אֶל
el
to(wards)
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word *El* (אֶל): A Fundamental Directional Preposition The Hebrew word *el* is one of the Bible's most frequently occurring words, appearing 5,516 times throughout the biblical text. Its basic meaning is "to" or "towards," functioning primarily as a preposition that indicates direction or movement toward a goal, person, or location. This simple form masks considerable linguistic importance: the sheer frequency of this word means it structures how biblical Hebrew expresses purpose, destination, and relational connection. Despite its elementary definition, *el* carries significant functional weight in biblical language. By marking direction and destination, it enables Hebrew speakers to distinguish between static location and purposeful movement. When combined with various nouns and verbs, *el* creates the grammatical framework for expressing intent and directionality—whether someone is traveling toward a place, speaking words directed at a person, or moving toward a particular outcome. Its ubiquity in the text (appearing in roughly one of every fifteen words in the Hebrew Bible) suggests that expressing directional relationships was fundamental to how biblical authors communicated meaning. The overwhelming frequency of *el* in the biblical corpus underscores how central directional language is to Hebrew narrative and discourse. Rather than being merely a minor grammatical particle, this preposition represents a foundational element of how biblical writers conveyed action, communication, and relationship throughout their texts.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
5,516 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
‘If evil comes on us—the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this house, and before you (for your name is in this house), and cry to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’
2 Chronicles 20:21When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to Yahweh, and give praise in holy array, as they go out before the army, and say, “Give thanks to Yahweh; for his loving kindness endures forever.”
2 Chronicles 20:24When Judah came to the place overlooking the wilderness, they looked at the multitude; and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and there were none who escaped.
2 Chronicles 20:27Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for Yahweh had made them to rejoice over their enemies.
2 Chronicles 20:28They came to Jerusalem with stringed instruments, harps, and trumpets to Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 20:37Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works.” The ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
2 Chronicles 21:9Then Jehoram went there with his captains and all his chariots with him. He rose up by night and struck the Edomites who surrounded him, along with the captains of the chariots.
2 Chronicles 21:12A letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,
2 Chronicles 22:7Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went to Joram; for when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Yahweh had anointed to cut off Ahab’s house.
2 Chronicles 22:7Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went to Joram; for when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Yahweh had anointed to cut off Ahab’s house.
2 Chronicles 22:9He sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (now he was hiding in Samaria), and they brought him to Jehu, and killed him; and they buried him, for they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Yahweh with all his heart.” The house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom.
2 Chronicles 23:2They went around in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 23:7The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be slain. Be with the king when he comes in, and when he goes out.”
2 Chronicles 23:12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 23:14Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t kill her in Yahweh’s house.”
2 Chronicles 23:14Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t kill her in Yahweh’s house.”
2 Chronicles 23:15So they made way for her. She went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king’s house; and they killed her there.
2 Chronicles 24:11Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.
2 Chronicles 24:11Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.
2 Chronicles 24:12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of Yahweh’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore Yahweh’s house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 24:17Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
2 Chronicles 24:19Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.
2 Chronicles 24:23At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.
Nehemiah 4:9But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night because of them.
Nehemiah 4:11Our adversaries said, “They will not know or see, until we come in among them and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”
2 Chronicles 25:7A man of God came to him, saying, “O king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim.
2 Chronicles 25:10Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.
2 Chronicles 25:15Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?”
2 Chronicles 25:16As he talked with him, the king said to him, “Have we made you one of the king’s counselors? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.”
2 Chronicles 25:17Then Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come! Let’s look one another in the face.”
2 Chronicles 25:18Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by, and trampled down the thistle.
2 Chronicles 25:18Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by, and trampled down the thistle.
2 Chronicles 26:16But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.
2 Chronicles 26:20Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there. Yes, he himself also hurried to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.
2 Chronicles 27:2He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into Yahweh’s temple. The people still acted corruptly.
2 Chronicles 29:18Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, “We have cleansed all Yahweh’s house, including the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of show bread with all its vessels.
2 Chronicles 30:6So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 30:6So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 30:9For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
2 Chronicles 30:20Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
2 Chronicles 31:10Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since people began to bring the offerings into Yahweh’s house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.”
2 Chronicles 32:1After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and intended to win them for himself.
2 Chronicles 32:6He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the wide place at the gate of the city, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
2 Chronicles 32:6He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the wide place at the gate of the city, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
2 Chronicles 32:19They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.
2 Chronicles 32:24In those days Hezekiah was terminally ill, and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign.
2 Chronicles 33:7He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
2 Chronicles 33:7He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
2 Chronicles 33:10Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen.
2 Chronicles 33:10Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen.