גורל

Forms

גּוֹרָל (gôrāl) noun, masculine^[1][4] Also written defectively גֹּרָל; construct גּוֹרַל, with suffixes גּוֹרָלִי, גּוֹרָלְךָ, plural גּוֹרָלוֹת / גֹּרָלוֹת; masculine, once feminine (Joshua 21:10).^[4][2]

Etymology

HALOT, BDB and Klein connect it with a root grl “stone”, comparing Arabic جَرَل (jaral, “stony ground, stones”) and جَرْوَل (jarwal, “small stone”): lots were cast with pebbles.^{[2][5][4][6][7]} BDB compares Ancient Greek ψῆφος (psêphos, “pebble; vote”).^[8] Krahmalkov records Phoenician grl (“allotment of land”) in an inscription.^[9] Lewy and Klein derive Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion, “coral”) from it;^[6] HALOT adds a question mark.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is not in the archaic poems; it occurs 77 times, first in canonical order in the ritual of the Day of Atonement: gôrāl ʾeḥāḏ laYHWH wəḡôrāl ʾeḥāḏ laʿăzāʾzēl, “one lot for YHWH and one lot for Azazel” (Leviticus 16:8).^[1] Most of the classical uses are about dividing the land by lot among the tribes, in Numbers and Joshua (Numbers 26:55).^[2][10] BDB suggests that the lots were stones put into the fold of a garment or into a vessel and shaken until one came out: baḥêq yûṭal ʾeṯ-haggôrāl, “the lot is cast into the lap” (Proverbs 16:33).^[4]

Semantic evolution

HALOT's examples show how widely the lot was used: for the garments of a dying man (Psalm 22:19), for the order of attack (Judges 20:9), for prisoners of war (Joel 4:3), to find the guilty (Jonah 1:7), and, in the late books, for the duties of priests and Levites (1 Chronicles 24:5), the supply of wood for the altar (Nehemiah 10:35) and the choice of who should live in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:1).^[2] From the lot came what it gave: an allotted share of land, the “lot of our inheritance” (Numbers 36:3), and a person's destiny (Psalm 16:5, Daniel 12:13).^[2] The plural is found mostly in later texts.^[10]

The Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek κλῆρος (klêros).^[1] In the Dead Sea Scrolls, where it occurs 168 times, mostly in the community's own texts, it is also a decision and a party (1QS).^[11][2] Mishnaic Hebrew formed the verb הִגְרִיל (hiḡrîl, “to cast lots”) from it,^[2][4] and Modern Hebrew גורל (gorál) today means “fate” as well.^[6][7]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 35 occurrences from Genesis to Kings: the lots of the Day of Atonement and the division of the land.^[1][2]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – 16 occurrences, in Chronicles, Nehemiah and Esther; the plural becomes common.^[1][10]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek κλῆρος (klêros).^[12][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 168 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[13][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a lot, the stone cast to reach a decision.^[2][4]
2. an allotment, a share of land assigned by lot.^[2]
3. (figurative) a person's destiny, fate.^[2]

Usage notes

In Zephaniah 2:8, 10 HALOT and DCH record a conjectural verb hiḡrîl “to cast lots” in place of the text's wayyaḡdîlû.^[5][14] In Proverbs 19:19 the Kethiv gərāl is read with the Qere gəḏāl.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. גּוֹרָל
3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
4. ^ a b c d e f Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. גּוֹרָל
5. ^ a b Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. גרל
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. גּוֹרָל
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. גרל
9. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. grl
10. ^ a b c Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. גּוֹרָל
11. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
12. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
13. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
14. ^ Clines, David J. A., ed. (1993–2011), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press / Sheffield Phoenix Press, p. 2:376
15. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. גָּרֹל
16. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. גְֹּרָל