מָלַל
to speak
also: utter, say fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
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.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4448 appears in the Book of Proverbs — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Proverbs
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.
The Hebrew verb מלל centers on the idea of “to speak.” A scarce word — 5 verses in all of the Hebrew Bible. Job dominates its distribution — 2 of 5 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 21:7. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 4 stems, among them Piel and Qal. Dig into 5-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4448 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 →
- 5
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 5 distinct verses.
- 4 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,337
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,337 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 5 occurrences in the concordance →
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 5 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 4 verses · 80%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 20%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 4 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Can utter 1×, He speaketh 1×, Shall utter 1×
- American Standard Version†: Can utter 1×, Speaketh 1×, They shall speak 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Can describe 1×, Speak 1×, Speaking 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Can utter 1×, One who rubs 1×, Speak 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4448 across 5† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4448 across 5† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4448 across 5† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4448 across 5† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses one or more reduplicated stems (the Pōlēl/Pilpēl type), which for hollow or geminate roots behave much like Piel — often intensive or iterative.
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 6 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.
מלל I Pi. speak, utter, say (NH Pi. id.
Piel
- Pf. מִלֵּל Gn 21:7; cf. 1 s. מַלּוֹתִי (Ew§ 274 b. N) as n.pr. infr.; מִלֵּ֑לוּ Jb 33:3; Impf. יְמַלֵּל ψ 106:2; תְּמַלָּל־ Jb 8:2;—say, sq. dir. quot. + לְ of ind. obj. Gn 21:7; utter, obj. דַּ֫עַת Jb 33:3; cf. 8:2; obj. גְּבוּרוֹת י׳ ψ 106:2. e.g. Genesis 21:7
מלל II rub, scrape (NH id., rub ears of wheat, scrape)
Qal
- Pt. מוֹלֵל in קֹרֵץ בְּעֵינָו֯ מוֹלֵל בְּרַגְלָ֑ו֯ מֹרֶה בְּאֶצְבְּעֹתָיו Pr 6:13 he that winketh with his eyes, that scrapeth with his feet (making signs), etc., so De Now Str מלל that speaketh with his feet. e.g. Proverbs 6:13
מלל III languish, wither, fade (apparently secondary √ of אמל q.v.)
Qal
- Impf. 3 ms. יִמַּל Jb 18:16; וַיִּמָּ֑ל Jb 14:2; 3 mpl. יִמָּ֑לוּ Jb 24:24 ψ 37:2 (so Hup De and most; > Niph. from IV. מלל Thes);—hang down, wither, fig. of man Jb 14:2 (כְּצִיץ); of wicked מִתַּחַת שָֽׁרָשָׁיו יִבָ֑שׁוּ וּמִ֫מַּעַל יִמַּל קְצִירוֹ 18:16; כְּרֹאשׁ שִׁבֹּ֫לֶת יִמָּ֑לוּ 24:24 (‖ יִקָּפְצוּן, הֻמְּכוּ); כֶּחָצִיר מְהֵרָה יִמָּ֑לוּ ψ 37:2 (‖ יִבּוֹלוּן). Poʿl;. Impf. יְמוֹלֵל ψ 90:6 it withereth (of grass; + וְיָבֵשׁ). e.g. Job 18:16
מלל IV circumcise ( = מוּל)
Qal
- Imv. מֹל Jos 5:2. e.g. Joshua 5:2
Niphal
- Pf. נְמַלְתֶּם Gn 17:11. e.g. Genesis 17:11
Hithpo
- be cut off: Impf. יִתְמֹלָ֑לוּ ψ 58:8. Vid. מוּל. e.g. Psalms 58:8
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
I. vb. Pi. speak, utter, say (NH Pi. id.; Aramaic ܡܰܠܶܠ (and many deriv.), מַלֵּל; perhaps cf. Arabic مَلَّ iv. dictate (a letter, etc.), ((ملو) مَلَا) iv. id. NöZMG xl. 1886, 725);—
II. vb. rub, scrape (NH id., rub ears of wheat, scrape);—only
III. vb. languish, wither, fade (apparently secondary √ of אמל q.v.);—
IV. vb. circumcise ( = מוּל);—to this are sometimes assigned:
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
מָלָל
- (denom. of מוֹל) border, hem. Kel. XXVIII, 7; Sabb. 29ᵃ שלש על … חוץ מן המ׳ the measure of three square handbreadths of which the Rabbis speak, means exclusive of the portion used for hemming. M. Kat. 26ᵇ הקורע … מתוך המ׳ he who rends his garment only as far as the hem goes; Y. ib. III, 83ᵇ top מן המ׳.—Denom.:
מָלַל I
- to hem, edge. M. Kat. 26ᵃ וכולן רשאין … למוֹלְלָן and all these rents may be mended by … hemming. Kil. IX, 9 מוֹלֵל עד וכ׳ he hems (the purple band) before he knots it.
