Properly, to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), i.e. (specifically) to dance , to writhe in pain (especially of parturition) or fear ; figuratively, to wait , to pervert
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H2342 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can describe whirling or trembling, writhing in pain, laboring and giving birth, bringing forth, waiting, or enduring in expectation. Genesis 8:10 says Noah waited another seven days before sending the dove again, presenting measured patience within the flood narrative.
Reader summary
Full entry for חוּל (H2342) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2342 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can describe whirling or trembling, writhing in pain, laboring and giving birth, bringing forth, waiting, or enduring in expectation. Genesis 8:10 says Noah waited another seven days before sending the dove again, presenting measured patience within the flood narrative.
The BSB source-word alignment has 60 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tremble (5), I was brought forth (3), . . . (2), and wounded him (2), shakes (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 8:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (13), Isaiah (11), Jeremiah (7), Job (6).
H2342 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can describe whirling or trembling, writhing in pain, laboring and giving birth, bringing forth, waiting, or enduring in expectation. Genesis 8:10 says Noah waited another seven days before sending the dove again, presenting measured patience within the flood narrative. Isaiah 26:17 compares the people's condition before the Lord to a pregnant woman writhing and crying out near childbirth, an image the following verse turns toward the anguish of frustrated human effort.
Deuteronomy 32:18 says Israel forgot the Rock who brought them forth and the God who gave them birth, using parental imagery for God's covenant-making action. Elsewhere the verb can describe terror, battle pain, dancing, created formation, and patient hope. Its wide range must be governed by stem, syntax, and scene. H2342 opens teaching on embodied anguish, patient waiting, divine creation, communal crisis, and hope.
It corrects word studies that romanticize labor pain, confuse waiting with passivity, or treat every occurrence as one hidden birth metaphor.
H2342 spans bodily turning, trembling, writhing, labor, birth, formation, and waiting. Poetry and prophecy often use labor pains for communal anguish or impending crisis, while narratives can use the verb for ordinary waiting. The subject, grammar, and comparison control the sense.
Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
Noah waits another measured period before again sending the dove, practicing patient action while the waters recede.
As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O Lord.
The people are compared to a woman near birth who writhes and cries out, introducing a confession of painful effort that has not produced the hoped-for deliverance.
You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Israel is charged with forgetting the Rock who brought them forth and the God who gave them birth, portraying covenant life as God's initiating work.
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. Circular motion ranging from physical writhing (childbirth, fear) to patient waiting; intertwining tension and endurance.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 61 lexical occurrence verses.
חוּל is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2342 gives biblical writers a vivid way to speak about movement under pressure. Noah's waiting is not empty delay; it is a bounded interval followed by another responsible action. Isaiah uses labor pain to expose a nation's anguish and inability to produce salvation through its own effort. The image honors the intensity of the crisis, but it should not be abstracted from the communal confession or used to promise that every private pain guarantees an immediate breakthrough.
Deuteronomy uses birth language differently, naming God as the One who brought Israel forth and exposing the tragedy of covenant forgetfulness. Other forms can describe trembling nations, wounded people, dancing, formation, or the onset of birth. These uses belong to a semantic family, not a single theological formula. H2342 teaches that faithful waiting can coexist with motion, fear, pain, and longing.
It also points beyond human incapacity to the God who creates and delivers. Pastoral use should respect actual childbirth and trauma, refuse to glorify suffering, and give lament room to speak. Hope is grounded in God's character and promise, not in the intensity of a person's travail or a timetable inferred from the verb.
Isa.26.17
H2342 is a verb with a broad, stem-sensitive range involving circular movement, trembling, writhing, labor, bringing forth, forming, and waiting. English translations can look unrelated because different verbal patterns and contexts activate different branches of the range.
The New Testament also employs labor pains, patient waiting, trembling, and new-birth imagery in distinct contexts. Those canonical patterns may be compared with H2342, but later Greek verbs do not collapse its Hebrew forms into one prediction about tribulation, conversion, or Christ's return.