Definition

properly, failure, i.e. nothing or destruction; usually (with preposition) without, not yet, because not, as long as, etc.

Etymology

from H1086 (בָּלָה);

Where the KJV renders it

• corruption
• ig(norantly)
• for lack of
• where no...is
• so that no
• none
• not
• un(awares)
• without

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.