קבל

Forms

קִבֵּל (qibbēl) verb, piel^[1][2] Piel perfect קִבֵּל, imperfect with waw consecutive וַיְקַבְּלוּ, imperative קַבֵּל; the hiphil participle מַקְבִּילֹת occurs twice (Exodus 26:5, 36:12).^[2][4]

Etymology

The verb “to receive” is inherited from Proto-West Semitic *qbl (“to receive”), a denominative verb of the West Semitic languages from the Common Semitic noun Proto-Semitic *qabl- (“front”).^[5] It has cognates in Aramaic קַבֵּל (qabbēl) of the Aramaic chapters of Daniel, beside a preposition of the same root meaning “in front of”, in Classical Syriac ܩܒܠ (qbal), in Arabic قَبِلَ (qabila, “to receive, accept”), in Sabaean qbl (“to receive”) and in Ge'ez ቀበለ (qabbala, “to meet, receive”).^[2][6][7][8] The noun is Akkadian qablu (“middle; battle”), while its late qubbulu (“to accept”) is taken from Aramaic.^[9][10][2]

The sources disagree on how the verb came into Biblical Hebrew: BDB calls it an Aramaic loanword.^[4] HALOT and Wagner hold that it was an old Hebrew verb, displaced by לָקַח (lāqaḥ, “to take”) and brought back into use under the pressure of Aramaic, where it is common.^[2][11] Wagner argues that it must have been known in early Hebrew, since it is found with the same meaning in a Canaanite gloss of the Amarna letters and in Arabic, Old South Arabian and Ethiopic, and that only such a revival explains why so common a word appears so late.^[11] Hurvitz lists it as a Late Biblical Hebrew innovation whose classical equivalent is the verb “to take”: in 2 Chronicles 29:22 the priests receive the blood of the sacrifice, where in Exodus 24:6 Moses takes it.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Genesis to Kings the root occurs only in the Priestly description of the tabernacle, as the hiphil participle maqbîlōṯ: the loops of the curtains are “opposite one another” (Exodus 26:5, 36:12).^[1][4] The piel “to receive, accept” appears outside the late books only in Proverbs 19:20, šəmaʿ ʿēṣâ wəqabbēl mûsār, “listen to advice and accept instruction”, and in Job 2:10, “shall we receive the good from God, and not receive the evil?”.^[12][1]

Semantic evolution

In the late books it is used of receiving gifts and money (Esther 4:4, Ezra 8:30), of the priests receiving the blood of the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 29:16, 22), of David receiving deserters (1 Chronicles 12:19), and of the Jews taking upon themselves the observance of Purim (Esther 9:23, 27).^[2][4] With לְ it means “to choose for oneself” (1 Chronicles 21:11).^[2] Hurvitz quotes Elijah Levita (1468/69–1549), who already called the verb Aramaic and noted that it is found only in the exilic and later books, once in Proverbs and twice in Job.^[12] The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek δέχομαι (dékhomai).^[1] Ben Sira has the piel and the hiphil “to confront”,^[2] and the Dead Sea Scrolls use the verb 35 times.^[13] It is common in Mishnaic Hebrew.^[12] The noun formed on it there, qabbālâ, “received tradition”, is the source of English kabbalah and cabal.^[12][5] Modern Hebrew קִבֵּל (kibél) is the ordinary word for “to receive”.^[14]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the hiphil maqbîlōṯ “opposite one another” in the Priestly account of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:5).^[1][4]
• Biblical poetry – the piel in Proverbs 19:20 and Job 2:10.^[1][12]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – eight of its 12 verses, in Esther, Ezra and Chronicles.^[1][12]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it by Ancient Greek δέχομαι (dékhomai).^[15][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 35 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[16][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. piel: to accept a present, an obligation, instruction; to take good and evil alike.^[2][4]
2. piel: to receive, take: the blood of the sacrifices, money; to receive people.^[2][4]
3. piel with לְ: to choose for oneself.^[2]
4. hiphil: to be opposite, correspond to one another.^[2][4]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew קִבֵּל (kibél)^[14]

Usage notes

In Ezekiel 26:9 məḥî qŏḇollô, “the blows of his qəḇōl”, is the only occurrence of a noun קְבֹל, taken as a siege engine or battering-ram.^[17][18] BDB and HALOT reject the old reading of 2 Kings 15:10 qāḇāl-ʿām as “before the people”, since that use would be Aramaic, and read “in Ibleam” with the Lucianic Septuagint.^[18][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. קבל
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 g h 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. קָבַל
5. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. s.v. qbl
6. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 87
7. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 2983
8. ^ Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 418
9. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. qablu
10. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 331
11. ^ a b Wagner, Max (1966), Die lexikalischen und grammatikalischen Aramaismen im alttestamentlichen Hebräisch, Berlin: Töpelmann (BZAW 96), p. 99
12. ^ a b c d e f g Hurvitz, Avi (2014), A Concise Lexicon of Late Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Innovations in the Writings of the Second Temple Period, Leiden: Brill (VTSup 160), p. 213
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
16. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
17. ^ 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. קְבֹל
18. ^ a b 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. קְבֹל