Bible Lexicons

כָּחַל i.q. Arab. كَحَلَ to paint the eyes with stibium, Ezekiel 23:40 prop. perhaps to blacken, as if with charcoal, so that it would be kindred to גֶּחָל charcoal. For the paint of the Hebrew women (elsewhere called פּוּךְ, Gr. στίμμι) was dust, producing a black colour, commonly prepared from lead ore and zinc, which they mixed with water, and spread on the eyelids in such a way that the white of the eye might appear brighter surrounded by a black margin. Compare Car. Böttiger’s Sabina, p. 22, 48, and A. Th. Hartmann, Die Hebräerin am Putztische, P. ii. p. 149 sq.; iii. p. 198, sq.