הוֹלֵלָה
hôwlêlâh · H1947 · Hebrew · 4 occurrences
Meanings
-
madness
State in which an action is regarded as abnormal and associated with people who are insane
ExamplesEcclesiastes 1:17 And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know insanity and foolishness; I realized that this also is striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:12 So I turned to consider wisdom, insanity, and foolishness; for what will the man do who will come after the king, except what has already been done?
Ecclesiastes 7:25 I directed my mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity.
How it’s used In 3 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
What is done to itIt is the object
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- יָדַעto know 1
- רָאָהto see 1
What it is said to bePredicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- לֵבָבheart, mind 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- סִכְלוּתfolly 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 5 words
- אִוֶּלֶת ʼivveleth · H200 · folly
- Both denote mental or moral deficiency—הוֹלֵלָה (hôwlêlâh, H1947) madness, אִוֶּלֶת (ʼivveleth, H200) folly—overlapping in the general sense of irrationality or foolishness.
- נְבָלָה nᵉbâlâh · H5039 · foolishness, folly, foolish actions
- Both denote states or acts of folly or irrationality—הוֹלֵלָה (hôwlêlâh, H1947) madness, נְבָלָה (nᵉbâlâh, H5039) folly or villainy—describing related forms of irrational or morally deficient behavior.
- כֶּסֶל keçel · H3689 · loin, confidence, trust
- הוֹלֵלָה (hôwlêlâh, H1947) denotes madness, and כֶּסֶל (keçel, H3689) (which also carries senses of trust, flank, hope and loin) includes a sense of folly; where their meanings overlap, madness and folly are closely related ideas.
- תִּפְלָה tiphlâh · H8604 · irrationality, senselessness
- “Madness” and “folly” both denote lack of wisdom or sound judgment and can substitute for each other in many contexts.
- שִׁגָּעוֹן shiggâʻôwn · H7697 · madness
- Both denote forms of madness or mental derangement, overlapping directly in reference to the same state.
Semantic domains 1 entry
- Foolish002001002010
- הוֹלֵלָה denotes madness or folly, the reckless irrationality Qoheleth investigates alongside wisdom in Ecclesiastes.
Word family 7 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H1947. holelah [הוֺלֵלָה] noun feminine madness (on text see below), only plural…
[הוֺלֵלָה] noun feminine madness (on text see below), only plural הוֺלֵלוֺת הֹלֵלוֺת,, and only Ecclesiastes: Ecc 1:17 and I set my heart (לִבִּי וָאֶתְּנָה) to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly (וְשִׂכְלוּת הֹלֵלוֺת), compare הוֺלֵלוֺת Ecc 2:12 (|| id.); ה וְהַסִּכְלוּת כֶּסֶל רֶשַׁע ׳וְלָדַעַת Ecc 7:25; i.e. to know folly to be madness; possibly read חוֺלֵלוּת, compare סִכְלוּת & following; the moral evil of it is specifically recognized in Ecc 9:3 (|| רָע).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 1 entry
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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