מָלַל II
- (b. h.)
- 1. to crush, squeeze, esp. to rub ears for husking the grain. Taan. 6ᵃ דבר שמָל, v. מַלְקוֹשׁ. Maasr. IV, 5, v. מְלִילָה. Bets. 13ᵃ למוֹלְלָן במלילות with the intention of husking them when parched. Tosef. Sabb. XVI (XVII), 22; Sabb. 12ᵃ מוֹלֵל he rubs it between two fingers; a. fr.—Part. pass. מָלוּל. Tosef. ib. XIV (XV), 17 מוֹלְלִין את המ׳ you may husk that which needs husking.
- 2. to stir a mush, make a pulp. Pes. 40ᵇ אין מוֹלְלִין … והרוצה שיִמְלוֹל וכ׳ you must not stir a dish (in the usual way) on Passover, but he who desires to make a mush, must put in the flour and then add vinegar.—Part. pass. as ab. Tosef. Maasr. I, 7 מן המלול ed. (ed. Zuck. המאמל, Var. הממל) out of the olive pulp.
- to be compressible, (of webs) to be soft and downy. Gitt. 59ᵃ (ref. to מ̇ל̇ת̇ח̇ה, II Kings X, 22) דבר הנמ̇ל̇ל ונמת̇ח̇ a cloth which can be compressed (creased) and stretched (again, showing no creases when unfolded); [Rashi: a stuff the thread of which is twisted between the spinner’s fingers and stretched].—V. מַלְמֵלָה. e.g. 2 Kings 10:22
מְלַל I
- v. מוּל ch.
מֶלֶל
- ch., constr. of מַלְלָא.
מָלַל III
- , Pi. מִלֵּל, מִי׳ (b. h.; [to present, show; cmp. הִגִּיד, חִוָּה,] to proclaim, utter, speak. Hor. 13ᵇ; Meg. 18ᵃ; Macc. 10ᵃ (ref. to Ps. CVI, 2) למי נאה למַלֵּל וכ׳ whom does it become to utter the mighty deeds &c.?—Y. Keth. II, 26ᵈ bot. שמענו פלוני מְמַלֵּל על פלו׳ אשתו we heard that man speaking of (pointing out) that woman as his wife; מְמַלֶּלֶת על בניה speaking of her children; a. e.—[Lev. R. s. 27 מי מלל, read: מָל, v. מוּל, II, 2.—Lam. R. introd. (R. Hăn. 1) מְמַלְּלִים, v. לִמְלֵם.] e.g. Psalms 106:2
מְלַל II
- , Pa. מַלֵּיל, מַלֵּל ch. same, in gen. to speak (corresp. to b. h. דִּבֵּר, שִׂיחַ). Targ. Gen. XXXIV, 3 (O. ed. Berl. מַלֵּי). Ib. XVII, 22, sq.; a. v. fr.—Part. מְמַלֵּל, מְמַלְּלָא &c. (in ed. frequ. with one מ, corr. acc.). Targ. Job II, 10; a. fr.—Kidd. 50ᵃ מְמַלֵּי מילי עלוי (= מְמלְּלֵי) they speak against me.
- 1. to be spoken, said, told. Targ. Ps. LXXXVII, 3. Targ. Y. Ex. XX, 16; a. e.—Y. Shek. VI, 50, top (play on שחו, Ez. XLVII, 5) [read:] מאי מי שחו מיין דמִתְמַלְּלִין וכ׳ what is me saḥu? Waters which are spoken of in the world (v. שִׂיחַ). e.g. Ezekiel 47:5
- 2. to converse. Targ. Y. Ex. XXXIII, 9. Targ. Ez. II, 2; I, 28; 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 H4448 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| יְ֭מַלֵּל | Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 106:2 | 1 |
| מִלֵּֽלוּ | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Job 33:3 | 1 |
| מִלֵּל֙ | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Genesis 21:7 | 1 |
| מֹלֵ֣ל | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 6:13 | 1 |
| תְּמַלֶּל | Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 8:2 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4448, 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.
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 5 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 5 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 5 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.
