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shebanq

דְּלִי – bucket

Semantic Fields: Containers   
Author(s): Bas ter Haar Romeny, Raymond de Hoop *
First published: 2026-05-11
Citation: Bas ter Haar Romeny, Raymond de Hoop, דְּלִי – bucket,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026 WORK IN PROGRESS

Introduction

Grammatical type: n.m.
Occurrences: 2x HB (1/1/0); 0x Sir; 0x Qum.; 0x inscr. (Total: 2).

  • Torah: Num 24:7;
  • Nebiim: Isa 40:15.

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 דְּלִי is a derivative (dual) of the verb דלה (I), ‘to draw water’.1

A.2 Akkadian: The Akkadian word dālu is used for a wooden bucket, used especially in irrigation, and also for the process of irrigation with water drawn from a well.2 In a text from Mari its king claims to have made this form of irrigation obsolete by the use of canals. It is not clear on what basis the dictionary decided that the bucket should be made out of wood. It would seem that the material out of which it was made is undetermined, as the same word also appears in lists of tribute, where it refers to buckets made of gold and bronze. Von Soden simply translates ‘(Schöpf-)eimer’.3

A.3 Aramaic and Post-Biblical Hebrew: The word דלי is attested a number of times in mosaics in synagogues.4 Hoftijzer and Jongeling translate the word here as ‘bucket’, but explain that in all instances it is used as an indication of the sign of the Zodiac Aquarius.5

The Aramaic cognate דול appears not to be attested before Qumran, where it appears in the astrological text 4Q318, referring to Aquarius.6 However, the name דוליאל in a silver amulet probably from Syria might point to the use of the noun in this dialect.7 Beyer explains this name as ‘Schöpfeimer Gottes’,8 but Kotansky, however, would rather see a connection with the pael of the verb דלי/דלא, meaning ‘to relieve’.9 Tal mentions a single occurrence of דול, ‘bucket’, in one of the versions of the Samaritan Targum (TgSmrJ Num 24:7; see Ancient Versions). In Christian Palestinian Aramaic, the status emphaticus ܕܘܠܐ (dwl’) is attested, but also the forms ܕܠܘ (dlw) and ܕܘܠܘ (dwlw).10

Aramaic דול is further attested in TgJ, Tg-II Esth., as well as in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic,11 in Syriac ܕܘܠܐ (dwlʾ),12 as well as Mandaic daula.13 About one daula in Mandaic it is said that it came ‘fresh from the kiln’, which clearly suggests it was made of clay. In none of the forms of Aramaic is it a foregone conclusion that a bucket should be made out of leather. Beyer’s ‘(lederner) Schöpfeimer’14 seems to be based on the use of the word in Arabic.

In tBer. 4:1615 R. Tarfon is presented with a דלי של צונין, ‘a bucket of cold water’, which induces him to discuss the benedictions that one who drinks water to quench his thirst is supposed to recite. This instance indicates that a דלי could also be used for drinking-water for human beings. The same follows from mSukk. 2:5. In GenR. 45.616 the word is used in plural together with בנריות, ‘towels, bathing apparel’. These are the things that Sarai made Hagar carry for her when she wanted to take a bath. Thus Sarai humiliated her – an interpretation of the harsh way in which Sarai treated Hagar according to Gen~16:6. mKel. 14:1 makes clear that a דלי could be made out of metal (a bucket is mentioned here among כלי מתכות). mShab. 15:2 seems to indicate that a דלי was usually connected to a rope, but according to mKel. 14:3 an iron chain was also possible, at least in the times of the Mishna. yQidd. 1:4, 60b and yB.Bat. 3:1, 13d discuss the issue of liability if a well that was sold was not covered. Decisive is the moment when the דלי is handed over. Jastrow seems to follow Rashi in interpreting the word in this instance as ‘cover’,17 but there is no reason to do so; it refers to the bucket belonging to the well;18 cf. also bB.Qam. 51b.

