StrongerBible

ḥallon

חַלּוֹן

HebrewH2474window

Appears 31 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 8:6Gen 26:8Jos 2:15Jos 2:18Jos 2:21Jdg 5:281Sa 19:122Sa 6:161Ki 6:42Ki 9:302Ki 9:322Ki 13:171Ch 15:29Pro 7:6Sng 2:9Jer 9:21(20)Jer 22:14Ezk 40:16 (2×)Ezk 40:22Ezk 40:25 (2×)Ezk 40:29Ezk 40:33Ezk 40:36Ezk 41:16 (3×)Ezk 41:26Jol 2:9Zep 2:14
Word studyResearch-gradekhal-LONEnoun

What ḥallon means

a window: an opening cut through a wall to let in light and air and to see or pass through

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

At ground level the word simply names a window, an opening bored through the wall of a house, a city wall, the ark, or the temple. The root behind it means to pierce or hollow out, so the word pictures a hole cut through solid wall rather than a modern glass pane. In the ancient world such an opening was either left open or filled with a wooden lattice.

The uses fall into two shades. Most windows in the Bible are ordinary and operable: you open them, lean out of them, lower a person through them, or watch through them. A smaller group belongs to sacred and royal building, where the word names the fixed, recessed, lattice-filled windows of the temple, built to admit light without letting anyone see in or climb through.

For so plain a word, the window carries surprising narrative weight. It is where people are rescued (Noah releases the raven, Rahab lowers the spies, Michal saves David, Elisha shoots the arrow of victory), and it is where danger arrives (invaders climb in, death itself is pictured climbing through the windows, and Jezebel is thrown down from one). It is also the frame for a recurring scene in which a woman watches from a window as a dynasty falls: Sisera's mother, Michal, and Jezebel each appear this way.

Nuances

1aan ordinary window: an operable opening in the wall of a house, city wall, or the ark, used to look out, lower a person through, or open and shut
Gen 8:6Gen 26:8Jos 2:15Jos 2:18Jos 2:21Jdg 5:281Sa 19:122Sa 6:162Ki 9:302Ki 9:322Ki 13:171Ch 15:29
1ba fixed latticed window: the recessed, lattice-filled window of the temple and sacred architecture, built to admit light without opening for entry or full view
TranslatabilityApproximate
1Ki 6:4Ezk 40:16 (2×)Ezk 40:22Ezk 40:25 (2×)Ezk 40:29Ezk 40:33Ezk 40:36Ezk 41:16 (3×)Ezk 41:26

What scholars say about ḥallon

Every major lexicon (BDB 319-320; HALOT 1:320; DCH 3; Gesenius 18th ed.; Klein) glosses the noun as "window" and derives it, on the qattol pattern with the nominal ending, from the geminate root chalal I "to bore, pierce, hollow out," comparing Arabic khalla "perforate." DCH declines etymology and instead maps the collocated verbs: open, cut open, block, and let down through. The philological anchor is the Ugaritic cognate hln, which is paired with urbt (the cognate of Hebrew arubbah) in the palace-building scene of the Baal Cycle (KTU 1.4 v-vii), an exact match of root, pattern, meaning, and fixed poetic pairing; Smith and Pitard (The Ugaritic Baal Cycle II, VTSup 114, 2009) treat that window as the mechanism of theophany and dismantle Cassuto's older reading that Baal fears the window as an entry for Death. The cognate horizon is narrowly Northwest Semitic: Akkadian (aptu, nappasu), Aramaic (kawwa), Arabic, and Ethiopic all name windows by unrelated roots, and the once-popular link to Akkadian bit hilani is now abandoned (Mankowski does not list it). HALOT and the commentaries on 1 Kings 6:4 (DeVries, Cogan, Sweeney, Fritz) distinguish a second functional sense, the recessed, fixed, lattice-filled temple window, whose vocabulary Ezekiel deliberately reuses (Block, Zimmerli, Greenberg). The most contested territory is the "woman at the window" motif and its relation to the Iron Age ivory plaques from Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Samaria itself.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. חַלּוֹןlexicon
  • BDB, pp. 319-320, s.v. חַלּוֹןlexicon
  • DCH, vol. 3, s.v. חַלּוֹןlexicon
  • E. Dommershausen, "חלל," TDOT 4:409-417theological dictionary
  • Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle II (VTSup 114; Brill, 2009), 602-610, 657-683commentary
  • Susan Ackerman, Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen (Anchor Bible Reference Library, 1998), 142-167monograph
  • Don Seeman, "The Watcher at the Window: Cultural Poetics of a Biblical Motif," Prooftexts 24 (2004): 1-50article
  • Ellen Rehm, "Abschied von der Heiligen Hure," Ugarit-Forschungen 35 (2003): 487-519article

All attested forms of חַלּוֹן

m s absolute

חַלּוֹן

Gen 26:8, Jos 2:15, Jos 2:18, Jos 2:21, Jdg 5:28, 1Sa 19:12, 2Sa 6:16, 2Ki 9:30

f p absolute

חַלּוֹנוֹת, חַלֹּנוֹת, חֲלֹּנוֹת

Ezk 40:16, Ezk 40:29, Ezk 40:33, Ezk 40:36, Ezk 40:16, Ezk 41:16, Ezk 41:16, Sng 2:9

m p absolute

חַלּוֹנִים

Ezk 40:25, Ezk 41:16, Ezk 41:26, Jol 2:9

m s construct

חַלּוֹן

Gen 8:6, Pro 7:6

m p absolute

חַלּוֹנָי

Jer 22:14

m p construct

חַלּוֹנֵי

1Ki 6:4

m p construct

חַלּוֹנֵינוּ

Jer 9:21

m p construct

חַלּוֹנָיו

Ezk 40:22