H1965 — הֵיכַל (heikal)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H1965
Original: הֵיכַל
Transliteration: hêykal
Pronunciation: hay-kal
Part of Speech: Masculine noun (Aramaic)
Root: Assyrian loan-word (Akkadian ekallu "great house"); Aramaic cognate of Hebrew H1964 הֵיכָל
Occurrences: 15 in OT (Aramaic portions only)
First Occurrence: Ezra 4:14 — "Now because we have maintenance from [the king's] palace (heikal)"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

(Aramaic) corresponding to H1964; a palace or temple: — palace, temple.

Brown-Driver-Briggs: Noun masculine, palace, temple (Assyrian loan-word; Biblical Hebrew H1964; also Palmyrene היכלא and הכלא). Forms: emphatic הֵיכְלָא (Ezra 4:14); construct הֵיכַל (Dan 4:29); suffixed הֵיכְלִי (Dan 4:4), הֵיכְלֵה (Dan 6:18).

Two semantic senses in BDB: 1. Palace of a king — Dan 4:4; 4:29; 5:5; 6:18; Ezra 4:14. 2. Temple — (a) in Jerusalem: Dan 5:2, 5:3; Ezra 5:14a; 5:15; 6:5 (2x); (b) in Babylon: Ezra 5:14b–c.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Count	%
the temple	3	20.0%
palace	2	13.3%
into the temple	2	13.3%
of the temple	2	13.3%
from [palace context]	1	6.7%
unto the temple	1	6.7%
in my palace	1	6.7%
the palace	1	6.7%
to his palace	1	6.7%
the [temple context]	1	6.7%
Total	15	100%

Collapsed by sense: temple = 9 (60%); palace = 6 (40%).

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Ezra (Aramaic ch. 4–6)	8	2.86
Daniel (Aramaic ch. 2–7)	7	1.96

The word occurs exclusively in the Aramaic sections of the OT (Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26 and Daniel 2:4b–7:28). In Ezra the sense is almost entirely "temple" (the Jerusalem sanctuary and the Babylonian temple where its vessels were stored); in Daniel it is primarily "palace" (of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius), with the exception of Dan 5:2–3 where the Jerusalem temple vessels are in view.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Royal Palace (residence of a pagan king)¶

Dan 4:4 — "I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace (heikal)"
Dan 4:29 — "he walked in the palace (heikal) of the kingdom of Babylon"
Dan 6:18 — "Then the king went to his palace (heikal), and passed the night fasting"
Ezra 4:14 — "we have maintenance from [the king's] palace (heikal)"

2. Pagan Temple (of Babylonian deity)¶

Ezra 5:14 — Nebuchadnezzar "brought them into the temple (heikal) of Babylon... Cyrus the king take out of the temple (heikal) of Babylon"

3. Temple in Jerusalem (house of YHWH)¶

Dan 5:2 — "the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple (heikal) which [was] in Jerusalem"
Dan 5:3 — "the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple (heikal) of the house of God which [was] at Jerusalem"
Ezra 5:15 — "carry them into the temple (heikal) that [is] in Jerusalem"
Ezra 6:5 — "brought forth out of the temple (heikal) which [is] at Jerusalem... brought again unto the temple (heikal)"

4. Scene of Divine Judgment / Theophany¶

Dan 5:5 — "wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace (heikal)" — the palace becomes the setting of the handwriting on the wall.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
מֶלֶךְ (melek) "king"	H4430	frequent	"king's palace," "palace of the kingdom"
יְרוּשְׁלֶם (Yerushelem)	H3390	5x	"the temple... in Jerusalem"
בָּבֶל (Babel)	H895	2x	"the temple of Babylon" (Ezra 5:14)
מָאן (ma'n) "vessel"	H3984	4x	golden/silver vessels taken out of / brought into the temple
דְּהַב (dehab) "gold" / כְּסַף (kesaph) "silver"	H1722 / H3702	4x	vessels of gold and silver associated with the heikal
בַּיִת (bayit, Aram. "house")	H1005	parallel	"the temple of the house of God" (Dan 5:3)

Word Family / Cognates¶

H1964 הֵיכָל (heikal) — the Hebrew cognate (80 OT occurrences): "palace, temple" (Solomon's and Herod's temple, heavenly temple, royal palaces in 1 Kings 21:1, 2 Kings 20:18, Ps 45:15).
Akkadian ekallu — "great house, palace," itself a loan from Sumerian E.GAL. Enters Aramaic, Hebrew, Ugaritic, and other West Semitic languages.

Synonyms¶

No synonym entries were returned by search_relationships.py for this Aramaic noun.

Antonyms¶

No antonym entries were returned by search_relationships.py for this Aramaic noun.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
בַּיִת (bayit, Aram.)	H1005	both used for "house of God" / temple	bayit = generic "house"; heikal = "great house / palace / temple nave," a more elevated or formal term
בִּירָה (birah)	H1001	"palace" / fortress	birah denotes a fortified citadel (Neh 1:1; Est 1:2); heikal denotes the main residence or sanctuary
H1964 הֵיכָל	H1964	same gloss "palace / temple"	H1964 is Hebrew; H1965 is Aramaic (identical sense)

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Notes
ναός (naos)	G3485	primary rendering — "inner sanctuary / temple proper"
οἶκος (oikos)	G3624	occasional — "house" (generic, often paired with "of God")
βασιλεύς (basileus, in context)	G935	collocational (king's palace phrasing)

The LXX of Daniel and 1 Esdras / Ezra consistently selects ναός for heikal when the Jerusalem sanctuary is in view, mirroring the same choice it makes for Hebrew H1964 in the Prophets. For palace contexts, LXX typically uses οἶκος with a genitive (e.g., "house of the king") or βασίλειον.

Semantic Domains¶

No semantic-domain data was returned by search_relationships.py for this Aramaic noun.