strength in action: force brought to bear, whether against people, in a fighter's body, or in a voice raised to a shout
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
The core idea is strength actually being spent, not strength held in reserve. The word names power in the act of being used, and the Aramaic parts of Ezra and Daniel show three arenas for it:
officials stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem "by arm and force" (Ezra 4:23)
the men picked to throw three Jews into the furnace are men of strength (Daniel 3:20)
a herald and a king each call out "with strength", meaning at full volume (Daniel 3:4;Daniel 5:7)
The third of those is the one that surprises English readers. The idiom treats a raised voice as strength pushed out through the throat, so "to call with strength" is simply "to call loudly." English keeps a trace of the same picture when we say that someone shouted with all his might.
Daniel's Aramaic has quieter words for power alongside this one. חֵסֶן is the settled might that belongs to a throne, תְּקָף is firm, unbreakable strength, and גְּבוּרָה is the might God shows in what he does. This word is the most physical of the group: the strength a body, a voice, or a squad of soldiers puts out.
Nuances
1aforce used to overpower or compel someone
TranslatabilityDirect
Ezr 4:23
1bthe bodily strength that makes a man a fighter, in the phrase for a king's strongest soldiers
Dan 3:20 (2×)*
1cstrength in the voice: to call with strength is to call at full volume
TranslatabilityApproximate
Dan 3:4Dan 4:14(11)Dan 5:7
2
an army: the armed men a ruler commands, his strength counted out in bodies
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
An army is strength you can count, so a word for power in use slides easily from the strength of one man to the whole fighting force a king can send. Daniel 3:20 does both at once: the strongest men in the king's army. In the Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel there is no separate noun for an army, and this is the word that carries the job. Across the wider Aramaic of the ancient Near Eastern empires it was the ordinary word for troops, which is part of why the military sense sits at the center of its range.
The reach goes past human soldiers. When Nebuchadnezzar finally admits that God does as he pleases with heaven's army and with the people of the earth, the picture is of ordered ranks above, the angelic forces at God's disposal, matched against the nations below. The Greek New Testament makes the same move with στρατιά when it speaks of the heavenly host.
Nuances
2aa king's army, the troops under his command
Dan 3:20 (2×)*
2bthe host of heaven, the forces God commands above
Force actually applied against people, the kind that stops them: the officials in Jerusalem shut the building work down "by arm and force", strength spent on someone right then. חֵסֶן is never the power used in an act like this.Ezr 4:23
Fighting men themselves, a ruler's strength counted out in bodies: the strongest soldiers in the king's army throw the three men into the furnace, and heaven has its own army too. חֵסֶן is a quality a king holds, never a body of troops he can send.Dan 3:20Dan 4:35
Sheer physical effort in the body, including the push behind a raised voice: a herald, a heavenly watcher, and the king himself each call out "with strength", meaning at full volume. Nothing about חֵסֶן can be exerted this way.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
Both
English Bibles reach for "power" or "might" for both, and in Daniel both stand behind a king's ability to get his will done: the power granted him with the crown, and the soldiers who carry out his order.Dan 2:37Dan 3:20
Settled authority that arrives with a throne, handed over rather than worked up: God gives Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom, this power, might, and glory as one package, so it is something he now holds by grant. חַיִל is never given to a king as part of his office in this way.Dan 2:37
The standing resources of a reign, the sort of thing a king can point at and boast about: Nebuchadnezzar says he built great Babylon by the might of his power, meaning everything his position put at his disposal, not one act of forcing.Dan 4:30
תְּקָףmight as firmness and hardness, strength that cannot be broken, rather than this word's strength spent in action or counted out as troops
It can be counted in bodies of fighting men. The soldiers who tie up the three friends are the strong men "in his army", and the same word names the "host of heaven" that God rules over, so the strength is a countable force of troops rather than a quality.Dan 3:20Dan 4:35
It measures how much force is put into a voice. A herald, a watcher in a dream, and a frightened king all "call with strength", which our versions turn into "cried aloud", so the word can price a shout as well as a soldier.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
It is strength actually spent on someone. Officials go to Jerusalem and stop the building work "by arm and force", which is strength in the act of being used against people, not strength held in reserve.Ezr 4:23
Both
Both are the hard strength of empire in these books, the kind that gets an imperial decision carried out. One is the force with which the king's officers shut the building down, the other is the might Babylon's king credits for raising his city.Ezr 4:23Dan 4:30
Both are strength a person holds only because it was handed to him. The army that seizes the three friends belongs to a king whose might, in the same book, is said to be given to him by the God of heaven.Dan 3:20Dan 2:37
