Properly, to be rubbed or worn ; hence (figuratively) to be weak , sick , afflicted ; or (causatively) to grieve , make sick ; also to stroke (in flattering), entreat
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H2470, ḥālāh, is a Hebrew verb whose meaning is shaped by its stem and setting. It can describe becoming weak or ill, being wounded or distressed, making someone suffer, or, in its intensive stem, seeking another's favor through an earnest appeal.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָלָה (H2470) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2470, ḥālāh, is a Hebrew verb whose meaning is shaped by its stem and setting. It can describe becoming weak or ill, being wounded or distressed, making someone suffer, or, in its intensive stem, seeking another's favor through an earnest appeal.
The BSB source-word alignment has 75 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include ill (4), became ill (2), had been wounded (2), I am badly wounded (2), I will become as weak (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 48:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (8), 1 Kings (7), 2 Kings (7), Jeremiah (6).
H2470, ḥālāh, is a Hebrew verb whose meaning is shaped by its stem and setting. It can describe becoming weak or ill, being wounded or distressed, making someone suffer, or, in its intensive stem, seeking another's favor through an earnest appeal. Hezekiah's illness in 2 Kings 20 is physically serious and life-threatening. Ezekiel 34 names weak and sick people whom Israel's shepherds failed to care for.
Proverbs 13 uses sickness figuratively for the effect of prolonged disappointment on the heart. Yet Exodus 32 uses the same verb for Moses seeking the Lord's favor on Israel's behalf. Readers therefore must not force every occurrence into a single medical meaning. The word can portray bodily weakness, emotional distress, inflicted suffering, or urgent petition, with grammar and immediate context deciding its force.
Isaiah 53:10 uses a causative form within the servant song and must remain inside that passage's argument about the servant's suffering, offering, vindication, and the Lord's purpose. The verb alone cannot make another person's illness atoning or reveal a particular divine cause. H2470 invites honest recognition of human frailty and responsible care. Illness is not proof of personal guilt, deficient faith, demonic oppression, or divine rejection.
Earnest petition is not a formula for securing the requested result, and a report of illness should not be met with suspicion merely because Scripture also narrates deception.
H2470 ranges across bodily weakness or illness, woundedness, distress, causation of suffering, and an intensive-stem sense of pleading for favor. Stem, subject, and narrative setting keep those senses distinct.
In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”
Hezekiah's condition is a concrete bodily illness with mortal seriousness, and the prophetic announcement gives the immediate prognosis within the narrative.
But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, saying, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
The Piel form describes Moses seeking the Lord's favor in intercession, not becoming physically sick or causing illness.
You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
Weak and sick people are among those Israel's shepherds failed to strengthen and heal, making neglected care part of the prophetic indictment.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Figurative sickness names the inward effect of prolonged disappointment, while the proverb contrasts it with fulfilled desire as a tree of life.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
A causative form occurs within the servant song and must be interpreted with its language of offering, offspring, prolonged days, and the Lord's purpose.
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. Physical deterioration (rubbing away) extends metaphorically to weakness, sickness, affliction, and entreaty as urgent supplication.
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 2 selected witnesses from 75 lexical occurrence verses.
חָלָה is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Second Kings 20:1 uses H2470 for Hezekiah's mortal illness. The narrative takes bodily danger seriously and gives a particular prophetic word; it is not a template for diagnosing every prognosis or promising the same extension of life. Exodus 32:11 shows how much the stem matters, since Moses uses the verb in seeking the Lord's favor for Israel. Ezekiel 34:4 places weak and sick people before shepherds who neglected, scattered, and ruled harshly.
The prophetic burden falls on leaders who failed to care, not on vulnerable people for needing care. Proverbs 13:12 uses heart-sickness figuratively for prolonged disappointment, validating deep distress without turning a proverb into a clinical diagnosis. Isaiah 53:10 employs a causative form in the servant song, whose theological meaning comes from the whole passage and canonical witness.
It cannot be transferred to say that God delights in an individual's disease or that human illness atones for others. H2470 therefore gives churches a vocabulary for honest weakness and compassionate response. Faithful care may include prayer, medicine, rest, accommodations, practical help, lament, and patient companionship. People must be free to describe symptoms without being blamed, interrogated for hidden sin, or pressured to perform certainty about an outcome.
Pleading with God is real prayer, not a technique that controls Him.
Ezek.34.4
H2470 is a Hebrew verb whose Qal and related forms commonly express weakness, illness, woundedness, or distress, while the Piel can express seeking favor or entreating. Causative forms require attention to who brings about the suffering.
Old Testament illness and weakness texts join bodily frailty, lament, leadership responsibility, prayer, and hope without a single causal explanation. The Gospels present Jesus healing people with compassion and authority, while the letters honor weakness and mutual care. These themes connect canonically without making every Hebrew and Greek health term synonymous.