H5768 — עוֹלֵל (ʻôwlêl)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H5768
Original: עוֹלֵל (also spelled עֹלָל)
Transliteration: ʻôwlêl / ʻôlâl
Pronunciation: o-lale'
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: From H5763 עוּל (ʻûl) — to suckle, give suck; the child as "the one being nursed"
Occurrences: 20 unique verses (21 tokens) across 11 books
First Occurrence: 1 Sam 15:3 — "slay both man and woman, infant (ʻôwlêl) and suckling, ox and sheep..."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H5763 (ʻûl); a suckling — "babe, (young) child, infant, little one." The term denotes a nursing child / small infant still dependent on the mother, often paired with its near-synonym יוֹנֵק (yôneq, H3243 — "suckling") as a hendiadys for "the smallest and most defenseless members of a population."

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
children / the children / their children / her children	9	45%
young children / her young children / thy young children	3	15%
infant / their infants / as infants	3	15%
babes / to their babes	2	10%
little ones (thy little ones)	1	5%
child / sucking child	1	5%
Other (untranslated conjunctions, etc.)	1	5%

Renderings vary widely because modern English lacks a single word for a "nursing infant still at the breast"; KJV spreads the concept across child / babe / infant / little one / young child.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Lamentations	5	3.2
Nahum	1	2.1
Joel	1	1.4
Micah	1	1.0
Hosea	1	0.5
1 Samuel	2	0.2
Jeremiah	3	0.2
Psalms	3	0.1
2 Kings	1	0.1
Job	1	0.1
Isaiah	1	0.1

Pattern: Overwhelmingly concentrated in judgment/lament literature. Lamentations alone accounts for 25% of all uses at the highest density of any book. The prophets (Jer, Isa, Hos, Joel, Mic, Nah) supply another 40%. The word rarely surfaces outside contexts of siege, famine, slaughter, or divine wrath — it is the vocabulary of catastrophe against the most vulnerable. Absent entirely from the Pentateuch (aside from the Amalek oracle in 1 Sam 15:3, which cites Deut 25), Chronicles, and all wisdom books except Job 3 and three Psalms.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Victim of Military Slaughter / Herem¶

The single dominant usage: infants targeted or killed in warfare, siege, or divine judgment against a city. Typically paired with yôneq (suckling) or with their mothers.

1 Sam 15:3 — "slay both man and woman, infant (ʻôwlêl) and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (Amalekite herem)
1 Sam 22:19 — "smote... both men and women, children (ʻôlêl) and sucklings" (Doeg's slaughter at Nob)
Jer 44:7 — "to cut off from you man and woman, child (ʻôlêl) and suckling, out of Judah"
Hos 13:16 — "their infants (ʻôlêl) shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up"

2. Dashed / Torn in Pieces — The Atrocity Formula¶

A fixed collocation: ʻôwlêl + rṭš (H7376, "dash, shatter") describes infants killed by being smashed against stones or walls — the stereotyped image of the worst of siege horrors.

Ps 137:9 — "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones (ʻôlâl) against the stones"
Isa 13:16 — "Their children (ʻôlâl) also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes"
Nah 3:10 — "her young children (ʻôlâl) also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets"
Hos 13:16 — "their infants (ʻôlêl) shall be dashed in pieces"

3. Starving / Dying in Famine and Siege¶

Infants perishing not by sword but by hunger and drought — the slower atrocity of blockade and covenant curse.

Lam 2:11 — "the children (ʻôlêl) and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city"
Lam 2:19 — "lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children (ʻôlâl), that faint for hunger in the top of every street"
Lam 2:20 — "Shall the women eat their fruit, and children (ʻôlâl) of a span long?" (cannibalism in siege)
Lam 4:4 — "The tongue of the sucking child (yôneq) cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children (ʻôlâl) ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them"

4. Exiled or Taken Captive¶

Infants swept up in deportation — a motif of the totality of the national disaster, where even those too small to walk are carried off.

Lam 1:5 — "her children (ʻôlâl) are gone into captivity before the enemy"
2 Kgs 8:12 — "wilt dash their children (ʻôlâl), and rip up their women with child" (Hazael's prophesied atrocities)
Jer 6:11 — "I will pour it out upon the children (ʻôlâl) abroad" (wrath poured on every age)

5. Cry of Praise / Divine Ordination of Weakness¶

A rare positive register: infants as the vehicle through which God silences his enemies. Cited by Jesus in Matt 21:16.

Ps 8:2 — "Out of the mouth of babes (ʻôlêl) and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies"

6. Infant Mortality / Lament of Existence¶

The infant as the archetype of the life never lived — Job's counterfactual wish and the Psalmist's picture of those for whom life is fleeting.

Job 3:16 — "Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants (ʻôlêl) which never saw light"
Ps 17:14 — "they are full of children (ʻôlêl), and leave the rest of their substance to their babes (ʻôlêl)" (wicked prospering, passing on to descendants)

7. Gathered into Covenant Assembly¶

A single positive use: even nursing infants are summoned to solemn assembly, marking the totality of Israel's repentance.

