בָּלַע bâlaʻ

Meaning

to make away with (specifically by swallowing); generally, to destroy

In the King James Version: cover, destroy, devour, eat up, be at end, spend up, swallow down (up).

Derivation: a primitive root;

Where it is used

• Genesis 41:7 And the thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh awoke and realized it was a dream.
• Genesis 41:24 And the thin heads of grain swallowed the seven plump ones. I told this dream to the magicians, but no one could explain it to me.”
• Exodus 7:12 Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.
• Exodus 15:12 You stretched out Your right hand, and the earth swallowed them up.
• Numbers 4:20 But the Kohathites are not to go in and look at the holy objects, even for a moment, or they will die.”
• Numbers 16:30 But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”
• Numbers 16:32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households—all Korah’s men and all their possessions.
• Numbers 16:34 At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!”
• Numbers 26:10 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire consumed 250 men. They serve as a warning sign.
• Deuteronomy 11:6 and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.
• 2 Samuel 17:16 Now send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but be sure to cross over. Otherwise the king and all the people with him will be swallowed up.’”
• 2 Samuel 20:19 I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
• 2 Samuel 20:20 “Far be it!” Joab declared. “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!
• Job 2:3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
• Job 7:19 Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?
• Job 8:18 If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
• Job 10:8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
• Job 20:15 He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
• Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
• Job 37:20 Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?
• Psalms 21:9 You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.
• Psalms 35:25 Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, just what we wanted!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up!”
• Psalms 55:9 O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
• Psalms 69:15 Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
• Psalms 106:17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.
• Psalms 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.
• Psalms 124:3 when their anger flared against us, then they would have swallowed us alive,
• Proverbs 1:12 let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.
• Proverbs 19:28 A corrupt witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.
• Proverbs 21:20 Precious treasures and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man consumes them.
• Ecclesiastes 10:12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool consume him.
• Isaiah 3:12 Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.
• Isaiah 9:16 For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.
• Isaiah 19:3 Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.
• Isaiah 25:7 On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;
• Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
• Isaiah 28:4 The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
• Isaiah 28:7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
• Isaiah 49:19 For your ruined and desolate places and your ravaged land will now indeed be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
• Jeremiah 51:34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.
• Lamentations 2:2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
• Lamentations 2:5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
• Lamentations 2:8 The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away.
• Lamentations 2:16 All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
• Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
• Hosea 8:8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
• Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
• Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?