מַחֲלֹ֫קֶת
course
also: division, class, share, allotment fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4256 appears in the Book of 2 Chronicles — 9 distinct verses. 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.
2 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles 5:11 לְ/מַחְלְקֽוֹת prep + n c fp It happened, when the priests were come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their divisions;
- 2 Chronicles 8:14 מַחְלְק֨וֹת בְּ/מַחְלְקוֹתָ֖/ם n c fp cs prep + n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.
- 2 Chronicles 23:8 הַֽ/מַּחְלְקֽוֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath; with those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest didn't dismiss the shift.
- 2 Chronicles 31:2 מַחְלְק֣וֹת מַחְלְקוֹתָ֞/ם n c fp cs n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites after their divisions, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 31:15 בְּ/מַחְלְק֔וֹת prep + n c fp Under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office of trust, to give to their brothers by divisions, as well to the great as to the small:
- 2 Chronicles 31:16 כְּ/מַחְלְקוֹתֵי/הֶֽם prep + n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp besides those who were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into the house of Yahweh, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their divisions;
- 2 Chronicles 31:17 בְּ/מַחְלְקוֹתֵי/הֶֽם prep + n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their divisions;
- 2 Chronicles 35:4 כְּ/מַחְלְקוֹתֵי/כֶ֑ם prep + n c fp cs + sfx pers 2mp Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
- 2 Chronicles 35:10 מַחְלְקוֹתָ֖/ם n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's commandment.
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.
מחלקת (machălôqeth) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “course.” 1 Chronicles dominates its distribution — 22 of 36 verses. Spanning 36 verses in 5 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. It also covers “division”, “class”, and “share”, alongside “course” — see its full sense range. Its English rendering has broadened — “course” classically, “divisions” (Berean Standard Bible) and “division” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4256 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 →
- 36
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 36 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #864
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 864 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 36 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Chronicles 22 verses 61%
- 2 Chronicles 9 verses 25%
- Joshua 3 verses 8%
By section of the Old Testament
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 36 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 32 verses · 89%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 11%
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: Course 18×, Courses 10×, According to their divisions 3×
- American Standard Version: Course 15×, Courses 13×, According to their divisions 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Divisions 17×, Division 15×, According to the allotments 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Division 16×, Divisions 11×, According to their divisions 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4256 across 43 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4256 across 43 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 H4256 across 40 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4256 across 45 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 2 senses and sub-senses 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.
- 1. division, part, of land assigned to the several tribes of Isr. Jos 11:23; 12:7 (both D) 18:10 (JE; others, divisions of Isr., but v.) Ez 48:29. e.g. Joshua 11:23
- 2. techn. term of organization of priests and Levites (late), 1 Ch 23:6; 24:1; 26:1, 12, 19 2 Ch 8:14(×2); 31:2(×2); 35:4, 10 Ne 11:36 + 26 times in Ch., + (of royal officials) 1 Ch 28:1.—סֶלַע הַמַּחְלְקוֹת n.pr. 1 S 23:28 was popularly connected with this √, = rock of divisions, where Saul and David parted from neighbourhood of each other (Dr) so Vrss Th al.; Bö Klo, where their forces lay divided from each other; orig. connex. was perhaps with II. חלק, smooth, slippery; Ges De W Ke al. expl. here as rock of escapes, but this meaning for חלק dubious. e.g. 1 Chronicles 23:6
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
n.f. division, course (almost wholly Chr.)—מ׳ abs. 1 Ch 27:1, 2; cstr. 1 Ch 27:4; sf. מַחֲלֻקְתּוֹ 1 Ch 27:2 + 14 times 1 Ch 27; abs. מַחְלְקוֹת 1 Ch 23:6 + 6 times Ch + 1 S 23:28 (v. infr.); cstr. id. 1 Ch 26:12 + 5 times Ch + Ne 11:36; sf. מַהְלְקוֹתֵיכֶם 2 Ch 35:4; מַחְלְקוֹתֵיהֶם 2 Ch 31:16, 17; מַחְלְקוֹתָם 1 Ch 24:1 + 3 times in Ch; מַחְלְקֹתָם Jos 11:23; 12:7; 18:10 Ez 48:29;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חלק (châlaq) (H2505) — to divide.
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.
מחלקות
- , v. מַחֲלוֹקֶת
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 28 distinct written forms H4256 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4256, 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
- חלק chêleq H2506 portion
- חלק chălâq H2508 possession
- חלק châlâq H2509 flattering
- חלק challâq H2511 smooth
- חלק challuq H2512 smooth
- חלקה chălaqqâh H2514 flattery
- חלקלקה chălaqlaqqâh H2519 flattery
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 35 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 36 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.