It is one of the settled possessions of a throne, handed over whole. God gives Nebuchadnezzar "the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory", so this strength sits in a list of things a ruler simply has, alongside his honor, with nobody counted and nothing spent.Dan 2:37
It is the firmness a man points to as proof that what he made will stand. Nebuchadnezzar looks at Babylon and says he built it "by the might of my power", meaning by resources solid enough to raise a city, which is exactly the claim God then breaks.Dan 4:30
גְּבוּרָהmight as the capacity behind great deeds, used in Daniel of God alongside his wisdom, never of an army the way this word is
It names strength in the act of being used: officials go to Jerusalem and stop the building work by strong arm and force.Ezr 4:23
It can name the people who carry the strength, so it becomes a word for troops: the strong men of the king's fighting force, and the armies of heaven that God works his will among.Dan 3:20Dan 4:35
It measures the force put into a sound, so a herald or a king who calls out "with strength" is simply shouting at the top of his voice.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
Both
Both are turned into "might" or "power" in English, and both name real power held by someone in authority and able to change what happens: God's might, which reveals what no one else can, and the force by which royal officials shut the work down.Dan 2:20Ezr 4:23
Both times it appears it is God's might, and both times it is set beside his wisdom as a matched pair: the power to know joined to the power to do.Dan 2:20Dan 2:23
It names a capacity that can be handed over as a gift: Daniel thanks God for having given him "wisdom and might", which is praise for what he has been made able to do, not a report of force being applied.Dan 2:23
It stays fully abstract, naming might itself as something to bless God for, never a body of soldiers and never the loudness of a voice.Dan 2:20
ḥayil in the other biblical languages
חַיִלHebrew“strength: soldiers”the Hebrew word of the same family, which shares the strength and army senses but stretches on to wealth and personal worth, ground the Aramaic word never covers
In Aramaic the word is used of the force behind a voice: a herald or a king "calls out with strength", which simply means calling out loudly. The Hebrew word is never put to this use.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
Both
Both words name plain strength or force, whether it is the strength a person is given for a task or the muscle used to make someone else stop: officials shut down the rebuilding in Jerusalem "by force", and a horse for all its great strength still cannot save a rider.Psa 18:32Hab 3:19Psa 33:17Ezr 4:23
Both languages use the same set phrase, "men of strength", as a standing description of hardened fighters: Gideon is greeted with it, David is recommended with it, and Nebuchadnezzar picks out his strongest soldiers with it.Jdg 6:121Sa 16:18Dan 3:20
In both, the word slides from strength to the body of troops that carries it, the army of a king, and it can be used the same way of a force that is not human, God's own army and the host of heaven.Exo 14:92Ki 25:1Jol 2:11Dan 3:20Dan 4:35
The overlap here is wide, not narrow, and the sample is lopsided: the Aramaic word turns up in only six verses, and almost everything it does there (strength, force, tough fighters, an army) is ground the Hebrew word covers too. The contrast below is therefore mostly about the extra range the Hebrew reaches, not about the Aramaic meaning something different.2Ch 26:13Dan 4:35
The Hebrew word also means wealth: money, herds, and property, the resources a person or a nation has piled up. Israel is warned against saying "my own strength got me this wealth", and the same word names what a rich man rejoices over and what a proud city amasses by trade.Deu 8:17Deu 8:18Job 31:25Ezk 28:4Psa 49:6Pro 13:22Isa 60:5Zep 1:13
The Hebrew word can measure a person's worth and competence rather than muscle: the capable wife of Proverbs 31 is literally a "woman of strength", Ruth is called one, and Pharaoh and Moses both look for "men of strength" meaning men able enough to be put in charge. The Aramaic never rates a person this way.Pro 31:10Pro 31:29Pro 12:4Rut 3:11Gen 47:6Exo 18:211Ki 1:52
Because it can mean goods, the Hebrew word doubles as the word for what an army carries off: the plunder stripped from a conquered town, the riches loaded onto donkeys, the possessions of the nations gathered up.Gen 34:29Isa 10:14Isa 30:6Ezk 26:12Oba 1:11Zec 14:14
At its furthest stretch the Hebrew word covers what a plant puts out, the yield of the fig tree and the vine, strength seen as fruit rather than as force.Jol 2:22
στρατιάGreek“army”the Greek noun for an army, including the heavenly host, matching this word's military sense but carrying nothing of raw force or a shouted command
The Aramaic word names the troops a human king actually commands: Nebuchadnezzar picks the executioners from the men "in his army" (Daniel 3:20). In the New Testament the Greek word is never used of human soldiers.Dan 3:20
It also names the bodily strength of individual fighters, in the phrase for the strongest men available to the king (Daniel 3:20). The Greek word only ever names the group, never the muscle of one man.Dan 3:20
It covers force applied against people to make them stop, as when officials break off the rebuilding of Jerusalem "by arm and force" (Ezra 4:23). Nothing in the Greek word touches coercion.Ezr 4:23
