🔼The name Chelal: Summary
- Meaning
- Perfection, Betrothal
- Etymology
- From the verb כלל (kalal), to be perfect or complete.
🔼The name Chelal in the Bible
The name Chelal occurs only once in the Bible. He is mentioned among the sons of Pahath-moab, who divorced their foreign wives during the purge of Ezra (Ezra 10:30).
🔼Etymology of the name Chelal
The name Chelal comes from the verb כלל (kalal), meaning to be complete or perfect:
כלל
The root כלל (kll) deals with limits, and particularly the limit on growth or progression. This limit may be incurred by interment or incarceration, but it may also mark the asymptotic quality of perfection or completion.
Verb כלא (kala') means to shut in or shut up. Nouns כלא (kele'), כלוא (klw') and כליא (keli) mean imprisonment. Noun מכלה (mikla), means enclosure or fold. Verb כול (kul) means to contain or cause to contain.
Verb כלה (kala) denotes the bringing to a completion of some process, and that usually but not always in a negative sense. Noun כלה (kala) mostly describes complete destruction or complete annihilation. Adjective כלה (kaleh) describes a failing with desire and noun כליון (killayon) means either a failing or pining of the eyes or annihilation. Noun מכלה (mikla) means completeness (and is identical to the word meaning enclosure or fold). The noun תכלה (tikla) means perfection. Noun תכלית (taklit) means end or completeness. The very common noun כלי (keli) describes any kind of article that (possibly) took a while to make but is now finished, or a vessel that was designed to hold some finished product; a holding pot.
Verb כלל (kalal) means to complete or make perfect. The very common noun כל (kol) means all or the whole. Adjective כליל (kalil) means entire or whole. Nouns מכלול (miklol) and מכלל (miklal) mean perfection. Noun מכלל (maklul) describes something made perfect.
The noun כלה (kalla) means bride or daughter-in-law, and noun כלולה (kelula) means espousal, which obviously reflects the Bible's expectation that humanity's ultimate perfection makes her a Bride to the Creator.
🔼Chelal meaning
For a meaning of the name Chelal, NOBSE Study Bible Name List goes with the verb כלל and reads Completeness, Perfection. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names does the same and proposes Completion.
BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't interpret our name and lists it under an assumed root כלל II, which yields the nouns for bride and espousal. BDB further demands that this second root reflects a harem-like enclosure rather than perfection. Whether BDB is suggesting that our name would mean something like Betrothal or rather Room For Enclosure isn't clear but it seems so. If so, a related name would be Hadar II.