StrongerBible

aliyyah

עֲלִיָּה

HebrewH5944upper room, roof chamber, ...

Appears 20 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jdg 3:20Jdg 3:23Jdg 3:24Jdg 3:252Sa 18:33(19:1)1Ki 17:191Ki 17:232Ki 1:22Ki 4:102Ki 4:112Ki 23:121Ch 28:112Ch 3:92Ch 9:4Neh 3:31Neh 3:32Psa 104:3Psa 104:13Jer 22:13Jer 22:14
Word studyah-lee-YAHnoun

What aliyyah means

an upper room: a chamber built on top of a house or as the upper story of a larger building

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word names the room you reach by going up. In an ordinary Israelite house it was the roof chamber, a room built on the flat roof and reached by an outside stair. Cooler and more private than the rooms below, it served as a retreat, a guest room, or a quiet place to withdraw. This is the room where Elijah lodged and revived the widow's son, the room the wealthy woman of Shunem built and furnished for Elisha, and the chamber King Eglon sat in alone. It is also where David climbed to weep for Absalom, out of sight of everyone.

The same word stretches to the upper rooms and upper stories of grand buildings: the upper chambers of the temple overlaid with gold, the spacious upper rooms a king built for himself, a corner chamber set into the city wall. The core picture never changes, a space higher up that you ascend to, whether it tops a family home or a palace.

One last step lifts the word into the sky. Poetry pictures God building his own upper chambers above the waters of the heavens and watering the mountains from them. It is the ordinary architectural word, now describing the LORD's dwelling as a house whose upper rooms rest on the clouds.

Nuances

1aa roof chamber: a private upper room built on the flat roof of a house, used as a retreat, guest room, or cool summer room
Jdg 3:20Jdg 3:23Jdg 3:24Jdg 3:252Sa 18:33(19:1)1Ki 17:191Ki 17:232Ki 1:22Ki 4:102Ki 4:112Ki 23:12
1ban upper room or upper story of a large building, such as a temple, palace, or city wall
1Ch 28:112Ch 3:92Ch 9:4Neh 3:31Neh 3:32Jer 22:13Jer 22:14
1cGod's upper chambers in the heavens, pictured as rooms built above the waters of the sky
Psa 104:3Psa 104:13

What scholars say about aliyyah

The lexicons (BDB; HALOT; DCH) agree on a noun from the root meaning "to go up," denoting a roof chamber or upper room, and secondarily the upper chambers of God's heavenly dwelling in Psalm 104:3, 13. The roof chamber (compare 1 Kings 17:19; 2 Kings 4:10) was a room on the flat roof reached by an external stair, the archetype of the New Testament upper room. The sense is not in doubt; the only significant textual question is at 2 Chronicles 9:4, where the reading with this word (a raised approach or upper passage to the temple) stands against the parallel in 1 Kings 10:5, which most read as Solomon's burnt offerings.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. עֲלִיָּהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. עֲלִיָּהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. עֲלִיָּהlexicon

All attested forms of עֲלִיָּה

f s absolute

עֲלִיָּה, עַלִיָּה

Jdg 3:24, Jdg 3:25, 1Ki 17:19, 1Ki 17:23, 2Ki 4:11, Jdg 3:23

f s construct

עֲלִיַּת

Jdg 3:20, 2Sa 18:33, 2Ki 4:10, 2Ki 23:12, Neh 3:31, Neh 3:32

f p construct

עֲלִיּוֹתָיו, עֲלִיֹּתָיו

Psa 104:3, Psa 104:13, Jer 22:13, 1Ch 28:11

f p absolute

עֲלִיּוֹת

2Ch 3:9, Jer 22:14

f s construct

עֲלִיָּתוֹ

2Ki 1:2, 2Ch 9:4