חֲבַל
to destroy
‘to destroy’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
3 distinct verses where H2255 appears in the Piel stem, across 2 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Ezra 1 verse
Daniel 2 verses
- Daniel 4:23 וְ/חַבְּל֗וּ/הִי conj + Piel impv 2mp + sfx pers 3ms Whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from the sky, and saying, Hew down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of the roots of it in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky: and let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him;
- Daniel 6:22 חַבְּל֑וּ/נִי Piel pf 3mp + sfx pers 1cs My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, חבל (chăbal) means “to destroy.” Its uses cluster heavily in Daniel (83% of all occurrences). Spanning 6 verses in 2 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Ezra 6:12. Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2255 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 6
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 6 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,040
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,040 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 6 occurrences in the concordance →
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 6 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 6 verses · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Be destroyed 3×, Destroy 2×
- American Standard Version: Be destroyed 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Be destroyed 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Be destroyed 3×, Will 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2255 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2255 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2255 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2255 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 1 sense the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Hithpaal
- . be destroyed
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
[ חֲבַל ] vb. Pa. destroy, hurt
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חבל (châbal) (H2254) — to bind.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חָבַל
- 1. to seize, to take a pledge. Mekh. B’shall., Vayassa, s. 1, a. e., v. חֲבוֹלָה.—B. Mets. IX, 13 (115ᵃ) החוֹבֵל את הריחים he who seizes millstones (for his debt); a. fr.
- 2. to twist (v. חֶבֶל); to do violence, unshape; to inflict a wound, to hurt (followed by ב of the object). B. Kam. VIII, 1 החוֹבֵל בחבירו he who injures his neighbor. Sabb. XIV, 1. Ib. 106ᵃ חובל בצריך לכלבו one who wounds (an animal on the Sabbath is guilty) when he needs the blood for his dog. Ib. חובל בעלמא one who wounds generally (not for a purpose); a. fr.
- 3. to writhe, travail, v. Pi.
- 1. to be seized. Yalk. Ex. 351 שניתן לֵיחָבֵל ביום (B. Mets. 114ᵇ לַחֲבוֹל) which may be seized as a pledge in day time.
- 2. to be injured. Tosef. B. Kam. IX, 29 אע"פ שלא … מן הנֶחְבָּל וכ׳ although the injurer does not ask the injured (to pray for him), the injured must pray &c.; a. fr.
- 1. to injure, wound; to unshape, ruin, spoil. Ber. 51ᵃ יש לי … לחַבֵּל I have permission to injure (kill). B. Kam. 91ᵇ לחַבֵּל בעצמו to mutilate one’s self.—Kel. XIV, 2 משיְחַבֵּל from the moment he batters (the tube, for fitting it into the top of the staff); Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. IV, 5 משיִחְבּוֹל, v. חָבַר. Num. R. s. 10 (play on חִבֵּל, Prov. XXIII, 34) שחִבְּלָתוֹ יעל וכ׳ whom Jael mutilated on his head. Yalk. Ex. 301 חִבַּלְתֶּם מעשיכם you have ruined (turned to evil) your deeds. Snh. 24ᵃ מְחַבְּלִין זה לזה וכ׳ (Ms. K. זה את זה) wound each other’s feelings in discussions; a. fr. e.g. Proverbs 23:34
- 2. to travail. Taan. 8ᵃ bot. מְחַבֶּלֶת ואינה יולדת (Rashi: חוֹבֶלֶת) travails but cannot give birth.—Pass. pass. מְחוּבָּל ruined. Ex. R. s. 30.
- to be spoiled, ruined. Mekh. B’shall., Vayassa, s. 1 נותן דבר המְחַבֵּל לתוך דבר המִתְחַבֵּל he puts a thing which spoils (the taste) into a thing which is spoiled.
חֲבַל I
- , fut. יַחְבּוֹל same, to wrong, be violent. Targ. Job XXXIV, 31.
- 1. to injure; to ruin, destroy &c. (corresp. to b. h. הִשְׁחִית). Targ. O. Lev. XIX, 27. Targ. Gen. VI, 12; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְחַבַּל mutilated, blemished. Targ. O. Deut. XXIII, 2. Targ. Mal. I, 14.—B. Kam. 87ᵃ אי בעי מְחַבֵּל בה לא מצי חַבֵּיל Ms. M. (ed. מתח׳, incorr.) if he desired to wound her (his daughter), he dared not.
