Definition

a rope (as twisted), especially a measuring line; by implication, a district or inheritance (as measured); or a noose (as of cords); figuratively, a company (as if tied together); also a throe (especially of parturition); also ruin

Etymology

or חֵבֶל; from H2254 (חָבַל);

Where the KJV renders it

• band
• coast
• company
• cord
• country
• destruction
• line
• lot
• pain
• pang
• portion
• region
• rope
• snare
• sorrow
• tackling

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.