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Bible Lexicons
Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's #1893 - הֶבֶל
- Brown-Driver-Briggs
- Strong
- Abel = "breath"
- second son of Adam and Eve, killed by his brother Cain
- Book
- Word
did not use
this Strong's Number
הֶבֶל with suff. הֶבְלִי, pl. הֲבָלִים constr. הַבְלֵי.
(1) breath, breathing, used of a gentle breeze, Isaiah 57:13. (Well rendered by the Vulg. aura. Less correctly by the LXX. καταιγίς.) More often used of the breath of the mouth (Kimchi, איד שיצא מפה. Aqu. ἀτμίς, Symm. ἀτμός, which word, Sap. vii. 25, Syr. is rendered ܗܶܒܥܳ). Commonly used of any thing transitory, evanescent, frail. Job 7:16, כִּי הֶבֶל יָמַי “for my days are a breath;” Proverbs 13:11, הוֹן מֵהֶבֶל יִמְעַט “riches vanish more quickly than a breath;” Ecclesiastes 11:10, “childhood and youth are vanity;” Proverbs 21:6, 31:30 Psalms 39:6; Ecclesiastes 1:2, 14 2:11, 17, 23 4:4, 5:9 6:9, etc. Hence arises the signification something vain and empty, Lamentations 4:17; Jeremiah 10:3, Jeremiah 10:8, and adv. vainly, emptily, in vain; Job 9:29, 21:34 35:16 Isaiah 30:7; Psalms 39:7. Specially used of idols as being vain and impotent, also used of their worship, 2 Kings 17:15; Jeremiah 2:5. Plur. Psalms 31:7, הַבְלֵי שָׁוְא “vain idols.” Jonah 2:9.
(2) exhalation, vapour, mist, darkness, which cannot be seen through. Ecclesiastes 6:4, of an abortion; “for it comes in a mist, and goes away in vanity,” seen by no one; Ecclesiastes 11:8, כָּל־שֶׁבָּא הֶבֶל “all that is coming is a mist,” i.e. involved in darkness; Ecclesiastes 8:14.
(3) pr.n. Abel (LXX. Ἄβελ), the second son of Adam; prob. so called from the shortness of his life [but he had this name from his birth]; Genesis 4:2, seq.
