Properly, dangling , i.e. (by implication) weak or thin
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H1800 describes what is weak, thin, poor, or lacking strength, and Scripture applies the word both to people with limited resources and to situations marked by reduced power. The word does not create a moral category in which poverty equals guilt or weakness equals worthlessness.
Reader summary
Full entry for דַּל (H1800) · Open the biblical lexicon
H1800 describes what is weak, thin, poor, or lacking strength, and Scripture applies the word both to people with limited resources and to situations marked by reduced power. The word does not create a moral category in which poverty equals guilt or weakness equals worthlessness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 47 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the poor (17), of the poor (9), to the poor (3), but a poor man (2), is poor (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 23:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (15), Job (6), Isaiah (5), Psalms (5).
H1800 describes what is weak, thin, poor, or lacking strength, and Scripture applies the word both to people with limited resources and to situations marked by reduced power. The word does not create a moral category in which poverty equals guilt or weakness equals worthlessness. In the Psalms, the poor person is someone whom God can hear, preserve, judge fairly, and rescue from oppression.
Proverbs warns that wealth attracts friends while the poor may be deserted, exposing the instability of relationships organized around advantage. Isaiah places the weak within the Messiah’s righteous judgment and presents God as refuge for the poor and needy. H1800 can also describe a military or political weakness, so context must determine whether the concern is material poverty, social vulnerability, physical limitation, or diminished strength.
The companion word therefore opens a theology of truthful attention: readers must name weakness without despising the weak, and they must distinguish compassion from paternalism. The text also calls powerful people to examine how their choices intensify another person’s poverty. H1800 does not promise that every poor person will receive immediate prosperity, nor does it make every experience of weakness identical.
Read it beside the passage’s justice, wisdom, lament, or hope.
H1800 moves between poverty, political weakness, social abandonment, and God’s protection of those with little strength or means. Its biblical force comes from refusing contempt: the weak remain visible before the Lord, while rulers, neighbors, and institutions are measured by how they respond.
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.
Hannah’s song locates the poor within God’s sovereign reversal, where low status does not prevent the Lord from granting honor and a new place.
But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.
Messianic judgment is described as righteous and equitable for the poor, correcting courts and rulers that treat low status as a reason for neglect.
For You have been a refuge for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like rain against a wall,
The poor and needy are not presented as invisible problems but as people for whom God becomes refuge against ruthless pressure and consuming distress.
Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.
Proverbs gives treatment of the poor a theological weight: oppression insults the Creator, while kindness honors Him through concrete regard for the needy.
Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble.
The psalm blesses attentive care without turning the poor into a project, connecting mercy toward the vulnerable with the Lord’s own deliverance.
He will take pity on the poor and needy and save the lives of the oppressed.
The royal psalm expects righteous rule to show pity and preserve life, so the weak are central evidence of whether power is being used well.
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. Weak or impoverished person; captures both physical thinness and social vulnerability in covenant-protective language
Weak or impoverished person; captures both physical thinness and social vulnerability in covenant-protective language
properly, dangling, i.e. (by implication) weak or thin BDB: low Usage: lean, needy, poor (man), weaker.
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 47 lexical occurrence verses.
דַּל 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.
H1800 gives biblical language for weakness without granting weakness the final word. The poor person in Hannah’s song is raised from dust, the poor in Isaiah are promised equitable judgment, and the needy in Isaiah 25 find refuge when ruthless pressure feels like a storm or wall of rain. Proverbs makes the moral issue sharper: to oppress the poor is to taunt their Maker, because the vulnerable person remains a creature whose dignity is held before God.
Psalm 41 calls blessed the one who considers the poor, while Psalm 72 presents pity and life-saving action as marks of righteous rule. These texts do not deny the reality of limited means, fragile health, political weakness, or social abandonment. They deny that such conditions make a person disposable. Teachers should resist both blame and romanticism. H1800 does not say that poverty automatically makes a person wise, nor does it promise instant wealth to everyone who trusts God.
It calls the church to practice truthful attention, generous help, fair judgment, and protection from exploitation. The word also requires context: the same vocabulary may describe a weak political position or a person with little economic power. Faithful teaching lets each passage define the form of weakness while holding together God’s compassion and human responsibility.
Ps.72.13
H1800 is related to images of dangling, thinness, or reduced strength and appears in descriptions of people, social conditions, and political weakness. Translation choices such as poor, weak, needy, or lowly reflect the immediate context rather than unrelated meanings.
The Old Testament’s concern for the poor and weak continues in Jesus’ mercy toward the needy, the church’s shared care, and the apostolic insistence that partiality toward wealth contradicts faith. The New Testament keeps dignity, justice, generosity, and wise community responsibility together.