H6399 — פְּלַח (pelach)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6399
Original: פְּלַח
Transliteration: pelach (pᵉlach)
Pronunciation: pel-akh'
Part of Speech: Aramaic verb
Root: פְּלַח — Aramaic verb; cognate of Hebrew פָּלַח "cleave" (H6398), but semantically a separate Aramaic/Semitic root meaning "to serve, revere, pay cultic reverence to"; compare Akkadian palāḫu ("fear, revere"), Syriac pelaḥ ("serve, till"), Palmyrene palḥā ("soldier")
Occurrences: 10 tokens in 10 unique verses (2 books: Daniel, Ezra)
First Occurrence: Ezra 7:24 — "singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

(Aramaic) corresponding to H6398; to serve or worship — KJV: minister, serve. BDB: "pay reverence to, serve (deity)." The Aramaic verb has specifically cultic/religious weight; it is the Aramaic counterpart to Hebrew עָבַד (H5647, "serve, worship") when used with a divine object. When the object is a god (true or false), pelach means cultic worship, not mere labor. The one non-cultic occurrence (Ezra 7:24) uses the participle substantivally for temple-servants ("ministers of this house of God"), still within the sacred domain.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	Forms Attested
Peal	10	Imperfect 3mp (יִפְלְחוּן, Dan 3:28; 7:14, 27), Participle mp (פָלְחִין / פָּלְחִין, Dan 3:12, 14, 17, 18; Ezra 7:24 construct פָֽלְחֵי), Participle ms (פָּלַח, Dan 6:17 [Heb 6:16], 6:21 [Heb 6:20])

Only the Peal (G-stem) is attested. No causative or intensive forms.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Count	%
serve	4	40.0%
servest	2	20.0%
or ministers	1	10.0%
they serve	1	10.0%
they might serve	1	10.0%
should serve	1	10.0%
shall serve	1	10.0%

KJV renders every Daniel occurrence with the verb serve; only Ezra 7:24 receives the noun-gloss "ministers" (the substantivized participle). The "serve" cluster is uniform — same gloss for serving YHWH and for refusing/commanding service to idols.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Daniel	9	2.52
Ezra	1	0.35

The word is almost entirely a Daniel-word — 9 of 10 occurrences lie inside the two Aramaic sections of Daniel (Dan 2:4b–7:28). The single Ezra occurrence falls in Artaxerxes' Aramaic decree (Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26). Outside of Aramaic biblical text the word does not appear, because the underlying language simply isn't available.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Cultic Worship of Idols / False Gods¶

The verb governs accusations, interrogations, and confessions in the golden-image narrative. Its object is a false deity. - Dan 3:12 — "they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image" - Dan 3:14 — "do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image" - Dan 3:18 — "we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image" - Dan 3:28 — "they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God"

2. Cultic Worship of the True God (YHWH / 'Elaha)¶

The same verb — with no semantic shift — denotes exclusive worship of Israel's God. - Dan 3:17 — "our God whom we serve is able to deliver us" (participle: di-'anachna palchin) - Dan 6:16 [MT 6:17] — "Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee" (Darius speaking of Daniel) - Dan 6:20 [MT 6:21] — "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee…"

3. Eschatological Worship of the Son of Man¶

The verb describes what "all peoples, nations, and languages" render to the heavenly figure who comes with the clouds. The object is the one like a son of man; the action is the same action the three Hebrews refused to give an idol. - Dan 7:14 — "there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him" (imperfect 3mp yiphlechun, with indirect object leh "to him") - Dan 7:27 — "and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (of the kingdom given to the saints of the Most High / the son of man)

4. Cultic Personnel (Substantive Participle)¶

Masculine-plural construct participle functioning as a noun: "servants-of / ministers-of." - Ezra 7:24 — "priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers [פָֽלְחֵי] of this house of God" — the construct form palchei bet elaha = "servants of the house of God."

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֱלָהּ (elahh)	H426	7x (70%)	Direct object is "god" or "God" — "serve my gods / thy gods / our God / the living God"
סְגִד (segid)	H5457	4x (40%)	Fixed word-pair in Dan 3: "serve (pelach) nor worship (segid)" — hendiadys covering interior allegiance + outward prostration
לָא (la, "not")	H3809	5x (50%)	Negated construction — "not serve thy gods" — the verb carries the moral weight of refusal
עַם / אֻמָּה / לִשָּׁן (people/nation/tongue)	H5972/H524/H3961	2x (20%)	Triadic "all peoples, nations, languages" subject → Dan 7:14, 27 only
תְּדִירָא (continually)	H8411	2x (20%)	"whom thou servest continually" — adverb of unbroken, habitual service (Dan 6:16, 20)
דְּחַל (dechal, fear/revere)	H1763	—	Conceptual parallel — reverential fear that issues in pelach-service

The dominant pattern is pelach + le-elaha ("serve a/the god") and the fixed negative pair la pelach wela segid ("neither serve nor worship"), which is Daniel 3's rhetorical refrain.

