To make away with (specifically by swallowing ); generally, to destroy
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
The Hebrew verb bala can describe literal swallowing and can portray engulfing, consuming, or destroying. Aaron's staff swallows the Egyptian staffs, the earth swallows people in judgment scenes, a wise woman asks why Joab would destroy a city, and prophets lament the wicked consuming those more righteous than themselves.
Reader summary
Full entry for בָּלַע (H1104) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb bala can describe literal swallowing and can portray engulfing, consuming, or destroying. Aaron's staff swallows the Egyptian staffs, the earth swallows people in judgment scenes, a wise woman asks why Joab would destroy a city, and prophets lament the wicked consuming those more righteous than themselves.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and swallowed (3), He has swallowed up (2), He will swallow up (2), swallow up (2), swallowed up (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 41:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (8), Job (7), Psalms (7), Lamentations (5).
The Hebrew verb bala can describe literal swallowing and can portray engulfing, consuming, or destroying. Aaron's staff swallows the Egyptian staffs, the earth swallows people in judgment scenes, a wise woman asks why Joab would destroy a city, and prophets lament the wicked consuming those more righteous than themselves. Psalms uses engulfing water and a swallowing depth to voice mortal danger, while Isaiah announces that the Lord will swallow up death forever.
The image can therefore move from physical action to military threat, social destruction, lament, and ultimate hope. A violent scene does not authorize reenactment, and a metaphor of consumption should not be used to dehumanize an opponent. Judgment accounts must remain inside their narrated covenant setting rather than becoming predictions about particular modern disasters.
Lament gives endangered people words for overwhelming threat without blaming them for feeling afraid. Isaiah's promise centers God's victory over death and the wiping away of tears, not denial of grief or a guarantee that believers avoid present death. Responsible teaching identifies what swallows what, whether the usage is literal or figurative, and how the passage evaluates the power involved.
Bala can describe swallowing something physically or consuming and destroying figuratively. Stem, subject, object, and genre distinguish literal ingestion, engulfing danger, predatory violence, divine judgment, lament, and the promised defeat of death.
Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.
Aaron's staff becomes a serpent and swallows the staffs thrown down by Pharaoh's magicians.
I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”
A wise woman confronts Joab for seeking to destroy a peaceable city described as a mother in Israel.
Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
Habakkuk asks why God is silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than themselves.
Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
The psalmist pleads that floods and depths not swallow him and that the Pit not close over him.
Now the Lord had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
The Lord appoints a great fish to swallow Jonah, who remains inside for three days and nights.
He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah promises that the Lord will swallow up death forever, wipe away tears, and remove His people's disgrace.
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. Swallowing as annihilation: physical ingestion metaphor for total obliteration, often divine judgment consuming the wicked.
Swallowing as annihilation: physical ingestion metaphor for total obliteration, often divine judgment consuming the wicked.
to make away with (specifically by swallowing); generally, to destroy BDB: swallow down Usage: cover, destroy, devour, eat up, be at end, spend up, swallow down (up).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 50 lexical occurrence verses.
בָּלַע is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The Lord disrupts national wisdom as part of his judgment.Hosea 8:8-14
The verb underscores the total defeat of death.Isaiah 19:1-4
Imagery of exile and disappearance.Isaiah 25:6-12
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Bala turns swallowing into a vivid picture of power. Exodus 7 shows Aaron's staff swallowing the magicians' staffs within the Lord's confrontation with Pharaoh. The sign identifies divine supremacy in that narrative, not a ritual for overpowering present opponents. In Second Samuel 20, a wise woman uses the verb to challenge Joab's threatened destruction of Abel Beth-maacah.
Her intervention values a whole community and shows that military power must answer truthful moral reasoning. Habakkuk uses swallowing language for wicked people consuming those more righteous, giving faith permission to question apparent divine silence before predatory violence. Psalm 69 prays from the felt edge of engulfment and the Pit. Its imagery should invite compassionate presence and concrete safety, not rebuke a distressed person for lacking composure.
Jonah is swallowed by an appointed fish in a unique prophetic narrative that moves through flight, prayer, deliverance, proclamation, and the Lord's mercy. Speculation about anatomy or attempts to reproduce a sign can distract from the book's message. Isaiah 25 reverses the whole image as the Lord swallows death, wipes tears, and removes disgrace. Faithful application opposes powers that consume people, makes room for lament, seeks qualified help in danger, and proclaims resurrection hope without minimizing death or grief.
Isa.25.8
Bala transliterates Hebrew בָּלַע. Governed morphology records active, intensive, passive, and reflexive settings; the subject, object, stem, and genre show whether the verb describes physical swallowing, being engulfed, consuming resources, destroying people, or the defeat of death.
The New Testament announces Christ's resurrection and the final swallowing of death through related canonical imagery, but its Greek wording is distinct. The shared image can illuminate hope while the Hebrew occurrences retain their own narrative agents and settings.