חֲלַח
cha.lach
Halah
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Halah (H2477): A Rare Hebrew Term The Hebrew word *halah* (חֲלַח) appears only three times in the biblical text, making it one of the rarer terms in Scripture. Its extreme scarcity in the surviving Hebrew Bible limits what can be definitively established about its semantic range or precise meaning based on usage patterns alone. The minimal occurrence data suggests this was either a specialized term, a word that fell out of common usage, or one preserved only in specific textual contexts. Without additional lexical context provided—such as the specific biblical passages where it appears, grammatical classifications, or comparative linguistic data—the significance and exact denotation of *halah* cannot be reliably determined from this entry alone. Scholars would need to examine the three occurrences directly to propose any meaningful interpretation of what this word conveyed to ancient Hebrew speakers and writers.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
3 total occurrences across the text
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2 Kings 18:11The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
1 Chronicles 5:26So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day.