Strangest of all to English readers, it measures the volume of a voice: to call "with strength" is to call at full volume, which is what heralds and kings do (Daniel 3:4;Daniel 4:14;Daniel 5:7). The Greek word says nothing about sound.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
Both
Both are ordinary words for an armed body ranked under one commander, so the Greek word is the natural counterpart whenever the military sense of the Aramaic word is carried into Greek: the king's own troops in Daniel 3:20, the angel company Luke calls heaven's army in Luke 2:13.Dan 3:20Luk 2:13
Both stretch that army picture upward with the same phrase, "the army of heaven", for the ordered ranks above: Nebuchadnezzar admits God does as he pleases with heaven's army (Daniel 4:35), and Stephen uses the matching Greek phrase (Acts 7:42).Dan 4:35Act 7:42
The Greek word names the heavenly host as a company that acts on its own: the crowd of angels that joins the announcing angel breaks into praise (Luke 2:13). Heaven's army in the Aramaic is only something God disposes of, never a body that speaks or sings.Luk 2:13
It can name the lights of the sky as the array people bowed to, which is what Stephen means when he says Israel was handed over to worship "the host of heaven" (Acts 7:42). The Aramaic word is never an object of worship.Act 7:42
δύναμιςGreek“power”the Greek word for power and ability, overlapping this word's strength sense but never naming a body of troops
It describes the volume of a voice: a herald calls out "with strength", meaning at the top of his lungs, and so does the watcher in the dream and the panicking king of Babylon. The Greek word is never used for loudness.Dan 3:4Dan 4:14Dan 5:7
Every use is something concrete: soldiers, troops, muscle brought to bear, or a shout, never an ability a person holds or a wonder someone performs. In Ezra the officials stop the building work "by force", meaning armed men were sent.Ezr 4:23Dan 3:20
Both
Both can name a massed force rather than a quality: Daniel speaks of the strongest men in the king's army and of the army of heaven that God governs, and Matthew speaks of the powers of the heavens being shaken. Greek versions of Daniel use the Greek word for the Aramaic one in exactly this sense.Dan 3:20Dan 4:35Mat 24:29
Both can mean strength actually brought to bear against resistance, not merely held in reserve: force applied to halt the rebuilding in Ezra, and the power in Jesus' word that drives unclean spirits out.Ezr 4:23Luk 4:36
It can name a single act of power, a deed you can count: the towns where Jesus did most of his mighty works, the works people were astonished at, the unusual miracles done through Paul. The Aramaic word never names a deed.Mat 11:20Mrk 6:2Act 19:11
It can name what a particular person is capable of, so it is often rendered "ability": the servants each get money in line with what they can handle, and the givers in Macedonia gave beyond what they could afford.Mat 25:152Co 8:3
It names power as something God supplies to people, so they are described as clothed with it or as receiving it when the Spirit comes.Luk 24:49Act 1:8
It stands in for God himself: "the right hand of the Power" is a reverent way of saying "God's right hand", and the gospel is called God's power for rescue.Mat 26:64Mrk 14:62Rom 1:16
Used of a voice it points to the sense the sounds carry rather than how loud they are: without knowing what a language means, the speaker is a foreigner to you.1Co 14:11
What scholars say about ḥayil
The lexica of Biblical Aramaic treat חַיִל as a single noun with two principal senses, strength or force and army. BDB's Aramaic section glosses it "strength, might, army"; HALOT and Vogt's Lexicon of Biblical Aramaic list the same range and recognize the idiom קרא בחיל, "to call with strength" and so "to call loudly," as a distinct usage at Daniel 3:4,Daniel 4:14 (Aramaic 4:11) and Daniel 5:7. Comparative evidence puts the military sense at the center of Aramaic usage: חילא is the ordinary word for army or force across the dialects, including Imperial Aramaic and Syriac, and the growing dominance of the military sense of the Hebrew cognate חַיִל in the late books is commonly explained as reinforcement from that Imperial Aramaic norm rather than as borrowing (Hurvitz and other students of Late Biblical Hebrew; on the Hebrew word see H. Eising, TDOT 4:348-355, and NIDOTTE 2:116-126 [Wakely]). At Daniel 4:35 (Aramaic 4:32) חֵיל שְׁמַיָּא is standardly read as the angelic host, the heavenly counterpart of an earthly army and the Aramaic analogue of Hebrew צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (Collins, Hermeneia; Goldingay, WBC). At Ezra 4:23 the coordinated pair בְּאֶדְרָע וְחַיִל, "by arm and force," functions as a near-hendiadys for coercive suppression of the building work (Williamson, WBC). Nothing in the Aramaic material reaches the wealth or moral-worth senses that dominate discussion of the Hebrew noun, so the Aramaic entry is lexically the narrower of the two.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. חַיִל (Biblical Aramaic)lexicon
BDB, s.v. חַיִל (Biblical Aramaic section)lexicon
Ernst Vogt, A Lexicon of Biblical Aramaic, trans. and rev. J. A. Fitzmyer (Gregorian and Biblical Press, 2011), s.v. חילlexicon
H. Eising, "חַיִל ḥayil," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 4 (Eerdmans, 1980), 348-355theological-dictionary
Robin Wakely, "חַיִל," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, vol. 2 (Zondervan, 1997), 116-126theological-dictionary
John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1993)commentary
John E. Goldingay, Daniel (Word Biblical Commentary 30; Word, 1989)commentary
H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16; Word, 1985)commentary