סָלַל
to exalt
‘to exalt’ 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 Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘cast up a highway’
- Pilpel
- A reduplicated intensive stem of two-letter or hollow roots.
- Hithpolel
- The reflexive counterpart of the Polel.
Form
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- 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.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 6 times (50%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (17%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 times (17%)
- Verb, Pilpel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (8%)
- Verb, Hithpolel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (8%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 12 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H5549 appears — 10 distinct verses across 6 books. 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.
Exodus 1 verse
Job 2 verses
Psalms 1 verse
Proverbs 2 verses
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 57:14 סֹֽלּוּ סֹ֖לּוּ Qal impv 2mp Qal impv 2mp He will say, Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.
- Isaiah 62:10 סֹ֣לּוּ סֹ֤לּוּ Qal impv 2mp Qal impv 2mp Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples.
Jeremiah 2 verses
- Jeremiah 18:15 סְלוּלָֽה Qal ptcp.pass fs For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;
- Jeremiah 50:26 סָלּ֥וּ/הָ Qal impv 2mp + sfx pers 3fs Come against her from the utmost border; open her store-houses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.
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.
“to exalt” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb סלל (çâlal). Its earliest occurrence is Exodus 9:17. It turns up in 10 verses across 6 books, an uncommon footprint. Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. It clusters with מסלה, מסלול and סל under a shared root. See the sense tree, 10-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5549 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 →
- 10
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 10 distinct verses.
- 6 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 6 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,101
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,101 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 10 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 10 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 50%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 40%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 10%
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: Cast up 3×, Cast ye up 2×
- American Standard Version: Cast up 4×, Cast ye up 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Build it up 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Build up 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5549 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 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 H5549 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H5549 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 H5549 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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
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 5 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.
Qal
- Impf. וַיָּסֹ֫לּוּ Jb 19:12; 30:12 Imv. mpl. סֹ֫לּוּ Is 57:14 + 4 times; sf. סָלּוּהָ Je 50:26 (cf. סֶ֫לָה); Pt. pass. סְלוּלָה Je 18:15; סְלֻלָה Pr 15:19;— e.g. Job 19:12
- 1. cast up a highway: ס׳ מְסִלָּה Is 62:10(×2), without obj. Is 57:14(×2), דֶּרֶךְ לֹא סְלוּלָה Je 18:15; fig. of path of upright Pr 15:19. e.g. Isaiah 62:10
- 2. cast up a way: דֶּרֶךְ, c. על against, Jb 19:12 (of besieger, in fig.), ארה Jb 30:12 (of besetting foe); Bab. as a heap of garbage Je 50:26. e.g. Job 19:12
- 3. lift up (a song) ψ 68:5, c. לְ pers. (‖ שׁיר, זמּר; most as 1). e.g. Psalms 68:5
Pilp
- Imv. sf. סַלְסְלֶהָ Pr 4:8 exalt her (i.e. Wisdom), i.e. (cf. Toy) esteem highly, prize. Hithpôʿ. Pt. מִסְתּוֹלֵל Ex 9:17 (J) exalt oneself, c. בְּ against (denom. from סֹלְלָה according to Gerber 52); cf. Ecclus 39:24; 40:28. e.g. Proverbs 4:8
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
vb. lift up, cast up (NH סִלְסֵל esteem highly, סִלְסוּל loftiness, distinction; סוּלָּם ladder; 𝔗 סוּלְּמָא id.; MI26 מסלת highway; Ph. סלמת stair (?) Lzb329; Assyrian sellu, sillu, perhaps breast-works DlHWB 501; but سُلَّمٌ ladder (a loan-wd. according to SchwallyZMG liii (1899), 197), cf. סֻלָּם; v. also ṭrry, siege-wall, Egyptian loan-word from סֹלְלָה according to WMMAs. u. Eur. 101);—
— 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.
סָלַל I
- to swing, be light; to bound. Ab. d’R. N. 2ⁿᵈ vers., ch. XXX (ed. Schechter, p. לב) אם יעלה … היא סוֹלֶלֶת אחריה if you take an animal to the top of a roof, it will start backward (be afraid).—Part. pass. סָלוּל; pl. סְלוּלִין swinging, high. Y. Maasr. V, end, 52ᵃ (expl. זרע לוף העליון, ib. V, 8) זרע הס׳ של לוף R. S. to Maasr. l. c. (ed. הסיליון) the seed in the swinging tops of lof (Maim. העֶלְיוֹן).
- to rebound. Y. Ab. Zar. II, 41ᵇ, v. עָגַל.
- , Polel סוֹלֵל (fr. סוּל) to sport; (euphem.) to commit lewdness. Tosef. Sot. V, 7 המְסַלֶּלֶת בבנה קטן (ed. Zuck. המְסַלְסֶלֶת, Var. המסולס׳) a woman that commits lewdness with her little son; Snh. 69ᵇ המְסוֹלֶלֶת (Ms. K. המסלסלת; v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 300); Y. Gitt. VIII, 49ᶜ bot. המְסַלֶּדֶת. Yeb. 76ᵃ נשים המְסוֹלְלוֹת זו בזו women that commit lewdness with one another; Sabb. 65ᵃ; Y. l. c. המְסַלְּדוֹת.—V. סִלְסֵל.
סָלַל II
- (b. h.) to tread, press; (cmp. כָּבַשׁ) to make a path, pave.—Denom. מְסִלָּה, סוּלָּם, סִילּוֹן II.
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 12 distinct written forms H5549 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5549, 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
- מסלה mᵉçillâh H4546 highway
- מסלול maçlûwl H4547 highway
- סל çal H5536 basket
- סללה çôlᵉlâh H5550 mound
- סלם çullâm H5551 ladder
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 7 — 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 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 10 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.
