מָלֵא

מָלֵא (male, H4392) is an adjective meaning full or filled. It describes a field, vessel, building, city, person, or condition as containing or characterized by what the context names. Genesis 23:9 uses it of the full price of a burial field, Numbers 7 repeatedly uses it of vessels full of incense or flour, and Deuteronomy 6:11 describes houses full of good things.

The word can also describe a person filled with a quality. Deuteronomy 34:9 says Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid hands on him, and Isaiah 1:21 laments that Jerusalem, formerly full of justice, had become marked by violence. These uses show that fullness is morally and theologically specified by its complement; being full is not automatically good or bad.

Ruth 1:21 gives the adjective a poignant contrast when Naomi says she went away full and the Lord brought her back empty. Her words express her grief at the loss of husband and sons. The rest of Ruth narrates providential care, but the adjective itself names Naomi's perceived former condition rather than promising a universal pattern in which every earthly loss is reversed.

H4392 describes fullness in concrete, social, moral, and personal settings. The thing or quality that fills the subject must always be identified from the verse; the adjective does not carry an abstract doctrine of divine fullness by itself.