גַּל
gal
heap
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word גַּל (gal), Strong's number H1530G, translates to the English "heap." Its short definition suggests that the primary meaning of this word is a physical pile or accumulation of objects. As part of the Semantic domain of "Physical Action," gal likely describes a tangible event or occurrence that involves the collection or gathering of items. The word gal appears 18 times throughout the Bible, indicating its importance in various contexts. Its range of usage likely spans from describing natural phenomena, such as a heap of stones, to human activities like storing goods or creating a mound for ceremonial purposes. The significance of gal lies in its ability to convey a visual representation of quantity and accumulation, which can be used to emphasize magnitude, abundance, or intensity.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
18 total occurrences across the text
His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
Job 15:28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
Isaiah 25:2For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.
Isaiah 37:26“ ‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
Jeremiah 9:11“I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
Jeremiah 51:37Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
Hosea 12:11If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.
Genesis 31:46Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Genesis 31:46Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Genesis 31:48Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed
Genesis 31:51Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.
Genesis 31:52May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
Genesis 31:52May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
Genesis 31:52May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
Joshua 7:26They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called “The valley of Achor” to this day.
Joshua 8:29He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. At sundown, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.
2 Samuel 18:17They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Israel fled, each to his own tent.
2 Kings 19:25Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.