Grow With Me
Grow With Me

חָלַק

chalak · divide

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H2505 · appears 65 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

chalak (חָלַק) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “divide”.

Share out, apportion; also be smooth (flatter).

How to say it

cha·lak

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 give each one their part.
  2. Another word spelled the same: to be slippery, flatter falsely.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Under this Strong number go two verbs written the same way: one, to divide, share out in portions (from it comes חֵלֶק, portion, H2506); the other, to be smooth, and from there to make words smooth, to flatter.

Historical and cultural background

The land was divided by casting a lot in Shiloh, “before YHWH” (Joshua 18:10), according to the number of names of each tribe (Numbers 26:53-55).

How we translate it

In the first sense, “divided” 20 times, “divide” 12, “I will divide” 4, “distribute” and “distributed” (2 Samuel 6:19), “allotted” 2, “share” (1 Samuel 30:24). In the second sense, “who makes smooth” 2 (Proverbs 2:16), “they flatter” (Psalm 5:9), and in Psalm 55:21, “Smoother than butter {is} his mouth”.

How it is translated

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

  • divided ×20
  • divide ×12
  • I will divide ×4
  • allotted ×2
  • distribute ×2
  • distributed ×2
  • dividing ×2
  • he distributed ×2
  • he divides ×2
  • who makes smooth ×2
  • others ×15

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

  • Genesis 14:15

    He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.

  • Genesis 49:7

    Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

  • Genesis 49:27

    Benjamin is a wolf that tears; in the morning he devours the prey, and at evening he divides the spoil.”

  • Exodus 15:9

    The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

  • Numbers 26:53

    “Among these the land shall be divided as an inheritance according to the number of names.

  • Numbers 26:55

    But by lot the land shall be divided; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.

  • Numbers 26:56

    According to the lot its inheritance shall be divided between the large and the small.”

  • Deuteronomy 4:19

    And so that you do not lift up your eyes to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the army of the heavens, and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them; YHWH your Elohim has allotted them to all the peoples under all the heavens.

  • Deuteronomy 29:26

    And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods that they had not known and that he had not allotted to them.

  • Joshua 13:7

    And now divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.”

  • Joshua 14:5

    Just as YHWH had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did, and they divided the land.

  • Joshua 18:2

    And there remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance.

  • Joshua 18:5

    And they shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall stay on its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay on their territory in the north.

  • Joshua 18:10

    And Joshua cast for them a lot in Shiloh before YHWH; and there Joshua divided the land to the sons of Israel according to their divisions.

  • Joshua 19:51

    These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel gave as inheritances by lot in Shiloh before YHWH, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And they finished dividing the land.

  • Joshua 22:8

    and said to them, saying, “With great riches return to your tents, and with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very many garments. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

  • Judges 5:30

    ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? A girl, two girls for each head of a man; spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloth embroidered; dyed cloth, two embroideries, for the necks of the spoil.’

  • 1 Samuel 30:24

    Who will listen to you in this matter? For as the share of him who goes down into battle, so shall be the share of him who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.”

  • 2 Samuel 6:19

    And he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, from man to woman, to each one one cake of bread, one portion of meat, and one raisin cake. Then all the people went, each to his house.

  • 2 Samuel 19:29

    The king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your affairs? I have said: you and Ziba shall divide the land.”

  • 1 Kings 16:21

    Then the people of Israel were divided into halves: half of the people followed Tibni son of Ginath, to make him king, and the other half followed Omri.

  • 1 Kings 18:6

    So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went by one way by himself, and Obadiah went by another way by himself.

  • 1 Chronicles 16:3

    And he distributed to every man of Israel, from man to woman, to each one a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a raisin cake.

  • 1 Chronicles 23:6

    David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

  • 1 Chronicles 24:3

    David divided them, with Zadok from the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech from the sons of Ithamar, according to their office in their service.

  • 1 Chronicles 24:4

    The sons of Eleazar were found more numerous in heads of men than the sons of Ithamar, and they divided them thus: of the sons of Eleazar, sixteen heads of fathers’ houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, by their fathers’ houses, eight.

  • 1 Chronicles 24:5

    They divided them by lots, these with those, for there were chiefs of the sanctuary and chiefs of Elohim among the sons of Eleazar and among the sons of Ithamar.

  • 2 Chronicles 23:18

    Jehoiada put the offices of the house of YHWH in the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had divided over the house of YHWH, to offer the burnt offerings of YHWH, as it is written in the law of Moses, with joy and with song, under the direction of David.

  • 2 Chronicles 28:21

    For Ahaz took a portion from the house of YHWH and from the house of the king and from the officials, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was not of help to him.

  • Nehemiah 9:22

    And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and distributed them by regions; and they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

  • Nehemiah 13:13

    And I appointed as treasurers over the treasuries Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and next to them Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah; for they were considered faithful, and it was upon them to distribute to their brothers.

  • Job 21:17

    How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished, and does their calamity come upon them, and does he distribute pains in his anger?

  • Job 27:17

    he may prepare them, but the righteous will wear them, and the innocent will divide the silver.

  • Job 38:24

    What is the way by which the light is distributed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?

  • Job 39:17

    for Eloah has made her forget wisdom, and has not given her a share in understanding.

  • Psalms 5:9

    For there is nothing certain in his mouth; their inner being is calamity; an open grave is their throat; with their tongue they flatter.

  • Psalms 22:18

    They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

  • Psalms 36:2

    For he flatters himself in his own eyes to find his iniquity, to hate it.

  • Psalms 55:21

    Smoother than butter is his mouth, but battle is in his heart; softer than oil are his words, but they are drawn swords.

  • Psalms 60:6

    Elohim has spoken in his holiness: “I will leap for joy, I will divide Shechem, and the valley of Succoth I will measure out.

And 25 more times.