עִלַּי
Most High
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Every verse where H5943 appears — 10 distinct verses across 1 book. 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.
Daniel 10 verses
- Daniel 3:26 עלי/א עִלָּאָ֖/ה adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace: he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire.
- Daniel 4:2 עלי/א עִלָּאָ֑/ה adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked toward me.
- Daniel 4:17 עלי/א עִלָּאָ֜/ה n c ms det + ptcl def.art n c ms det + ptcl def.art The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.
- Daniel 4:24 עלי/א עִלָּאָ/ה֙ adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art this is the interpretation, O king, and it is the decree of the Most High, which is come on my lord the king:
- Daniel 4:25 עִלָּיָ/א֙ adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art that you shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.
- Daniel 4:32 עִלָּיָ/א֙ adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art and you shall be driven from men; and they dwelling shall be with the animals of the field; you shall be made to eat grass as oxen; and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.
- Daniel 4:34 ו/ל/עלי/א וּ/לְ/עִלָּאָ/ה֙ conj + ptcl do + Adjective Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art conj + ptcl do + Adjective Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.
- Daniel 5:18 עלי/א עִלָּאָ֔/ה adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art You king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty:
- Daniel 5:21 עלי/א עִלָּאָ/ה֙ adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the animals', and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky; until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whoever he will.
- Daniel 7:25 עלי/א עִלָּאָ/ה֙ adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art adj Adjective ms det + ptcl def.art He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.
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.
עלי — transliterated ʻillay — is a Hebrew name carrying the sense “Most High.” Its uses cluster heavily in Daniel (100% of all occurrences). With 10 verses in 1 book, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Debuting at Daniel 3:26, it then recurs through the corpus. 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 H5943 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.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,612
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,612 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 10 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Daniel 10 verses 100%
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) 10 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: Most high 9×
- American Standard Version: Most high 10×
- Berean Standard Bible: Most high 10×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Most high 10×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5943 across 10 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 H5943 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5943 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5943 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- highest, the Most High
Word origin
Derived from עלי (ʻillîy) (H5942) — upper.
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.
עלי
