chala · be sick; entreat

What it means

chala (חָלָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “be sick; entreat”.

Be sick or weak. With "face", entreat: soften someone's face.

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 lose one's health or strength, feel ill.
2. Literally "soften the face": to plead for someone's favor.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To be sick or weak. In the intensive form, with someone's “face”, it means to entreat him, to seek his favor.

• Falling sick, being sick Genesis 48:12 Kings 20:1
• Growing weak, losing strength Judges 16:7
• Wounded; an “incurable” wound 1 Kings 22:34Jeremiah 30:12
• Entreating YHWH, imploring his favor Exodus 32:111 Kings 13:6Daniel 9:13
• Pretending to be ill 2 Samuel 13:5

How we translate it

“Sick” 31 times, “ill” 4 in the plain sense; “weak” 6 when it is lack of strength (Judges 16:7); “I am wounded” when the cause is a wound (1 Kings 22:34); “incurable” 3 for the sore that does not heal. With “face” it is “implore” 5, “pleaded before” (Exodus 32:11) or “sought the favor” (Daniel 9:13); in 1 Kings 13:6 the literal phrase is kept: “Entreat, please, the face of YHWH”.

How it is translated

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

• sick ×31
• weak ×6
• implore ×5
• ill ×4
• Entreat ×3
• incurable ×3
• I am wounded ×2
• pleaded before ×2
• sickly ×2
• sickness ×2
• others ×15

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×1
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×7
• 2 Kings×7
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Song of Songs×2
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×6
• Ezekiel×4
• Daniel×2
• Hosea×1
• Amos×1
• Micah×1
• Nahum×1
• Zechariah×3
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 48:1

  After these things, someone said to Joseph, “Look, your father is ill.” So he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.

• Exodus 32:11

  But Moses pleaded before YHWH his Elohim and said, “Why, YHWH, does your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?

• Deuteronomy 29:22

  And the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, will say, when they see the blows of that land and its sicknesses with which YHWH has made it sick

• Judges 16:7

  And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any human being.”

• Judges 16:11

  And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I will become weak and be like any human being.”

• Judges 16:17

  So he opened to her all his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come up on my head, for I have been a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb of my mother. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any human being.”

• 1 Samuel 13:12

  I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not pleaded before YHWH’; so I forced myself and offered up the burnt offering.”

• 1 Samuel 19:14

  Saul sent messengers to take David, and she said, “He is sick.”

• 1 Samuel 22:8

  For all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who informs me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and none of you is sorry for me or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as it is this day.”

• 1 Samuel 30:13

  David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” He said, “I am an Egyptian young man, slave of an Amalekite man; my master left me because I fell sick three days ago.

• 2 Samuel 13:2

  Amnon was so distressed that he made himself ill because of Tamar his sister, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible in the eyes of Amnon to do anything to her.

• 2 Samuel 13:5

  Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let Tamar my sister come and give me food to eat, and let her prepare the meal before my eyes, so that I may see it and eat from her hand.’”

• 2 Samuel 13:6

  Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill, and the king came to see him. Amnon said to the king, “Please let Tamar my sister come and make two cakes before my eyes, and I will eat from her hand.”

• 1 Kings 13:6

  The king answered and said to the man of Elohim, “Entreat, please, the face of YHWH your Elohim, and pray for me, that my hand may return to me.” And the man of Elohim entreated the face of YHWH, and the king’s hand returned to him, and it was as at the first.

• 1 Kings 14:1

  At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam fell sick.

• 1 Kings 14:5

  But YHWH had said to Ahijah, “Look, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to seek a word from you about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall speak to her. And it will be, when she comes in, that she will be pretending to be another woman.”

• 1 Kings 15:23

  The rest of all the deeds of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Only in the time of his old age he became diseased in his feet.

• 1 Kings 17:17

  And it happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was very severe, until there was no breath left in him.

• 1 Kings 22:34

  But a man drew the bow in his simplicity, and struck the king of Israel between the joints and the breastplate. He said to his chariot driver, “Turn your hand and take me out of the camp, for I am wounded.”

• 2 Kings 1:2

  Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room that was in Samaria and became sick. He sent messengers and said to them, “Go, consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will live through this sickness.”

• 2 Kings 8:7

  Elisha came to Damascus, and Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick; and it was told him, saying, “The man of Elohim has come here.”

• 2 Kings 8:29

  King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Ahaziah son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was sick.

• 2 Kings 13:4

  Jehoahaz pleaded before YHWH, and YHWH listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Aram oppressed them.

• 2 Kings 13:14

  Now Elisha fell sick with the sickness of which he would die, and Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept over his face and said, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!”

• 2 Kings 20:1

  In those days Hezekiah fell sick to the point of death. And Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says YHWH: ‘Give orders to your house, for you are going to die and will not live.’”

• 2 Kings 20:12

  At that time Berodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

• 2 Chronicles 18:33

  But a man drew the bow in his simplicity, and struck the king of Israel between the joints and the breastplate. He said to the chariot driver, “Turn your hand and take me out of the camp, for I am wounded.”

• 2 Chronicles 22:6

  He returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds that they had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Azariah son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was sick.

• 2 Chronicles 32:24

  In those days Hezekiah became sick to the point of death; he prayed to YHWH, and he spoke to him and gave him a wonder.

• 2 Chronicles 33:12

  When he was in distress, he implored the face of YHWH his Elohim, and humbled himself greatly before the Elohim of his fathers.

• 2 Chronicles 35:23

  The archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.”

• Nehemiah 2:2

  And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” And I was afraid very greatly.

• Job 11:19

  You will stretch out with none to make you afraid, and many will entreat your favor.

• Psalms 35:13

  But I, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I afflicted with fasting my soul, and my prayer to my bosom would return.

• Psalms 45:12

  And the daughter of Tyre with a gift, the rich of the people will seek your favor.

• Psalms 77:10

  And I said, “This is my sickness: the change of the right hand of Elyon.”

• Psalms 119:58

  I have implored your face with all my heart; show me favor according to your saying.

• Proverbs 13:12

  Hope deferred makes sick the heart, but a tree of life is desire fulfilled.

• Proverbs 19:6

  Many implore the face of a noble, and everyone is a friend to a man of gifts.

• Proverbs 23:35

  “They struck me, I was not hurt; they beat me, I did not feel it. When will I wake up? I will seek it yet again.”

And 35 more times.