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# מֶלֶךְ

Biblical Aramaic

**king** — used 180 times in the Aramaic chapters of the Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

king [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1502/lemma_3a_5de_5b6_5dc_5b6_5da_5b0/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

מֶ֫לֶךְ: n.m. king [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1502/lemma_3a_5de_5b6_5dc_5b6_5da_5b0/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. king (general Sem.; v. BH);—מ׳ abs. Dn 2:10 + 2 times; cstr. 4:34 + 6 times; usually emph. מַלְכָּא Ezr 4:8 + 154 times, ה—ָ Dn 2:11; pl. מַלְכִין Ezr 4:15 + 9 times, ים—ִ 4:13 (Hebraism, Be-Ry M41 \*); emph. מַלְכַיָּא Dn 2:44 + 2 times;—king Dn 2:4, 5 + 132 times Dn, Ezr 4:8, 11 + 42 times Ezr (מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא of Neb. Dn 2:37, of Artax. Ezr 7:12 \[cf. Cooke71, 3, of Xerxes\]; מַלְכִין Dn 7:17 = kingdoms, cf. מַלְכוּ v 23).

### Jastrow 1903

מֶלֶךְ: leader in council, chief, king Princess certain disorder of the eye [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1502/lemma_3a_5de_5b6_5dc_5b6_5da_5b0/#m3)

**The whole Jastrow entry:** preced.) leader in council, chief, king. Ber. 3ᵇ אדוננו המ׳ our lord the king! Tosef. Snh. VIII, 5, a. fr. מ׳ מלכי המלכים the Most Supreme King (the Lord). Ib. IX, 8 אפי׳ מ׳ של מלכים even a king of kings (great sovereign). Snh. 38ᵃ, a. fr. מ׳ בו"ד (v. בָּשָׂר) a human chief. Ab. Zar. 10ᵃ אין מושיבין מ׳ בן מ׳ they (the Romans) do not allow the son of a king to succeed his father. Kerith. 5ᵇ מ׳ ראשון a first king, starter of a dynasty. Shebu. 6ᵇ מַלְכֹּו של זה this hyparch’s chief. Num. R. s. 18 משה מ׳ וכ׳ Moses has made himself the chief, and Aaron is high priest &c.; a. v. fr.—Pl. מְלָכִים. Hor. 12ᵃ כיצד מושחין את המ׳ וכ׳ how are kings anointed? By drawing with the oil the outlines of a crown; Ker. 5ᵇ. Ib. מַלְכֵי בית דוד the kings of the house of David (southern kingdom); מ׳ ישראל the kings of the northern kingdom; a. v. fr.—בַּת מְ׳ Princess, name of a demon afflicting the eye, also a certain disorder of the eye, v. בַּת I. Sabb. 109ᵃ (Var. בת חורין, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note).—Pl. בנות מֶלֶךְ. Tosef. B. Kam. IX, 27 יצאו בנות מ׳ the ‘princesses’ (humors of the eye) escaped (in consequence of a blow).

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 14 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (4 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (2 candidates); Jastrow: headword, part of speech agrees, 0 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses (11 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: the (117); O (23); of (18).

## In the verses

[Daniel 4:25](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.4.25/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.4.25/#tree)

כֹּ֣לָּא מְּטָ֔א עַל־נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּ֖ר מַלְכָּֽא׃פ

*Word for word:* (the) everything it.came on Nebuchadnezzar the king

*JPS 1917:* All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.

[Daniel 2:36](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.2.36/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.2.36/#tree)

דְּנָ֣ה חֶלְמָ֔א וּפִשְׁרֵ֖הּ נֵאמַ֥ר קֳדָם־מַלְכָּֽא׃

*Word for word:* this \[was\].the dream and interpretation its we.will.tell before the king

*JPS 1917:* This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Biblical Aramaic dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/aramaic/w/lemma_3a_5de_5b6_5dc_5b6_5da_5b0.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1502/lemma_3a_5de_5b6_5dc_5b6_5da_5b0/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).