paal · do, make

What it means

paal (פָּעַל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “do, make”.

Carry out.

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 carry something out, above all evil; or what YHWH brings about.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To do, to work, to put into action; above all in poetry. From the same root are פֹּעַל (‘work, deed’) and פְּעֻלָּה (‘labor, wages’). The most frequent expression is פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן, ‘those who work wickedness’.

• “Those who work wickedness” Psalms 5:5Psalms 6:8Psalms 92:7
• The one who does righteousness Psalms 15:2
• YHWH’s works: “What El has done!” Numbers 23:23Psalms 44:1Isaiah 43:13
• The place YHWH has made Exodus 15:17
• He falls into the pit he made Psalms 7:15Proverbs 16:4

How we translate it

Mostly “work” (“those who work” 14 times, “who work” 4, “workers” 4), almost always in “those who work wickedness” or “the workers of wickedness”, the fixed formula for פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן in the Psalms, Job, Isaiah and Hosea; “do”, “done” or “make” when the verb is more general (“What El has done!”, Numbers 23:23; “that you have made”, Exodus 15:17); “practice” 3.

How it is translated

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

• those who work ×14
• done ×7
• who work ×4
• workers ×4
• practice ×3
• work ×3
• does ×2
• he makes ×2
• working ×2
• works it ×2
• others ×13

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×1
• Job×11
• Psalms×26
• Proverbs×4
• Isaiah×7
• Hosea×2
• Micah×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×1

• Exodus 15:17

  You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, the place for you to dwell in that you have made, YHWH, the sanctuary, Adonai, that your hands have established.

• Numbers 23:23

  For there is no omen against Jacob, and no divination against Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘What El has done!’

• Deuteronomy 32:27

  if I did not fear the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries misjudge it, lest they say, “Our hand is raised high, and it is not YHWH who has done all this.”’

• Job 7:20

  I have sinned; what do I do to you, guardian of human beings? Why have you set me as your target, so that I am a burden to myself?

• Job 11:8

  It is the heights of the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know?

• Job 22:17

  who said to El, ‘Turn away from us,’ and, ‘What will Shaddai do to them?’

• Job 31:3

  Is it not calamity for the unjust, and disaster for those who work wickedness?

• Job 33:29

  Look, all these things El does twice, three times with a man,

• Job 34:8

  and goes in company with those who work wickedness, and walks with men of wickedness?

• Job 34:22

  There is no darkness, and no shadow of death where those who work wickedness may hide.

• Job 34:32

  what is beyond what I see, you teach me; if injustice I have done, I will not do it again’?

• Job 35:6

  If you sin, what do you do against him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to him?

• Job 36:3

  I will bring my knowledge from afar, and to my Maker I will ascribe righteousness.

• Job 36:23

  Who has appointed for him his way, and who has said, ‘You have done injustice’?

• Psalms 5:5

  The boastful will not take their stand before your eyes; you hate all who work wickedness.

• Psalms 6:8

  Depart from me, all who work wickedness, for YHWH has heard the voice of my weeping.

• Psalms 7:13

  And for him he has prepared weapons of death; he makes his arrows fiery.

• Psalms 7:15

  He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and fell into the pit that he made.

• Psalms 11:3

  If the foundations are torn down, what has the righteous done?

• Psalms 14:4

  Do they not know, all who work wickedness, who eat my people as they eat bread, and do not call on YHWH?

• Psalms 15:2

  He who walks blameless and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart;

• Psalms 28:3

  Do not drag me away with the wicked and with those who work wickedness, who speak peace with their neighbors but evil is in their heart.

• Psalms 31:19

  How great is your goodness that you have kept for those who fear you, that you have worked for those who take refuge in you before human beings!

• Psalms 36:12

  There have fallen those who work wickedness; they have been pushed down and are not able to rise.

• Psalms 44:1

  For the director. Of the sons of Korah. A maskil. Elohim, with our ears we have heard; our fathers have recounted to us the work you worked in their days, in the days of old.

• Psalms 53:4

  Do they not know, those who work wickedness, who eat up my people as they eat bread? On Elohim they do not call.

• Psalms 58:2

  Rather, in your heart you work injustices; in the land the violence of your hands you weigh out.

• Psalms 59:2

  Deliver me from those who work wickedness, and from men of blood save me.

• Psalms 64:2

  Hide me from the intimate counsel of evildoers, from the tumult of those who work wickedness,

• Psalms 68:28

  Your Elohim has commanded your strength; strengthen, Elohim, this that you have worked for us.

• Psalms 74:12

  But Elohim is my king from of old, working salvations in the midst of the earth.

• Psalms 92:7

  when the wicked flourish like grass, and all the workers of wickedness bloom, it is so that they may be destroyed forever.

• Psalms 92:9

  For look, your enemies, YHWH, for look, your enemies will perish; all the workers of wickedness will be scattered.

• Psalms 94:4

  They pour out, they speak insolence; all the workers of wickedness boast.

• Psalms 94:16

  Who will rise up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against the workers of wickedness?

• Psalms 101:8

  Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city of YHWH all those who work wickedness.

• Psalms 119:3

  Indeed they do not practice injustice; in his ways they walk.

• Psalms 125:5

  But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, YHWH will lead them away with those who work wickedness. Peace be upon Israel.

• Psalms 141:4

  Do not incline my heart to an evil thing, to practice deeds in wickedness with men who work wickedness; and let me not eat of their delicacies.

• Psalms 141:9

  Keep me from the hands of the snare that they have laid for me, and from the traps of those who work wickedness.

And 16 more times.