The supplied Hebrew range includes heaps and waves, so the object in the sentence must guide reading. Genesis describes a gathered stone mound that serves as a witness in Jacob and Laban's agreement, including a stated boundary against harming each other.
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Full entry for גַּל (H1530) · Open the biblical lexicon
The supplied Hebrew range includes heaps and waves, so the object in the sentence must guide reading. Genesis describes a gathered stone mound that serves as a witness in Jacob and Laban's agreement, including a stated boundary against harming each other.
The BSB source-word alignment has 34 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include mound (6), a heap of rubble (3), The waves (3), and waves (2), into piles (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:46. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (7), Jeremiah (6), Psalms (5), Isaiah (4).
The supplied Hebrew range includes heaps and waves, so the object in the sentence must guide reading. Genesis describes a gathered stone mound that serves as a witness in Jacob and Laban's agreement, including a stated boundary against harming each other. Samuel describes stones piled over Absalom after his death, while Isaiah names a city made into rubble. Psalms also use waves in accounts of distress, storm and the Lord's calming action.
These settings do not give every heap or wave one spiritual message. Read whether the account names stones, ruins or water, and preserve its speaker and actual purpose. A boundary against harm, a narrated death, a ruined city and a prayer amid overwhelming trouble contribute differently. None permits predicting a family's outcome from ordinary stones or treating a suffering person's poetic words as a complete explanation of the cause of their distress.
Covenant stones, a burial mound, rubble and literal or poetic waves retain different objects. Purpose, narration and prayer voice determine the contribution rather than one imagined symbol linking every use.
And he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.
The relatives gather stones into a mound, which the following speech names as a witness in Jacob and Laban's stated agreement.
Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
The city is made into rubble within praise that also names refuge for the poor and needy, retaining destruction and protection in their stated relationship.
He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
The Lord hushes the waves after the sailors cry out in distress, within the poem's narrated storm, rescue and call to thanks.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Rolling motion unifies disparate senses: heap (rolled together), wave (rolling water), spring (water rolling forth).
Rolling motion unifies disparate senses: heap (rolled together), wave (rolling water), spring (water rolling forth).
something rolled, i.e. a heap of stone or dung (plural ruins), by analogy, a spring of water (plural waves) BDB: heap Usage: billow, heap, spring, wave.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 34 lexical occurrence verses.
גַּל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The physical object and its stated role matter more than an imagined common picture. Genesis' stone mound serves an agreement that expressly limits crossing to harm one another. Absalom's mound belongs to the account of his death, and Isaiah's rubble appears within praise of the Lord alongside refuge for those in distress. Psalm 107 narrates waves raised in a storm and hushed after the sailors cry out, while Psalm 42 gives the troubled speaker's waves language amid continued longing and prayer.
These are distinct acts, objects and voices. Preserve the poem's theological speech without converting it into a diagnosis for every present disaster or a guarantee that distress ends on a chosen schedule. Teach the actual boundary against harm, the narrated loss or the prayer and thanks where supplied, leaving private omens and unsupported symbolic connections unstated.
Gen.31.46
The licensed Hebrew range supplies heap, wave and related renderings. Stones, cities and water in the selected sentences distinguish these uses. A listed range does not require an etymological explanation or one symbolic identity; the actual object and construction remain the reliable guide for each passage.
Mark 4:37-41 narrates waves entering the boat and Jesus' command calming the wind and sea, followed by the disciples' question about his identity. Read beside Psalm 107's storm and cry, it preserves the Gospel's named agent and the Psalm's praise without asserting that every present storm will stop immediately after prayer. Psalm 42's continuing distress also prevents the shared water imagery from erasing honest lament.