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Hebrew

To eat

אָכַלStrong’s H0398

akhal (a-khal)

Appears in 701 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Akhal is the Hebrew word usually translated “eat”, “ate” and “it will be eaten”. It appears in 701 verses of the Old Testament.

“Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.”
Daniel 1:12 KJV
Meaning
  1. To eat, devour, burn up, feed(Qal) · (Niphal) · (Pual) · (Hiphil) · (Piel)
How it's translated
  • you will eat 58
  • to eat 48
  • he will eat 35
  • and you will eat 33
  • and they ate 30
  • it will be eaten 26
  • they will eat 25
  • you must eat 21

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Leviticus 81
  • Deuteronomy 71
  • Genesis 54
  • Ezekiel 51
  • Isaiah 49
  • Exodus 44

38 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 701 verses, by book
1 Chronicles 2
12:3929:22
Esther 1
4:16
Song of Solomon 2
4:165:1
Lamentations 4
2:32:204:54:11
Obadiah 1
1:18
Micah 3
3:36:147:1
Habakkuk 2
1:83:14
Zephaniah 2
1:183:8
Haggai 1
1:6
Malachi 1
3:11
Hebrew dictionary

אָכַל akhal · to eat

1) to eat, devour, burn up, feed 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to eat (human subject) 1a2) to eat, devour (of beasts and birds) 1a3) to devour, consume (of fire) 1a4) to devour, slay (of sword) 1a5) to devour, consume, destroy (inanimate subjects - ie, pestilence, drought) 1a6) to devour (of oppression) 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be eaten (by men) 1b2) to be devoured, consumed (of fire) 1b3) to be wasted, destroyed (of flesh) 1c) (Pual) 1c1) to cause to eat, feed with 1c2) to cause to devour 1d) (Hiphil) 1d1) to feed 1d2) to cause to eat 1e) (Piel) 1e1) consume Aramaic equivalent: a.khal (אֲכַל "to devour" H0399)

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “eat” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

EAT, verb transitive

preterit tense ate; participle passive eat or eaten. [Latin edo, esse, esum.]

  1. To bite or chew and swallow, as food.“They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen” Daniel 4:25
  2. To corrode; to wear away; to separate parts of a thing gradually, as an animal by gnawing.
  3. To consume; to waste.“When goods increase, they are increased that eat them” Ecclesiastes 5:11
  4. To enjoy.“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land” Isaiah 1:19
All definitions and other forms of “eat”
  1. To consume; to oppress.“Who eat up my people as they eat bread” Psalms 14:4
  2. To feast.

EAT, verb intransitive

To take food; to feed; to take a meal, or to board.

  1. “Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners” Matthew 9:11
  2. To take food; to be maintained in food.“Their word will eat as doth a canker” 2 Timothy 2:17

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.