StrongerBible

azal

אֲזַל

AramaicH0236“go”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Ezr 4:23Ezr 5:8Ezr 5:15Dan 2:17Dan 2:24Dan 6:18(19)Dan 6:19(20)
Word studyuh-ZAHLverb

What azal means

to go: to leave where you are and make your way to somewhere else.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is the plain, everyday verb for going somewhere in the Aramaic chapters of Daniel and Ezra. It carries no weight of its own. Someone is standing in one place, then he sets off for another, and the story goes with him.

All seven uses are real trips with real destinations, and the writers reach for the word at the hinge of a scene:

  • Daniel goes home to tell his three friends what the king has demanded (Daniel 2:17)
  • the king goes back to his palace and lies awake all night (Daniel 6:18)
  • Persian officials hurry to Jerusalem and shut the building work down by force (Ezra 4:23)
  • an inspecting governor reports that his party went to the province of Judah (Ezra 5:8)

The word itself never says how the trip felt. When the writers want speed, they add a separate word for haste (Ezra 4:23; Daniel 6:19), and when the going is an errand, the verb that follows says what was done on arrival: "go, put these vessels back in the temple" (Ezra 5:15). Strip those away and what is left is simply movement from here to there.

One feature will not show up in an English Bible. In these books the verb only ever appears for a trip already made or a trip commanded: "he went," "they went," "go." Where a sentence needs "he will go" or "to go," Ezra uses a different verb instead (הוּךְ). Between them the two words cover the whole range of going, and neither is ever found doing the other's work.

Ezr 4:23Ezr 5:8Ezr 5:15Dan 2:17Dan 2:24Dan 6:18(19)Dan 6:19(20)

What scholars say about azal

The standard lexica of Biblical Aramaic (HALOT's Aramaic volume, BDB's Aramaic section, Vogt) give אֲזַל a single undivided sense, "to go, go away," with no sub-entries. All seven biblical occurrences (Daniel 2:17; 2:24; 6:18; 6:19; Ezra 4:23; 5:8; 5:15) are peal, and they are confined to the perfect and the imperative; the imperfect and infinitive of "to go" in Biblical Aramaic are supplied instead by הוך (H1946: Ezra 5:5; 6:5; 7:13), a division of one paradigm between two verbs that the standard grammars (Bauer and Leander; Rosenthal) describe. The root is common Aramaic, attested in Old and Imperial Aramaic (including the Elephantine papyri) and continuing as the ordinary verb for going in Syriac, the Targums, and later Jewish Aramaic. Hebrew אזל (H0235) is the cognate but has specialized toward "be used up, be gone" (Deuteronomy 32:36; 1 Samuel 9:7; Job 14:11), with the older "go away" surviving in Proverbs 20:14. Commentators on Daniel and Ezra (Collins; Goldingay; Williamson) raise no question about the verb's meaning; discussion of these verses concerns the narrative and the Persian chancellery setting, not the lexeme.

Sources

  • Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), Aramaic section, s.v. אזלlexicon
  • Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs (BDB), Aramaic section, s.v. אֲזַלlexicon
  • Ernst Vogt, A Lexicon of Biblical Aramaic, rev. and trans. J. A. Fitzmyer (2011), s.v. אזלlexicon
  • Franz Rosenthal, A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, 7th ed. (2006)grammar
  • Hans Bauer and Pontus Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen (1927)grammar
  • John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (1993)commentary
  • John E. Goldingay, Daniel, Word Biblical Commentary 30 (1989)commentary
  • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary 16 (1985)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אֲזַל

peal perfect 3ms

אֲזַל

Dan 2:17, Dan 2:24, Dan 6:18, Dan 6:19

peal imperative 2ms

אֵזֶל

Ezr 5:15

peal perfect 1cp

אֲזַלְנָא

Ezr 5:8

peal perfect 3mp

אֲזַלוּ

Ezr 4:23