that which fills something: its full contents, the amount it holds, or its whole extent
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This word almost never stands alone. It is joined to another word and names the fullness of that thing, so it takes its concrete meaning from whatever it is attached to. The fullness of a hand is a handful; the fullness of a house is all the silver and gold it can hold; the fullness of the earth is everything that lives on it.
So the different uses are one idea seen against different backdrops. Applied to a space (the earth, a land, the sea) it means the sum of what fills it. Applied to a vessel or the open hand it means as much as that container holds. Applied to a measurement it means the whole span, a full length or breadth. Applied to people it means a full crowd or multitude.
The recurring poetic line "the earth is the LORD's, and its fullness" (and its versions for the sea and the world) is the word at its grandest. It does not point to an abstract quality but to the sum of everything God has placed in a realm, all of it belonging to him.
Nuances
1athe full contents of a place: everything that fills the earth, a land, or the sea
is the general word for as much as fills a thing, applied the same way to a jar, a house, or the whole earth; it is not a dedicated word for the handLev 2:21Ki 17:12
Both
both name as much as the open hand can holdExo 9:8
Only handful
"handful" in English is a fixed everyday term for a small amount and hides that the original is the broad word for whatever fills a container
pictures a space or company filled up with people, not merely a large countGen 48:19
Both
both convey a great, filling crowdIsa 31:4
Only multitude
"multitude" in English stresses sheer number, losing the image of a place being filled full
“full”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How melo differs from similar Hebrew words
רֹבabundance or greatness of amount in the abstract, a large quantity as such; this word is instead the concrete full contents of one particular thing, a hand, a house, or the earth.
melo in the other biblical languages
πλήρωμαGreek“fulfillment”the Greek noun for that which fills, fullness. The Greek Old Testament regularly uses it for this Hebrew word, and Paul quotes 'the earth is the LORD's, and its fullness' with it in 1 Corinthians 10:26; but in the New Testament it also carries a fuller weight (the fullness of God, of time, of the law).
Routinely measures a small physical quantity by what fills a container or a body part: a hand cupping incense, a palm of flour, hands full of soot.Lev 2:2Lev 16:12Exo 9:8
Measures spatial extent, the whole spread or breadth that something occupies, such as the full width of a land.Isa 8:8Ezk 41:8
Both
Both name the full contents of a thing: everything a container, vessel, or space holds.Psa 24:11Co 10:26
Both can name the whole earth and all that fills it, the standard rendering relationship between the two words in this exact phrase.Psa 50:121Co 10:28
Carries a developed theological sense the Hebrew word does not reach: the complete measure of God himself dwelling in Christ, or the whole sum of believers as Christ's body.Eph 1:23Col 1:19Col 2:9
Names the complete arrival of an appointed time, the moment when a period has run its full course.Gal 4:4Eph 1:10
Can mean the act or state of fulfilling an obligation: love is the carrying out of all the law demands.Rom 13:10
What scholars say about melo
This is the noun built on the verb "to be full, to fill" (H4390), and the standard lexica (BDB; HALOT) treat it as one word meaning "that which fills, fullness, full measure." Its range is distinguished by context rather than by separate lexical entries: as much as the hand or a vessel holds (a handful, an omer, a houseful), the whole extent of a dimension (a full length or breadth), and, in the recurring formula "the earth (or sea, or world) and its fullness," the total contents of a realm. The Septuagint regularly renders it with the Greek noun pleroma (G4138), and its wording in Psalm 24:1 is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:26.