StrongerBible

palah

פָּלָה

HebrewH6395“set apart, make a distinction, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 8:22(18)Exo 9:4Exo 11:7Exo 33:16Psa 4:3(4)Psa 17:7Psa 139:14
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradepah-LAHverb

What palah means

1

to set apart: God marking off one person, place, or people from all the rest and treating them differently

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This verb turns up only seven times in the whole Hebrew Bible, and God is the one acting every time. Nobody ever sets themselves apart with this word. It always describes God drawing a line and putting one person, one place, or one people on the far side of it.

Three of those seven times fall in the plague story, where the line God draws keeps widening:

  • God fences off the land of Goshen so that the swarms of flies never reach it
  • God separates Israel's livestock from Egypt's so that not one animal of Israel's dies
  • God marks off Israel from Egypt on the night the firstborn of Egypt die

The fourth use in Exodus says the most. In Exodus 33:16 Moses does not argue that Israel is better than other nations. He argues that the one thing making Israel recognizably different is God's willingness to travel with them. Psalm 4:3 takes that same claim and shrinks it down to a single person: the LORD has singled out the one who is loyal to him.

Two other Hebrew verbs do neighboring work. One divides one kind of thing from another, light from darkness or clean from unclean (בָּדַל), and one names the act of choosing itself (בָּחַר). This word names the marking off and the different treatment that follows from it.

Nuances

1ato draw a line between two parties and treat them differently
Exo 9:4Exo 11:7
1bto mark off one place or person as belonging to God
Exo 8:22(18)Psa 4:3(4)
Psa 4:3

Whether Psalm 4:3 says the LORD has set apart the faithful one for himself, or that he has made his kindness wondrous.

  • majorityThe received Hebrew text stands, and the line says the LORD has set apart the person loyal to him, in line with the Exodus uses of the verb.; Craigie, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary; Goldingay, Psalms, vol. 1, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 1, Hermeneia; deClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, The Book of Psalms, New International Commentary on the Old Testament
  • minorityThe line should instead be read as the LORD having made his kindness wondrous toward the psalmist, matching Psalm 17:7.; Dahood, Psalms I, Anchor Bible; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), s.v. פלה, p. 811, recording the conjecture of Dyserinck, Graetz, Cheyne, Wellhausen, and Duhm
1cto stand out from every other people because God is present
Exo 33:16
2

to be or to make wondrous: to stand out, or to make something stand out, as awe-inspiring and far past the ordinary

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

Hebrew has a second verb that looks almost identical to this one and means "to be beyond the ordinary," whether too hard for a person or too wonderful to explain (פָּלָא). The two differ only in their final letter, and that letter was exactly the sort that blurred as the language changed. By the time the Hebrew Bible was first translated into Greek and Latin, the translators read the "wondrous" verb almost everywhere the Hebrew scribes had written this one.

In two Psalms most scholars now think the wondrous sense is the right one. Psalm 17:7 is a prayer asking God to put his acts of steadfast love on spectacular display. Psalm 139:14 has the psalmist marveling at his own body: he was put together in a way that inspires awe.

The overlap is not a simple mistake. Being singled out by God is itself an astonishing thing, so the two ideas kept collapsing into each other. Knowing both senses is what explains how an English Bible can say "set apart" in one verse and "wonderfully" in another and still be translating the same string of Hebrew letters.

Nuances

2ato make an act of love stand out as wondrous
Psa 17:7
Psa 17:7

Whether the command in Psalm 17:7 asks God to make his acts of steadfast love wondrous, or to set them apart.

  • majority"Make your acts of steadfast love wondrous," the sense of the near twin verb, supported by the ancient Greek and Latin versions, by roughly seventy medieval Hebrew manuscripts that spell the word with a final aleph, and by the fixed wording of Psalm 31:21.; Craigie, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary; Goldingay, Psalms, vol. 1, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 1, Hermeneia; deClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, The Book of Psalms, New International Commentary on the Old Testament
  • minority"Set apart your acts of steadfast love," keeping the separating sense that the Hebrew spelling points to.; Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary
2bto be made in a way that inspires awe
Psa 139:14
Psa 139:14

Whether Psalm 139:14 belongs to this verb at all, or to its near twin meaning "be wondrous."

  • majorityThe form belongs with the "wondrous" root, so the line says the psalmist was made in an awe-inspiring way; the following clause about God's wondrous works uses that root outright.; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), s.v. פלה, p. 811; Koehler and Baumgartner, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. פלה
  • minorityThe form is the separating verb, and the line says the psalmist has been singled out in awe-inspiring ways.; Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), vol. 6, s.v. פלה

