מִכְלָל
mikh.lal
perfection
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Mikhlal (מִכְלָל): A Hapax Legomenon of Perfection The Hebrew word *mikhlal* appears only once in the biblical text, making it a hapax legomenon—a word whose unique occurrence limits our ability to establish its full semantic range. The lexicon identifies its meaning as "perfection," suggesting a state of completeness or flawlessness. The singular occurrence means we cannot observe how the term was used across different contexts or whether its meaning varied depending on the subject it described. Because *mikhlal* appears only once in the surviving biblical corpus, its significance must be understood through that single instance alone. Without additional occurrences to compare or contrast, scholars cannot definitively determine whether the word was a common synonym for perfection, a specialized or technical term, or perhaps a rare poetic choice by the author. The rarity of the word itself may indicate it held particular weight or meaning in its specific context, though the limited data prevents further specification of what that significance might have been.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text