Word Family / Cognates¶

פָּלַח (palach) H6398 — Hebrew cognate listed by Strong's, but semantically distinct: "cleave, slice" (e.g., 2Sa 11:21, Job 16:13). Strong's links them by form; BDB treats the Aramaic pelach as a separate root carrying the religious-service sense.
פֻּלְחָן (pulchan) H6402 — Aramaic masculine noun "service, ministry" (Ezra 7:19) — the abstract noun from pelach.
Syriac pelaḥ / Akkadian palāḫu — wider Semitic witness: Akkadian "fear, revere a deity"; Syriac "till (the ground), labor, serve"; Palmyrene palḥā "soldier" (one in service). The religious sense dominates in Imperial Aramaic.

Synonyms¶

No direct synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6399.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6399.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
עָבַד (abad)	H5647	"serve" (Hebrew)	The standard Hebrew verb for cultic service and for serving human masters — far broader range (290× across OT). Pelach is its Aramaic functional counterpart but narrower: almost exclusively cultic.
סְגִד (segid)	H5457	worship / prostrate	Aramaic "fall down, prostrate oneself" — the bodily act. Pelach is the ongoing cultic service; segid is the physical posture. Paired in Dan 3 as complementary aspects of worship.
דְּחַל (dechal)	H1763	fear, revere	Aramaic "fear/dread" — the reverential attitude that motivates pelach. Often translated "fear" where English would say "worship."
שְׁמַשׁ (shemash)	H8120	minister	Aramaic "minister to, wait upon" — used of angels attending the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:10). Social-service sense without the cultic weight.

Semantic Domains¶

No semantic domains were returned by search_relationships.py for H6399.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI	Notes
λατρεύω (latreúō) G3000	7	7.58	Dominant Theodotion rendering. The technical Greek verb for cultic worship/service rendered exclusively to deity — in LXX and NT usage, latreúō is never used of serving humans. This is the verb Jesus cites in Mat 4:10 / Luk 4:8 quoting Deut 6:13: "Him only shalt thou serve [λατρεύσεις]."
προσκυνέω (proskynéō) G4352	4	5.72	The act of prostration / worship-gesture; used when the translator foregrounded the bodily act.
δουλεύω (douleúō) G1398	—	—	Used by the Old Greek (not Theodotion) of Dan 7:14: autō douleúsousin — "serve as a slave/subject."
εἰκών (eikōn) G1504	3	7.83	Context word ("image") not direct translation.
θεός (theós) G2316	8	2.77	Context — the usual direct object.

Key point on the Greek witness of Dan 7:14: - Theodotion (the version dominant in the early Church and followed by most NT citations of Daniel): renders yiphlechun with λατρεύσουσιν / δουλεύσουσιν — aligning Son-of-Man service with technical cultic worship. - Old Greek: autō douleúsousin — "shall serve him [as subjects]." - In either tradition, pelach in Dan 7:14 moves into a Greek semantic field that the NT and Second-Temple reader would recognize as worship-language rendered to the heavenly figure.

Morphological Parsing — Key Verses¶

Dan 7:14 (imperfect 3mp):

לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן — leh yiphlechun — "to him they shall serve" Parser: פלח — Verb.peal.Impf.3mp — "serve"

The indirect-object construction leh yiphlechun ("unto him they shall render service") is the same syntax used when the object is God (Dan 3:28 yiphlechun + le-elaha).

Dan 3:17 (participle ms pl):

אֱלָהַנָא דִּי־אֲנַחְנָא פָלְחִין — elahana di-'anachna palchin — "our God whom we serve"

Dan 6:16/20 (participle ms):

אֱלָהָךְ דִּי אַנְתְּ פָּלַח־לֵהּ בִּתְדִירָא — "thy God whom thou servest continually"

The participle form stresses ongoing, habitual cultic service — the same habitual verb that Dan 7:14 says every nation will render to the Son of Man.

First Occurrence Notes¶

The first occurrence is Ezra 7:24 (in Artaxerxes' decree, ca. 458 BC) — but canonically and thematically, the Daniel occurrences (6th century setting, 9 of 10 uses) dominate the word's biblical profile. Within Daniel, the first occurrence is Dan 3:12 on the lips of the Chaldean accusers — the verb enters the Danielic narrative as an accusation of religious nonconformity.

Notes on Cross-Language Equivalence¶

The Aramaic pelach sits in the same semantic slot as Hebrew עָבַד (H5647) when that Hebrew verb takes a divine object. Hebrew abad has a much wider range (slavery, agricultural labor, civic service, cultic service); Aramaic pelach is narrower — the contexts almost demand the cultic/reverential reading. This narrowness is what gives Dan 7:14 its weight: the verb chosen for what all nations render to the Son of Man is the same verb Daniel has already used seven times for what is owed to the God of Israel and refused to idols.