StrongerBible

male

מָלֵא

HebrewH4392full, filled, ...

Appears 64 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 23:9Gen 41:7Gen 41:22Num 7:13Num 7:14Num 7:19Num 7:20Num 7:25Num 7:26Num 7:31Num 7:32Num 7:37Num 7:38Num 7:43Num 7:44Num 7:49Num 7:50Num 7:55Num 7:56Num 7:61Num 7:62Num 7:67Num 7:68Num 7:73Num 7:74Num 7:79Num 7:80Num 7:86Deu 33:23Deu 34:92Sa 23:112Ki 4:42Ki 7:151Ch 21:221Ch 21:24Psa 73:10Psa 75:8(9)Pro 17:1Ecc 1:7Ecc 9:3Ecc 11:5Isa 1:21Isa 22:2Jer 4:12Jer 5:27 (2×)Jer 6:11Jer 12:6Ezk 1:18Ezk 17:3Ezk 36:38
Root family
Word studymah-LAYadjective

What male means

full: holding or charged with as much as it can take, or amounting to the complete measure

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

At its core this word describes something filled to capacity. A bowl heaped with flour, a field thick with grain, a road strewn with abandoned gear, a valley packed with bones: each is said to be full because nothing more would fit and nothing is missing.

The same word reaches past physical containers to people and places that are saturated with a quality. A man can be full of wisdom or full of the blessing of the Lord, a city full of justice, a heart full of evil. The picture is identical, only the contents have changed from grain or wine to a moral or spiritual quality that fills the person through and through.

A third use stretches the idea to a complete amount rather than a filled space. To pay the full price is to hand over the entire sum with nothing held back, and a man full of years has reached the complete span of a life. In every use the thread is the same: a measure that is whole and lacking nothing.

Because the word covers all of these at once, English has to choose: full, filled, complete, whole. The Hebrew simply says the thing is at its limit, and lets the setting decide whether that limit is a brimming jar, a saturated soul, or a price paid in full.

Nuances

1aphysically full: a container, space, or stretch of ground holding all it can of some material thing
Gen 41:7Gen 41:22Num 7:13Num 7:14Num 7:19Num 7:20Num 7:25Num 7:26Num 7:31Num 7:32Num 7:37Num 7:38
1bfull of a quality: a person or place thoroughly charged with something abstract, such as wisdom, blessing, justice, or evil
Deu 33:23Deu 34:9Rut 1:21Ecc 9:3Isa 1:21Isa 22:2Isa 51:20Jer 5:27 (2×)Ezk 28:12
1ca complete measure: the full or entire amount of something, as in a full price or a full span of life
Gen 23:91Ch 21:221Ch 21:24Jer 4:12Jer 6:11Jer 12:6Nam 1:10

What scholars say about male

The standard lexica (BDB; HALOT, s.v.) treat H4392 as the verbal adjective of the root ml', glossed "full, filled," and group its uses under one head with contextual shadings: full of concrete contents (the recurrent Num 7 offering bowls full of fine flour; ears of grain in Gen 41:7, 22; houses full of goods in Deut 6:11, Neh 9:25), full of an abstract quality (wisdom in Deut 34:9 and Ezek 28:12; blessing in Deut 33:23; justice in Isa 1:21; evil in Eccl 9:3), and the idiom of a complete measure or amount (kesep male', the full price, in Gen 23:9 and 1 Chr 21:22, 24; mele' yamim, full of days, in Jer 6:11). TWOT and NIDOTTE (s.v. ml') likewise place the adjective within the unified semantic field of the root and note its overlap with the participle of the verb, which several occurrences are morphologically tagged as (e.g. 2 Sam 23:11; Isa 22:2; Jer 5:27).

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. מלאlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. מלאlexicon
  • TWOT, s.v. מלא (no. 1195)dictionary
  • NIDOTTE, s.v. מלאdictionary

All attested forms of מָלֵא

f s absolute

מְלֵאָה, מְּלֵאָה

Num 7:14, Num 7:20, Num 7:26, Num 7:32, Num 7:38, Num 7:44, Num 7:50, Num 7:56

m p absolute

מְלֵאִים

Num 7:13, Num 7:19, Num 7:25, Num 7:31, Num 7:37, Num 7:43, Num 7:49, Num 7:55

m s absolute

מָלֵא, מָּלֵא

Gen 23:9, Deu 33:23, Deu 34:9, 1Ch 21:22, 1Ch 21:24, Psa 73:10, Psa 75:8, Pro 17:1

f p absolute

מְלֵאֹת, מְלֵאוֹת, מְּלֵאוֹת

Gen 41:22, Num 7:86, Ezk 36:38, Gen 41:7

qal participle f s absolute

מְלֵאָה

2Sa 23:11, 2Ki 7:15, Isa 22:2

qal participle m s absolute

מָלֵא

Ecc 9:3, Jer 5:27

f p construct

מְלֵאֹת

Ezk 1:18

f s construct

מְלֵאֲתִי

Isa 1:21

m s construct

מְלֵא

Jer 6:11

qal participle m p absolute

מְלֵאִים

Jer 5:27