- 2. to travail. Denom. מְחַבַּלְתָּא.
- to be corrupted, destroyed. Targ. Gen. VI, 11, sq. Targ. Job XVII, 1; a. e. [Targ. Ps. LXII, 11, v. הֲבַל.]—Ithpe. אִיחֲבַל to get sick. B. Mets. 97ᵃ ואי׳ ומית Ms. H. (ed. חֲבִיל).
חֲבַל II
- (preced.)
- 1. injury, v. חַבְלָא I. I.
- 2. woe!, Oh! (cmp. בִּיָּיא II). Targ. Job X, 15 (Var. חֲבֵיל, חֲבוֹל); a. e.—[Also in Hebr. diction] Ned. 74ᵇ ח׳ עליך וכ׳ woe unto thee! (a pity) that &c. Snh. 111ᵃ; Ex. R. s. 6, a. e. ח׳ על דאבדין וכ׳ Oh, for those who are gone and cannot be replaced! Ex. R. s. 26; Mekh. B’shall., Vayassa, s. 6 (prov.) נפל ביתא ח׳ לכוותא (not אבל) when the house falls, woe to the windows!; a. fr.
- 3. (adv.) to ruin. Pes. 20ᵇ תשפך ח׳ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 9) it must be poured out (and go) to ruin; B. Kam. 116ᵃ (ed. הכל, corr. acc., v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 30), opp. to תעשה זילוף, v. זִילּוּף.
חֲבֵל
- , v. חֲבֵיל
חֶבֶל
- 1. rope, a measure of dimensions, rope’s length. Gen. R. s. 93 קשר ח׳ בח׳ tied rope to rope, v. נִימָא; Cant. R. to I, 1. Erub. V, 4 וכ׳ אין מודדין אלא בח׳ Sabbath distances must be measured with a rope of fifty cubits’ length. Ib. 58ᵃ, v. אַפְסְקִימָא. B. Bath. VII, 2 (103ᵇ) מדה בח׳ measured with the rope (exact dimensions). Peah IV, 5 על הח׳ in a straight line, v. לָקַט; a. fr.—Pl. חֲבָלִים. Erub. l. c. ג׳ ח׳ הם וכ׳ there are three kinds of ropes (used for legal purposes).—Trnsf. share, possession. Sifré Deut. 312 אין ח׳ אלא גורל ḥebel means lot; a. e.
חֵבֶל
- 1. writhing, throes of birth, agony. Snh. 98ᵇ, a. e. חֶבְלוֹ של משיח the sufferings which are to precede the advent of the Messiah.—Pl. חֲבָלִים, constr. חֶבְלֵי. Nidd. 31ᵃ ח׳ נקבה the pains at giving birth to a female. Ib. חבלי של נקבה (read: חבלים). Ib. וזהו ח׳ אשה and this is the cause of woman’s throes.
- 2. damage, injury. Mekh. Mishp., N’zikin, s. 8 ח׳ אשה לבעל the damages for a wife’s injury belong to her husband.
חִיבּוּל
- 1. wound, injury. Targ. Lev. XIX, 28; XXI, 5.—M. Kat. 28ᵇ, v. חֲבִילָא I.
- 2. moral defect, corruption. Targ. Job XI, 15. Ib. XXXI, 7; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 5 distinct written forms H2255 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| תִתְחַבַּ֔ל | Verb, Poal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Daniel 2:44 | 2 |
| וְ/חַבְּל֗וּ/הִי | Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Daniel 4:23 | 1 |
| חַבְּל֑וּ/נִי | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Daniel 6:22 | 1 |
| לְ/חַבָּלָ֛ה | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Ezra 6:12 | 1 |
| תִתְחַבַּֽל | Verb, Poal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Daniel 7:14 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2255, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- חבל chebel H2256 cord
- חבל chăbôl H2258 pledge
- חבל chôbêl H2259 sailor
- חבל chibbêl H2260 mast
- תחבלה tachbulâh H8458 counsel
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 6 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 6 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