What scholars say about palah

פָּלָה occurs seven times, always with God as agent, in the Niphal (Exodus 33:16; Psalm 139:14) and the Hiphil (Exodus 8:22; 9:4; 11:7; Psalm 4:3; 17:7). The Masoretes vocalized all seven forms unambiguously as a III-he root, and the comparative Semitic evidence supports a genuine root meaning "separate, distinguish": Arabic falā "wean, separate a young animal from suckling" and Geʿez falaya "separate, distinguish," which Leslau treats as a reflex of the same Proto-Semitic root as פלה. Akkadian and Ugaritic supply no secure cognate for either root, which is striking for Ugaritic, since it normally preserves the III-aleph and III-yod distinction better than Hebrew does. The lexica agree on the glosses but split on whether פלה is a lemma in its own right: BDB prints it in brackets and labels it a parallel form of פלא; HALOT and Gesenius (18th ed.) keep it as a lemma while calling it a secondary III-he byform; DCH treats it as a fully separate lemma and retains Psalm 139:14 under it, where BDB and HALOT transfer that verse to פלא; TDOT has no article for פלה at all, folding the material into Albertz's treatment of פלא; NIDOTTE (Fretheim) judges the semantic overlap so great that the distinction may be "more orthographic than lexical." Blau and Huehnergard describe the situation as the general Canaanite collapse of III-he and III-aleph paradigms, with Leviticus 22:21 and Numbers 6:2; 15:3, 8 (where פלא is used of setting apart a vow) as the strongest internal Hebrew evidence of the merger. The ancient versions read the "wondrous" root throughout: LXX παραδοξάσω at Exodus 8:22 and ἐνδοξασθήσομαι at 33:16, Vulgate faciam mirabilem and glorificemur, with Targum Pseudo-Jonathan agreeing, while Targum Onqelos preserves the separative sense. Propp, Childs, Houtman, and Sarna all parse the Exodus occurrences from פלה and read the plague-cycle distinction motif as elective preservation of Israel; Houtman notes the proximity to Hiphil הבדיל and its creation resonance, and Cassuto argues the overlap with פלא is deliberate in these texts. At Psalm 4:3 the nineteenth-century emendation to הפלה יהוה חסד לי, recorded in BDB, is rejected by Craigie, Goldingay, Hossfeld and Zenger, deClaisse-Walford, and Alter, and the UBS Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the Masoretic reading A; Dahood is the main modern dissenter, translating "Yahweh works wonders for his devoted one" on Ugaritic grounds. At Psalm 17:7 the consensus reverses: Craigie, Goldingay, Hossfeld and Zenger, and deClaisse-Walford all render the imperative "make wondrous," supported by LXX θαυμάστωσον, Vulgate mirifica, roughly seventy Kennicott and De Rossi manuscripts spelling הפלא, and the fixed collocation of Psalm 31:21, הפליא חסדו; Alter is the outlier there, keeping "set apart" for consistency with his rendering of Psalm 4:3.

Where scholars disagree about palah

Whether פָּלָה is a root of its own meaning "separate, distinguish," or only a spelling variant of פָּלָא, "be wondrous."

  • majorityA genuine root meaning "separate, distinguish," supported by the Arabic and Geʿez cognates and by the Masoretic vocalization of all seven forms; the ancient versions read the "wondrous" root because the two words had merged in usage by their day, not because they had a different Hebrew text in front of them.; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), s.v. פלה, p. 811; Koehler and Baumgartner, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. פלה; Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), vol. 6, s.v. פלה; Propp, Exodus 1-18, Anchor Bible; Childs, The Book of Exodus, Old Testament Library
  • minorityOnly a spelling variant of פלא with no distinct meaning of its own, since the semantic overlap between the two is so great that the difference is a matter of orthography rather than vocabulary.; Albertz, "פלא," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. 11, pp. 533-546; Fretheim, "פלא," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE), vol. 3
  • minorityBoth senses are held together deliberately in these texts, so that Israel being set apart by God is at the same time God's marvelous act.; Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus
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

  • Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), s.v. פלה, p. 811lexicon
  • Koehler and Baumgartner, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. פלהlexicon
  • Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), vol. 6, s.v. פלהlexicon
  • Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 18th ed., ed. Meyer, Donner, and Rüterswörden, s.v. פלהlexicon
  • Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez, s.v. falayalexicon
  • Albertz, "פלא," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. 11, pp. 533-546theological-dictionary
  • Hamilton, "פלה," in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), no. 1772theological-dictionary
  • Fretheim, "פלא," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE), vol. 3theological-dictionary
  • Propp, Exodus 1-18, Anchor Biblecommentary
  • Childs, The Book of Exodus, Old Testament Librarycommentary
  • Houtman, Exodus, Historical Commentary on the Old Testamentcommentary
  • Sarna, Exodus, JPS Torah Commentarycommentary
  • Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exoduscommentary
  • Craigie, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentarycommentary
  • Goldingay, Psalms, vol. 1, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalmscommentary
  • Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 1, Hermeneiacommentary
  • deClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, The Book of Psalms, New International Commentary on the Old Testamentcommentary
  • Kraus, Psalms 1-59, Continental Commentarycommentary
  • Dahood, Psalms I, Anchor Biblecommentary
  • Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentarycommentary
  • Blau, Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrewmonograph
  • Joüon and Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrewmonograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of פָּלָה

hiphil consecutive-perfect 1cs

וְהִפְלֵיתִי

Exo 8:22

hiphil consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְהִפְלָה

Exo 9:4

hiphil imperative 2ms

הַפְלֵה

Psa 17:7

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַפְלֶה

Exo 11:7

hiphil perfect 3ms

הִפְלָה

Psa 4:3

niphal consecutive-perfect 1cp

וְנִפְלֵינוּ

Exo 33:16

niphal perfect 1cs

נִפְלֵיתִי

Psa 139:14