בָּלָהbâlâh

become old and worn out

Pronunciation: baw-law' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H1086

Meanings

Qal: wear out (Deuteronomy 8:4; Deuteronomy 29:4; Job 13:28)

Pi`el: causative of Qal

a. wear out (Lamentations 3:4; Psalms 49:15; 1 Chronicles 17:9)

b. wear out by use, use to the full (Isaiah 65:22; Job 21:13; Exodus 5:13)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 15 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 18:12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
  • Deuteronomy 8:4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell.
  • Deuteronomy 29:5 For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
  • Joshua 9:13 These wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they are old and split open. And our clothing and sandals are worn out from our very long journey.”
  • 1 Chronicles 17:9 And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past,
  • Nehemiah 9:21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell!
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).