”.

Go up, ascend, climb. It is also used for "offering" a sacrifice (making it go up), and for coming up from Egypt.

How to say it

a·la

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

To go from a low place to a higher one: up the mountain, to Jerusalem or to a city.
To rise: the sun, the smoke.
To make someone go up: "I led you up from Egypt".
To burn a sacrifice on the altar; literally "make go up".

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Go up, ascend, literally and figuratively. From this verb come עֹלָה, “burnt offering”, and עֶלְיוֹן, “Most High”.

To go up to a higher place Genesis 13:1 Exodus 19:3
To go up to Jerusalem and to the house of YHWH Ezra 1:3 Psalms 122:4 Psalms 24:3
To offer a sacrifice on the altar Genesis 8:20
The dawn that “comes up”: daybreak Genesis 19:15 Genesis 32:24

Historical and cultural background

From this verb comes the word עֹלָה, “burnt offering”: the offering that the priest burned whole on the altar (Leviticus 1:9).

How we translate it

“Went up” 173 times, “go up” 153, “come up” 76, “came up” 66, “brought up” 34; “offered” 34 and “offer” 28, when the causative form has burnt offerings or offerings as its object; with the dawn, “came up”. The translation keeps “go up” for going from Egypt to Canaan and for going to Jerusalem, as the Hebrew says.

How it is translated

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

went up ×173
go up ×153
come up ×76
came up ×66
brought up ×34
offered ×34
brought ×30
offer ×28
bring up ×25
goes up ×19
others ×251

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

Genesis 2:6
but a mist would go up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
Genesis 8:20
And Noah built an altar to YHWH, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 13:1
Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him.
Genesis 17:22
When he finished speaking with him, Elohim went up from Abraham.
Genesis 19:15
As the dawn came up, the messengers urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city.”
Genesis 19:28
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he saw, and look, the smoke of the land was going up like the smoke of a furnace.
Genesis 19:30
Lot went up from Zoar and lived on the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar; and he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you.”
Genesis 22:13
Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, a ram behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Genesis 24:16
The girl was very beautiful in appearance, a virgin, and no man had known her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.
Genesis 26:23
From there he went up to Beersheba.
Genesis 28:12
He dreamed, and look, a ladder set on the earth, and its top reaching to the heavens; and look, the angels of Elohim were going up and coming down on it.
Genesis 31:10
It happened at the time when the flock was in heat that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and look, the male goats that were mounting the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.
Genesis 31:12
He said, ‘Lift up, please, your eyes and see: all the male goats that are mounting the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
Genesis 32:24
And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the dawn came up.
Genesis 32:26
Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn has come up.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Genesis 35:1
Elohim said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and stay there, and make there an altar to El who appeared to you when you fled from Esau your brother.”
Genesis 35:3
Let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to El who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me on the way that I have gone.”
Genesis 35:13
Then Elohim went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.
Genesis 37:28
Then Midianite men, traders, passed by; and they drew and lifted Joseph out of the cistern and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph to Egypt.
Genesis 38:12
Many days passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died; and when Judah was comforted, he went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite.
Genesis 38:13
Tamar was told, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
Genesis 40:10
and on the vine were three branches; and as it budded, its blossoms came up, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
Genesis 41:2
And look, from the Nile there came up seven cows, beautiful in appearance and fat in flesh, and they grazed in the reed grass.
Genesis 41:3
And look, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly in appearance and thin in flesh, and they stood beside the other cows on the bank of the Nile.
Genesis 41:5
He fell asleep and dreamed a second time, and look, seven ears of grain were coming up on one stalk, plump and good.
Genesis 41:18
and look, from the Nile there came up seven cows, fat in flesh and beautiful in form, and they grazed in the reed grass.
Genesis 41:19
And look, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly in form and lean in flesh; I have never seen any like them in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.
Genesis 41:22
I saw in my dream, and look, seven ears coming up on one stalk, full and good.
Genesis 41:27
And the seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, scorched by the east wind, will be seven years of famine.
Genesis 44:17
But he said, “Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found, he will be my slave; and you, go up in peace to your father.”
Genesis 44:24
When we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
Genesis 44:33
Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the young man as a slave to my lord, and let the young man go up with his brothers.
Genesis 44:34
For how can I go up to my father if the young man is not with me? Let me not see the evil that would come upon my father.”
Genesis 45:9
Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph: Elohim has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; do not delay.
Genesis 45:25
They went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.
Genesis 46:4
I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”
Genesis 46:29
Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He appeared to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time.
Genesis 46:31
Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.
Genesis 49:4
Turbulent as water, you will not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it; he went up to my couch!

And 849 more times.