חַכְלִילִי
chakh.lil
dull
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# חַכְלִילִי (chakhliili): A Rare Hebrew Term for Dullness The Hebrew word *chakhliili* appears only once in the biblical text, making it one of the rarest terms in the Hebrew Bible. According to the lexical data, it carries the meaning "dull," though the single occurrence provides limited context for determining the precise nuance of this descriptor. Whether it refers to a dull surface, a dull color, a dull sound, or a dull mental state cannot be definitively established from the available evidence alone. The extreme rarity of this word—occurring just once—suggests it may have been either a specialized or archaic term even in the ancient Hebrew tradition, or perhaps a hapax legomenon (a word appearing nowhere else in preserved texts). This single appearance means the word's full semantic range and practical applications remain largely opaque to modern analysis. Without corroborating uses or contextual examples, scholars and translators must rely on the basic definition provided while acknowledging significant interpretive uncertainty.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text