To hold in
בָּלַםStrong’s H1102balam (ba-lam)
Appears in 1 verse of the Old Testament
In short
Balam is the Hebrew word usually translated “restrain”. It appears in 1 verse of the Old Testament.
“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.”
Meaning
- (Qal) to curb, hold in, restrain
How it's translated
- to restrain 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Psalms 1
1 book in all.
Explore in Scripture
Hebrew dictionary
בָּלַם balam · to hold in
(Qal) to curb, hold in, restrain
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “restrain” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
RESTRA'IN, verb transitive
[Latin restringo; re and stringo, to strain. The letter g appears from the participle to be casual; stringo, for strigo. Hence strictus, strict, stricture. If the two letters st are removed, the word rigo coincides exactly, in primary sense, with Latin rego, rectus, right, and the root of reach, stretch, straight.]
- To hold back; to check; to hold from action, proceeding or advancing, either by physical or moral force, or by an interposing obstacle.
- To repress; to keep in awe; as, to restrain offenders.
- To suppress; to hinder or repress; as, to restrain excess.
- To abridge; to hinder from unlimited enjoyment; as, to restrain one of his pleasure or of his liberty.
All definitions
- To limit; to confine.
- To withhold; to forbear.“Thou restrainest prayer before God” Job 15:4
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.