chul · writhe; wait

What it means

chul (חוּל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “writhe; wait”.

Writhe, tremble, be in labor pains; also dance. In another form, wait anxiously.

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 twist and shudder from sharp pain or from fear.
2. To bring a child into the world, or come into the world.
3. To whirl, swirling around over something.
4. To wait anxiously for something slow to come.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To move in a circle, to writhe: hence to tremble, to writhe in pain, to be in labor and to give birth. In other passages, to wait anxiously or to endure. BDB gathers these uses under a root meaning ‘whirl, dance’.

• Trembling before YHWH Psalms 96:9Psalms 29:8Psalms 114:7
• Writhing like a woman giving birth Isaiah 26:17Psalms 55:4
• Giving birth; being brought forth Psalms 51:5Proverbs 8:24Deuteronomy 32:18
• Before “you gave birth to the earth and the world” Psalms 90:2
• Waiting Genesis 8:10Psalms 37:7

How we translate it

According to the context: “tremble” when the earth or the peoples shake (“tremble before him, all the earth”, Psalm 96:9); “writhe”, “writhes”, “writhed” with the image of labor; “was in labor”, “gave birth”, “I was brought forth”; “waited” in Genesis 8:10 and “wait longingly for him” in Psalm 37:7; “dance” in Judges 21:21; “whirl” of the storm (Jeremiah 23:19). No single English verb gathers it all; the one chosen shows the movement of the body in each case.

How it is translated

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

• writhe ×8
• tremble ×6
• writhes ×4
• I was brought forth ×3
• writhed ×3
• anguish ×2
• he trembled ×2
• it will whirl ×2
• wait ×2
• was in labor ×2
• others ×25

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Deuteronomy×2
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• Esther×1
• Job×6
• Psalms×12
• Proverbs×4
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×6
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×2
• Hosea×1
• Joel×1
• Micah×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 8:10

  And he waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

• Deuteronomy 2:25

  This day I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the face of the peoples under all the heavens, who will hear the report of you and tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

• Deuteronomy 32:18

  The Rock that bore you you neglected, and you forgot El who gave you birth.

• Judges 3:25

  They waited until they were ashamed, and look, he was not opening the doors of the upper room. So they took the key and opened them, and there was their lord, fallen to the ground, dead.

• Judges 21:21

  and watch; and look, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out from the vineyards and snatch for yourselves, each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

• Judges 21:23

  And the sons of Benjamin did so, and they took wives according to their number from the dancers whom they stole; and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities and lived in them.

• 1 Samuel 31:3

  The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers, men with the bow, found him, and he trembled greatly because of the archers.

• 2 Samuel 3:29

  May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab one who has a discharge or a leper or one who leans on a staff or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks bread.”

• 1 Chronicles 10:3

  And the battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers, men with the bow, found him, and he trembled because of the archers.

• 1 Chronicles 16:30

  Tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world stands firm; it will not be moved.

• Esther 4:4

  And Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and made it known to her, and the queen was greatly shaken; and she sent clothes to clothe Mordecai, and to remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them.

• Job 15:7

  Were you born the first of human beings, and before the hills were you brought forth?

• Job 15:20

  All the days of the wicked, he writhes in pain, and through the number of years stored up for the tyrant.

• Job 20:21

  There was no survivor from his eating; therefore his prosperity will not last.

• Job 26:5

  The shades writhe beneath the waters and their inhabitants.

• Job 35:14

  How much less when you say that you do not perceive him. The judgment is before him, and wait for him.

• Job 39:1

  Do you know the time when the mountain goats of the crag give birth? Do you watch over the calving of the does?

• Psalms 10:5

  His ways endure at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; at all his adversaries he snorts.

• Psalms 29:8

  The voice of YHWH makes the wilderness tremble; YHWH makes the wilderness of Kadesh tremble.

• Psalms 29:9

  The voice of YHWH makes the does give birth and strips the forests; and in his temple all of it says, “Glory!”

• Psalms 37:7

  Be silent before YHWH and wait longingly for him; do not get heated because of the one who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out plans.

• Psalms 51:5

  Look, in iniquity I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.

• Psalms 55:4

  My heart writhes within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

• Psalms 77:16

  The waters saw you, Elohim; the waters saw you and writhed; the deeps also shuddered.

• Psalms 90:2

  Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from forever to forever you are El.

• Psalms 96:9

  Bow down to YHWH in the majesty of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

• Psalms 97:4

  His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled.

• Psalms 114:7

  Before the Lord tremble, earth, before the Eloah of Jacob,

• Proverbs 8:24

  When there were no deeps, I was brought forth, when there were no springs laden with water.

• Proverbs 8:25

  Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth;

• Proverbs 25:23

  The north wind brings forth rain, and indignant faces, a secret tongue.

• Proverbs 26:10

  An archer who wounds everyone is whoever hires a senseless man, and whoever hires those who pass by.

• Isaiah 13:8

  And they will be terrified; pangs and pains will seize them; like a woman giving birth they will writhe; each at his neighbor will stare in amazement; faces of flames are their faces.

• Isaiah 23:4

  Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have not been in labor nor given birth, nor have I raised young men nor brought up virgins.”

• Isaiah 23:5

  When the report comes to Egypt, they will writhe at the report of Tyre.

• Isaiah 26:17

  As a pregnant woman who draws near to giving birth writhes and cries out in her labor pains, so were we before you, YHWH.

• Isaiah 26:18

  We were pregnant, we writhed; as it were we gave birth to wind. Acts of salvation we do not work for the earth, and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.

• Isaiah 45:10

  Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’ or to a woman, ‘What are you giving birth to?’

• Isaiah 51:2

  Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you; for when he was one I called him, and I blessed him and multiplied him.”

• Isaiah 54:1

  “Shout for joy, barren one, who did not give birth; break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who did not have birth pains; for more are the children of the desolate one than the children of the married one,” says YHWH.

And 19 more times.