The H2513 witnesses require a distinction between a plot or parcel of land and expressions of smooth or flattering speech. Genesis 33:19 describes Jacob purchasing the ground where he pitched his tent, and Ruth 2:3 places Ruth in the part of a field belonging to Boaz.
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Full entry for חֶלְקָה (H2513) · Open the biblical lexicon
The H2513 witnesses require a distinction between a plot or parcel of land and expressions of smooth or flattering speech. Genesis 33:19 describes Jacob purchasing the ground where he pitched his tent, and Ruth 2:3 places Ruth in the part of a field belonging to Boaz.
The BSB source-word alignment has 29 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include field (4), of the field (2), a field (1), a place (1), And the plot (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 27:16. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Kings (6), 2 Samuel (5), Psalms (3), 1 Chronicles (2).
The H2513 witnesses require a distinction between a plot or parcel of land and expressions of smooth or flattering speech. Genesis 33:19 describes Jacob purchasing the ground where he pitched his tent, and Ruth 2:3 places Ruth in the part of a field belonging to Boaz. Neither occurrence carries an accusation of flattery or a hidden moral evaluation of the ground.
Psalm 12:2 instead condemns flattering lips joined to a divided heart, and Isaiah 30:10 records a demand for pleasant words instead of the truth. These speech contexts concern deception or refusal of unwelcome instruction, rather than ordinary kindness or tact. Licensed lexical witnesses preserve separate entries under the shared Strong's identifier; this private study follows the attested contexts without inventing a single spiritual connection between land and flattery. Teaching should explain the particular use before applying a moral warning or constructing a word association.
A purchased plot, a gleaning location, flattering lips and a demand for pleasant prophecy share the selected identifier but require different explanations. The land uses identify place, while the speech uses are morally evaluated by their immediate contexts.
And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
Jacob buys the plot on which he pitches his tent after arriving near Shechem. The statement identifies a purchased place and supplies no flattery judgment or symbolic speech meaning.
So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
Ruth comes to the part of the field belonging to Boaz while gleaning. The parcel locates the developing encounter rather than giving the field a moral quality of deceptive smoothness.
They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
Flattering lips appear with lies and a double heart. That explicit association, rather than pleasant tone by itself, determines the passage's condemnation of the speech.
They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.
The people ask for pleasing prophecy instead of truth and reject the Lord's instruction. Their demanded pleasant words are condemned because of the truth they refuse.
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. properly, smoothness ; figuratively, flattery ; also an allotment
properly, smoothness; figuratively, flattery; also an allotment BDB: portion Usage: field, flattering(-ry), ground, parcel, part, piece of land (ground), plat, portion, slippery place, smooth (thing).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
חֶלְקָה is built from this root:
Psalm 12's concern is more precise than a suspicion of every courteous word. Lies and a divided heart accompany the flattering lips, and the next lines expose tongues claiming their own mastery. Isaiah 30 adds people demanding pleasant prophecy because they do not want the truth. Teaching from these contexts should therefore examine intention, content and refusal of instruction instead of equating bluntness with faithfulness or gentleness with deception.
The land passages create a necessary lexical limit. Jacob's purchased plot and Ruth's gleaning location are not spiritual accusations hidden beneath ordinary geography. The licensed witnesses' separate entries reinforce the need to avoid constructing an invented bridge merely because a lookup identifier gathers the occurrences together. Ephesians 4:25-32 provides a Christian comparison in which truthful speech and helpful, gracious words belong together. That combination rejects both flattering falsehood and the claim that truth must be delivered with needless cruelty.
Ps.12.2
Licensed witnesses group separate land and smoothness entries under H2513. The direct passages confirm different uses, so a concordance identifier should not be treated as one exhaustive sense or an invitation to derive moral meaning from a place description.
Ephesians 4:25-32 requires speaking truth to one's neighbor and also commends words that build up and give grace to listeners. Alongside Psalm 12's condemnation of double-hearted flattery, it supports truthful kindness. The comparison does not attach deception to Ruth's field or make a Greek speech term another direct H2513 occurrence.