Joel 2:16 — "gather the children (ʻôlêl), and those that suck the breasts"
Jer 9:21 — "to cut off the children (ʻôlêl) from without" (inverse image: normally outside at play, now cut off)
Mic 2:9 — "from their children (ʻôlêl) have ye taken away my glory for ever" (social-justice oracle)

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יָנַק (yânaq) — to suckle / suckling	H3243	7v (35%)	Fixed pair "ʻôlêl + yôneq" — "infant and suckling"; merism for "the very smallest"
אִשָּׁה (ʼishshâh) — woman / wife	H802	7v (35%)	"women and children" — vulnerable non-combatants in siege/slaughter
עַל (ʻal)	H5921	7v (35%)	Preposition; "upon the children" — recipient of wrath poured out
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	5v (25%)	Judgment formulas: LORD pours fury on or through infants
רָטַשׁ (râṭâsh) — dash, shatter	H7376	4v (20%)	Stereotyped atrocity: "children dashed in pieces (against stones)"
אִישׁ (ʼîysh) — man	H376	4v (20%)	"man and woman, infant and suckling" — totality formula for a population
חוּץ (chûwts) — street, outside	H2351	4v (20%)	Infants in the streets — public spaces as places of siege death
בָּחוּר (bâchûwr) — young man	H970	3v (15%)	Age-paired lists: infants, young men, old men — total demographic destruction
חֶרֶב (chereb) — sword	H2719	3v (15%)	Weapon by which the infant dies
שָׁפַךְ (shâphak) — pour out	H8210	3v (15%)	"wrath poured out" onto infants
עַם (ʻam) — people	H5971	3v (15%)	National context: children of "my people"
רֹאשׁ (rôʼsh) — head, top	H7218	3v (15%)	"at the head of every street" — public display of slaughter

Word Family / Cognates¶

H5763 עוּל (ʻûl) — root verb: to suckle, give suck (verb of nursing)
H5764 עוּל (ʻûl) — a suckling / nursing child (masc. noun, rare; Isa 49:15, 65:20)
H5759 עֲוִיל (ʻăwîyl) — a young child (Job 19:18, 21:11 — only 2x)
H5766 עָוֶל (ʻâwel) — unrelated homograph: injustice (different root)

Synonyms¶

ינק (H3243)

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py.

Semantic Domains¶

[001002007] People — Other words: אָדָם (H120), אָדָם (H121), אהב (H157), אַהַב (H158), אוּל (H193), אַיִל (H352)

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
בֵּן (bên)	H1121	"children", "the children", "their children"	The broadest kinship term (3,652v); any son/offspring from infant to adult; ʻôlêl is the nursing infant specifically
יוֹנֵק (yôneq)	H3243	"suckling", "children that suck"	Near-synonym; the suckling viewed from the act of nursing rather than the infant as persona. Paired with ʻôlêl as a fixed hendiadys
יֶלֶד (yeled)	H3206	"children", "child"	The born one — concrete birth and early childhood, but not specifically still-nursing; broader than ʻôlêl
נַעַר (naʻar)	H5288	"children", "young children"	The active / restless youth or servant — older than ʻôlêl; age and role, not infancy
טַף (ṭaph)	H2945	"little ones" (Ps 17:14 rendering overlap)	The collective "little ones" of a family carried along — walking toddlers and small children as a group; ʻôlêl is the individual nursing infant

Through KJV translation overlap, ʻôlêl most frequently collides with bên / yeled / naʻar on the "child / children" rendering. Through LXX overlap it collides with any Hebrew word translated νήπιος.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
νήπιος (nḗpios) — infant, babe	G3516	17x	9.33	Dominant bridge; the NT word behind "babes" (Matt 11:25, 21:16 — Ps 8:2 citation; 1 Cor 13:11)
θηλάζω (thēlázō) — to suckle / nurse	G2337	8x	8.62	Rendering the yôneq half of the fixed pair; sometimes substituted for ʻôlêl
ἐδαφίζω (edaphízō) — raze, dash to the ground	G1474	3x	9.15	The atrocity verb in Ps 137:9, Hos 14:1 LXX; action, not the child
γαστήρ (gastḗr) — womb / belly	G1064	3x	5.92	"with child" contexts adjacent to ʻôlêl
ἐκχέω (ekchéō) — pour out	G1632	3x	4.89	"pour wrath on children" contexts
γυνή (gynḗ) — woman	G1135	6x	3.35	Co-occurrence via the "women and children" formula
ῥομφαία (rhomphaía) — sword	G4501	3x	4.22	The means of slaughter in the warfare passages

Primary bridge: νήπιος (G3516). Jesus' citation of Ps 8:2 in Matt 21:16 ("Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise") applies precisely this LXX rendering, carrying ʻôlêl into NT theology as the paradigm of God's chosen weakness.