Definition

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

Etymology

a primitive root (compare H2342 (חוּל), H2470 (חָלָה), H2490 (חָלַל));

Where the KJV renders it

• beseech
• (be) diseased
• (put to) grief
• be grieved
• (be) grievous
• infirmity
• intreat
• lay to
• put to pain
• pray
• make prayer
• be (fall
• make) sick
• sore
• be sorry
• make suit ( supplication)
• woman in travail
• be (become) weak
• be wounded

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.