הֵ֫לֶךְ
he.lekh
traveller
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of H1982: הֵלֶךְ (he.lekh) The Hebrew word *he.lekh* carries the straightforward meaning of "traveller"—a person engaged in the act of traveling or journeying. This noun appears only twice in the biblical text, which limits our ability to observe how its meaning might shift across different contexts or literary genres. The rarity of this term suggests it was not a common word choice in biblical Hebrew for describing those who traveled. The minimal frequency of occurrence (just two instances) means that the word's semantic range and cultural significance cannot be extensively mapped from biblical usage alone. We cannot determine, for example, whether the term carried specific connotations about the type of traveler (merchant, pilgrim, nomad, or refugee), the distance involved, or any social status implications. The definition provided—simply "traveller"—represents the core meaning without elaboration on nuance or contextual variations that might have existed in ancient Hebrew speech. For biblical readers and students, *he.lekh* represents a standard, literal term for someone in transit from one place to another. Its scarcity in the biblical corpus suggests that other Hebrew terms or phrases may have been preferred for describing travel and travelers in various biblical narratives.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
2 total occurrences across the text
When the people had come to the forest, behold, honey was dripping, but no one put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.
2 Samuel 12:4A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”