- (b. h.) to go up, rise; to come up, arrive. Pes. VIII, 3 מי שיַּעֲלֶה מכם וכ׳ whichever of you shall first arrive at Jerusalem (for the Passover), v. infra. Snh. X, 3 אינה עתידה לַעֲלוֹת shall not rise (from the grave at the time of resurrection). Y. Peah V, end, 19ᵃ (ref. to גבול עולם, Prov. XXII, 28) זו עוֹלֵי מצרים this refers to those who came up from Egypt; Ḥag. 3ᵇ. Ib. עולי בבל those who came back from Babylonia. Ber. 20ᵃ, a. e. (ref. to Gen. XLIX, 22) א"ת עֲלֵי עין אלא עוֹלֵי עין read not ‘ăle ‘ayin, but ‘ole ‘ayin, those rising above the (evil) eye (whom the evil eye cannot affect). Snh. 111ᵃ כשע׳ משה למרום when Moses came up to heaven. Keth. 61ᵃ עוֹלָה עמו וכ׳ she rises with him, but does not go down with him, i.e. the wife rises to the husband’s social position and can claim its comforts, if it be a higher one than her own, &c.; a. v. fr.—Ḥull. 17ᵇ עוֹלֶה ויורד בסכין a going up and down in a slaughtering knife, i.e. a curved blade.—קרבן עולה ויורד, v. יָרַד.—עלה על דעת, v. דַּעַת.—Esp. to be put on the altar, be offered. Zeb. IX, 1 אם עָלְתָה לא תרד if it has been offered, it must not be taken down again. Ib. 2. Men. 22ᵇ מכאן לעוֹלִין שאינן מבטלין וכ׳ this proves that things which are offered up (e.g. blood of several sacrifices that has become mixed up) do not neutralize one another. Ib. 23ᵃ חיבורי עולין that which is attached to things which go on the altar; a. fr.—Idiomatic uses: a) (sub. לחשבון) to be counted in; to be accounted as. M. Kat. III, 5 שבת עולה ואינה וכ׳ the Sabbath counts as one of the seven days of mourning, and does not discontinue the mourning, i.e. the mourning continues after the Sabbath; רגלים מפסיקין ואינן עולין festivals discontinue (the mourning begun before), but do not count, i.e. if the burial took place on a festive day, the mourning days begin after the festival. Ab. IV, 13 עוֹלָה זדון, v. זָדוֹן. Zeb. I, 3 לא עָלוּ לבעלים משום חובה the owners of the sacrifices are not credited with them as a compliance with their obligation; a. fr.—b) to rise in value; to be esteemed. Ab. l. c. וכתר שם טוב עוֹלֶה על גביהן the crown of a good name is worth more than all of them; a. e.—c) [to rise on the scale, be outweighed,] to be void, be neutralized (cmp. בָּטֵל). Ter. IV, 7 תרומה עולה באחד ומאה T’rumah (mixed up in secular matter) is neutralized in one hundred and one (i.e. one against one hundred). Ib. 11 תַּעֲלֶה באחד ומאה is neutralized in &c.; לא תעלה is not neutralized. Ib. 13; a. fr.—d) ע׳ לרגל, or ע׳ to go up (to Jerusalem and the Temple) for the festival. Yoma 21 בשעה שישראל עולין לרגל when the Israelites were in the Temple on the festivals. Ḥag. I, 1. Ib. 4ᵃ שאינן ראויין לעלות who are not fit for the pilgrimage. Pes. 8ᵇ, a. e. עוֹלֵי רגלים pilgrims; a. fr.—e) ע׳ בידו to obtain, achieve. Ber. 35ᵇ עָלְתָה בידן they were successful. Naz. 23ᵃ מי שנתכוון לעלות בידו בשר חזיר וע׳ בידו בשר טלה he who intended to obtain flesh of the swine, and happened to obtain mutton; a. fr. e.g. Proverbs 22:28
- 1. to elevate, exalt, praise. Sabb. 33ᵇ יהודה שעי׳ יִתְעַלֶּה Judah who elevated (praised the Roman government), shall be elevated (to high office). Y. Snh. X, 29ᶜ top שעִילּוּ אותי וכ׳ who exalted me &c., v. זָבַח. Gen. R. s. 15 (ref. to וישם, Gen. II, 8) עי׳ אותו God raised him (made him a dignitary, by analogy to Deut. XVII, 15); a. fr. e.g. Genesis 2:8
- 2. to prize, to acquire at the highest price, bid for. Gen. R. s. 16 (ref. to ויקח, Gen. II, 15) עי׳ אותו he acquired him (by analogy to Is. XIV, 2; v. infra Hithpa.); Yalk. ib. 22. Gen. R. s. 40 (ref. to ויעלו, Jer. XXXVIII, 13) מְעַלִּין אותו (or מַעֲלִין, Hif.) they bade for him. e.g. Genesis 2:15
- 1. to raise, bring up. Makhsh. VI, 1 המַעֲלֶה פירותיו וכ׳ if one carries his fruits up to the roof, v. כְּנִימָה; Tosef. ib. III, 1. Pesik. R. s. 26 ובקושי הֶעֱלוּהוּ and with hard work they brought him up (out of the pit); a. v. fr.—Esp. to offer on the altar. Zeb. XIV, 3 המַעֲלֶה מבשר וכ׳ he who offers parts of the flesh of a sin offering &c. Ib. XIII, 1 שחט בפנים וה׳ בחוץ if he slaughtered a sacrifice within the Temple precincts, and offered it without; a. v. fr.
