A rope (as twisted), especially a measuring line ; by implication, a district or inheritance (as measured); or a noose (as of cords); figuratively, a company (as if tied together); a throe (especially of parturition); also ruin
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H2256 is a Hebrew noun with a wide range that includes cord or rope, measuring line, measured territory or portion, snare, company, labor pang, and ruin. Psalm 16:6 says that boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places and interprets the allotted inheritance as delightful.
Reader summary
Full entry for חֶבֶל (H2256) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2256 is a Hebrew noun with a wide range that includes cord or rope, measuring line, measured territory or portion, snare, company, labor pang, and ruin. Psalm 16:6 says that boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places and interprets the allotted inheritance as delightful.
The BSB source-word alignment has 62 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include The cords (4), with cords (4), region (3), . . . (2), a group (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Deuteronomy 3:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (8), Jeremiah (7), Isaiah (6), 2 Samuel (5).
H2256 is a Hebrew noun with a wide range that includes cord or rope, measuring line, measured territory or portion, snare, company, labor pang, and ruin. Psalm 16:6 says that boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places and interprets the allotted inheritance as delightful. Hosea 11:4 pictures God's care with cords of kindness and ropes of love, an image of patient relational leading rather than coercion.
Proverbs 5:22 describes a wicked person's sins as cords that entangle him, shifting the physical rope into a moral image of self-binding consequences. Other passages use H2256 for an actual rope, a survey line, regions defined by measurement, the cords of death, and pains like childbirth. These senses share associations with binding, measuring, encircling, or constricting, but they are not interchangeable in every verse.
H2256 opens teaching on inheritance, boundaries, loving guidance, sin's bondage, mortality, and anguish. It corrects attempts to turn every cord into a spiritual symbol or to describe coercive control as God's cords of love.
H2256 moves from physical cords and measuring lines to allotted lands, boundaries, snares, pangs, and figurative bonds. Poetic and prophetic passages exploit these associations, while narrative texts can remain quite concrete. Syntax and setting determine which branch of the range is active.
The lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places; surely my inheritance is delightful.
The psalmist receives his boundary lines and inheritance as pleasant, within a confession that the Lord Himself is his chosen portion and cup.
I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.
God recalls leading Israel with cords of kindness and ropes of love, alongside lifting the yoke and bending down to feed them.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
The wicked person's own iniquities become cords that entangle him, emphasizing sin's self-binding power within the warning against adultery.
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. Rope that measures and binds: territory, suffering, or destruction—physical restraint becomes metaphor for covenant inheritance and existential constraint.
Rope that measures and binds: territory, suffering, or destruction—physical restraint becomes metaphor for covenant inheritance and existential constraint.
a rope (as twisted), especially a measuring line; by implication, a district or inheritance (as measured); or a noose (as of cords); figuratively, a company (as if tied together); a throe (especially of parturition); also ruin BDB: pain Usage: band, coast, company, cord, country, destruction, line, lot, pain, pang, portion, region, rope, snare, sorrow, tackling.
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 2 selected witnesses from 62 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2256 shows how a simple cord can gather very different meanings through use. A measuring line can mark an inherited portion, so Psalm 16 turns boundaries into gratitude because the Lord Himself is the psalmist's portion. A rope can guide or bind, and Hosea draws on that ambiguity while surrounding the image with kindness, lifted burden, and feeding care. God's leading there is covenant love, not permission for leaders to pull people through fear.
Proverbs moves toward entanglement: repeated wrongdoing becomes like cords around the sinner, revealing that sin's promised freedom can harden into bondage. Other passages speak of real ropes used for escape, surrender, decoration, or destruction; survey lines that divide land; cords of death; and pangs that seize like labor. The word's history does not authorize combining all these scenes into one hidden theology.
Responsible interpretation lets the object and action lead. H2256 can help people thank God for a faithful portion, recognize destructive patterns, and receive loving guidance, while also naming anguish and coercion honestly. Boundaries may protect a gift, but human lines can also enact injustice. The noun supplies an image; God's character and the passage's moral judgment determine whether a particular cord gives, guides, traps, or wounds.
Ps.16.6
H2256 is a polysemous noun. A twisted cord can become a measuring line, the territory measured by that line, a bond or snare, and by figurative extension a pang or destructive constraint. Translation must follow collocation, verb, and genre rather than a single preferred gloss.
The New Testament also uses binding, inheritance, boundary, and labor-pain imagery, but those later Greek expressions are not automatic lexical equivalents of H2256. Canonical connections should compare theological patterns while preserving each passage's own wording and covenant setting.