עוֹלֵל
o.lel
infant
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word "עוֹלֵל" (o.lel) is defined as an "infant." This term falls within the semantic domain of "Kinship & Family," indicating its relevance to relationships and family dynamics. With 20 occurrences in the Bible, it is a relatively common word used to describe a stage of human development. The use of "עוֹלֵל" encompasses various contexts, including descriptions of newborns and young children. Its significance lies in its ability to convey a sense of vulnerability and dependence, highlighting the importance of care and protection within families. By using this term, biblical authors emphasize the value of nurturing and supporting the most vulnerable members of society.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
20 total occurrences across the text
or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.
Psalms 8:2From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
Psalms 17:14from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
Psalms 137:9Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
Isaiah 13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
Jeremiah 6:11Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife will be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
Jeremiah 9:21For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
Jeremiah 44:7“Therefore now Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Why do you commit great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child out of the middle of Judah, to leave yourselves no one remaining;
Lamentations 1:5Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
Lamentations 2:11My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:20“Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lamentations 4:4The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no one breaks it for them.
Hosea 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
Joel 2:16Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her room.
Micah 2:9You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever.
Nahum 3:10Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
1 Samuel 15:3Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
1 Samuel 22:19He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
2 Kings 8:12Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”