- 2. to raise, promote to a higher dignity. Yoma 20ᵇ, a. fr. מַעֲלִין בקדש ולא מורידין we may promote (a person or thing) to a higher grade of sanctity, but must not degrade. Tosef. Ned. VI, 5 שמעלה … מטומאתן which raises (relieves) the unclean from their uncleanness; Ned. 75ᵇ; Y. ib. X, 42ᵃ; a. fr.—לא מעלה ולא מוריד, v. יָרַד.—Idiomatic uses: a) to cause to go up from the reader’s place (which was low, v. תֵּיבה); to remove, discharge. Ber. 29ᵃ ולא הָעֱלוּהוּ and they did not remove him. Ib. טעה … מעלין אותו if a reader makes a mistake in the twelfth section of the T’fillah (v. מִין III), he must be removed; a. fr.—b) (v. Kal, c) to neutralize. Ter. IV, 8 תאנים שחורות מַעֲלוֹת וכ׳ black figs help to neutralize in conjunction with white ones, i.e. the black and the white secular figs are counted together against the admixture of figs of T’rumah whether black or white; a. fr.—c) (v. Kal, a) to account, credit or charge. B. Mets. 69ᵇ אני אעלה לך סלע וכ׳ I will give thee credit for one Sela each month (as a compensation for the use of the cow). Ab. II, 2 מעלה אני עליכם וכ׳ I (the Lord) shall credit you with a large reward, just as if you had accomplished (the good you had intended to do). Ib. III, 7, sq. מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו וכ׳ the Bible text (the Lord) charges him as if he had endangered his life (v. חוּב). Yoma 81ᵇ מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו וכ׳ it is accounted to his credit, as if he had fasted on the ninth and the tenth; a. fr.—d) (v. Kal, e) to succeed, profit. Snh. 90ᵇ הֶעֱלֵיתֶם בידכם, v. יָעַל.—f) ה׳ חן to effect grace; to find favor. Gen. R. s. 9 הלואי תהא מַעֲלַת חן לפני … כשם שהֶעֱלִית וכ׳ Oh, that thou wouldst find favor before me (please me) at all times, as thou dost now; a. e.—g) ה׳ חֵמָה [to let anger rise,] to become angry. Gen. R. s. 93 בשעה שהיה יהודה מעלה ח׳ וכ׳ whenever Judah got angry, the hair &c.; a. e.—h) (with or sub. ארוכה) to heal up. Ḥull. 77ᵃ, v. אֲרוּכָה II. Shebi. IV, 6 לא שיַעֲלֶה, v. פָּשַׁח; a. fr.
- to be removed, withdraw. Tosef. Yoma I, 12 בעון … שכינה נַעֲלַת through the sin of bloodshed has the Divine Presence withdrawn (Sifré Num. 161 מסתלקת).
- 1. to be raised, exalted. Sabb. 33ᵇ, v. supra; a. e.
- 2. to be raised in price, to be bargained for at auction. Gen. R. s. 40, end (ref. to וַתֻּקַּח, Gen. XII, 15) מִתְעַלָּה והולכת חד וכ׳ higher and higher prices were offered for her; one said, I give &c.; Esth. R. to II, 16 (ref. to ותלקח, ib.) מתעלה בליקוחין. e.g. Genesis 12:15
עֲלֵי
- Targ. Koh. III, 11 עולי ריגלאין (h. form) pilgrims to Jerusalem, v. preced.
- (v. preced.Hif. c) to balance; to estimate, value (corresp. to h. ערך). Targ. Job XXVIII, 17; 19. Targ. Y. Lev. XXVII, 8; a. fr.—Part. pass. מַעֲלֵי, v. infra.
- 1. to be elevated, exalted. Targ. Ps. XLVII, 10; a. e.
- 2. to be lifted up, be relieved of a burden. Targ. Prov. XIX, 19 כמא דמִתְעַלֵּי וכ׳ (ed. Lag. מַעֲלֵי, Pesh. מעלא) the more he is relieved, the more he adds to his burden (i.e. the more you attempt to quiet him, the angrier he gets; h. text כי אם תציל).—[Ithpe. אִתְעֲלֵי to be carried in, v. עֲלַל.]
עֱלִי
- pestle. Y. Peah I, 17ᵃ top [read:] כותש כעלי במכתש, v. כָּתַשׁ. Bets. I, 5; ib. 10ᵃ; Sabb. 123ᵃ
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 9 distinct written forms H5943 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| עלי/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 3:26 | 7 |
| עִלָּאָ/ה֙ | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:24 | 3 |
| עִלָּיָ/א֙ | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:25 | 2 |
| ו/ל/עלי/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:34 | 1 |
| וּ/לְ/עִלָּאָ/ה֙ | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:34 | 1 |
| עִלָּאָ֑/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:2 | 1 |
| עִלָּאָ֔/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 5:18 | 1 |
| עִלָּאָ֖/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 3:26 | 1 |
| עִלָּאָ֜/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 4:17 | 1 |
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 7 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.
