Pierced (especially to death); figuratively, polluted
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H2491 describes someone slain, pierced, or mortally wounded and can also carry a profaned sense in a distinct setting. 1, an unidentified slain person found in a field creates communal responsibility rather than permission to ignore an unsolved death.
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Full entry for חָלָל (H2491) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2491 describes someone slain, pierced, or mortally wounded and can also carry a profaned sense in a distinct setting. 1, an unidentified slain person found in a field creates communal responsibility rather than permission to ignore an unsolved death.
The BSB source-word alignment has 94 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include slain (10), those slain (10), the slain (9), the dead (4), with the slain (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 34:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (35), Jeremiah (9), 1 Chronicles (5), 2 Samuel (5).
H2491 describes someone slain, pierced, or mortally wounded and can also carry a profaned sense in a distinct setting. In Deut. 21. 1, an unidentified slain person found in a field creates communal responsibility rather than permission to ignore an unsolved death. In 2Sam. 1. 19, David laments Israel's glory slain on the heights and refuses to treat war loss as a statistic.
In Jer. 9. 1, the prophet longs to weep day and night for the slain of his people. H2491 opens teaching on naming victims, public responsibility, lament, burial, and the devastation hidden behind victory stories. It does not glorify killing, prove that every casualty deserved death, or let a community evade care when the perpetrator is unknown.
H2491 most often names those killed or wounded in battle, massacre, judgment, or urban violence. Legal, poetic, prophetic, and narrative settings variously demand investigation, mourning, warning, burial, or acknowledgment of devastation.
If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
An unidentified slain person in the land triggers a public process that acknowledges bloodguilt and communal responsibility.
“Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!
David's lament names Israel's fallen glory and gives grief a voice after Saul and Jonathan die.
Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.
Jeremiah desires unending tears for the slain daughter of his people amid deception, violence, and judgment.
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 piercing unto death extends metaphorically to moral/spiritual pollution and desecration of the holy.
Physical piercing unto death extends metaphorically to moral/spiritual pollution and desecration of the holy.
pierced (especially to death); figuratively, polluted BDB: profaned Usage: kill, profane, slain (man), × slew, (deadly) wounded.
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 3 selected witnesses from 94 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2491 refuses to let violent death disappear into abstraction. Deuteronomy imagines a slain person whose killer is unknown, yet uncertainty does not make the body nobody's concern. Elders, priests, and nearby communities must respond publicly, renounce complicity, and seek cleansing. David's lament and Jeremiah's tears likewise preserve grief where political or military speech might celebrate, excuse, or move on.
Other passages name heaps of slain as evidence of judgment and imperial brutality. The word itself does not settle every moral question about a battle, but it keeps the human cost visible. Faithful application names victims, investigates harm, protects evidence, supports survivors, and makes room for lament even when institutions prefer reputation or victory.
Christian hope in resurrection does not shorten grief; it strengthens the refusal to treat murdered, wounded, or war-torn people as disposable.
Deut.21.1
H2491 is a Hebrew adjective or substantive associated with piercing and fatal wounding. English renderings include slain, wounded, or profaned according to construction and context, so the concrete referent must be identified before application.
Jesus mourns violent Jerusalem, the New Testament honors murdered witnesses, and Revelation places the slain before God while promising final judgment, bodily resurrection, and a renewed creation where bloodshed is neither forgotten nor repeated.