A different use is found in Yal.S. 1.41819 and 2.185,20 where the word refers to the sign of the Zodiac Aquarius (as on Synagogue mosaics, cf. above).

Aramaic דולא is not only used for a bucket in Judaic sources, but also for a trench from which water for irrigation is drawn (bB.Bat. 12a21) as well as for the process of drawing water or irrigation (bB.Meṣ 77a, bM.Qat. 4a, and elsewhere).

A.4 Arabic: The Arabic cognate dalw is indeed used, at least ‘generally’, for ‘a bucket of leather’.22 As in Aramaic, the word may also refer to the sign of the Zodiac Aquarius.

B.1 Ugaritic: Koehler and Baumgartner also refer to Ugaritic mdl, with a question-mark.23 This word occurs in KTU 1.3 iv:26 and 1.5 v: 7. The meaning ‘bucket’ seemed to make sense in the latter instance, where the word is mentioned together with ‘clouds’ and ‘rains’. In the former instance, however, this translation is awkward, as De Moor has pointed out.24 It is parallel here to qrn, which, as an attribute of Baal, probably means ‘ray, flash’. Thus the meaning ‘(thunder)bolt’, which fits both contexts and is defendable also on etymological grounds, is much more appropriate.25 Ugaritic mdl should therefore no longer be listed among the cognates of Hebrew דלי.

B.2 Ethiopic: Instead of the cognates mentioned so far, Winton Thomas refers to Ethiopic dalawa, ‘to weigh’, and madlot, ‘weight, measure, balance, scales, price, value, proportion’,26 and proposes to vocalize מדלי in Isa 40:15 as מִדְלֶי or מַדְלֶי, translating this part of the verse as ‘Behold, nations are like the dust of the balances’.27 This proposal is unnecessary, and disregards the corresponding verse 12, where water and dust are also used in parallel comparisons. Moreover, whether or not the Ehiopic dalawa should be connected with the Hebrew and Aramaic dly,28 it is clear that the meaning of ‘weighing’ is restricted to Ethiopic.

2. Formal Characteristics

דְּלִי is seen as a qŭṭl formation (dual) of √ דלה, ‘to draw water’.29

3. Syntagmatics

A.1 דְּלִי is used in a prep. construction with מִן:

  • מִדָּלְיָ֔ו, ‘from his buckets’, Num 24:7;
  • מִדְּלִי, ‘from a bucket’, Isa 40;15.

4. Ancient Versions

a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek versions (αʹ, σʹ, θʹ):

  • σπέρμα, ‘seed’:30 Num 24:7LXX;
  • κάδος, ‘jar or vessel for water or wine’,31 ‘container for liquid’:32 Isa 40:15LXX;
  • λέβης (or κάδος ), retroversion from Syh’s ܩܕܣܐ (qadsā),33 ‘cauldron, kettle’:34 Num 24:7αʹθʹ;
  • παραφυάς, retroversion from Syh’s ܢܒܓܐ (nebgā),35 ‘shoot’:36 Num 24:7σʹ.

b. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • ܒܪ (bar), ‘son’:38 Num 24:7;
  • ܩܕܣܐ (qadsā), ‘cauldron, kettle’ (< κάδος ):39 Isa 40:15.

c. Targumim (Tg: O/N/Smr/J):

  • בד, ‘branch’:40 Num 24:7SmrA, מטפטף מים מבדיו, ‘water drips from its branches’;
  • בר, ‘son’:41 Num 24:7O,N;
  • דול, ‘bucket’:42 Num 24:7SmrJ; Isa 40:15J.

d. Vulgate (Vg):

  • situla, ‘bucket for drawing water’:43 Num 24:7; Isa 40:15.

A.1 The renderings of דְּלִי in Num 24:7 by LXX, Pesh and TgO,N are interpretative. LXX has σπέρμα: ‘A person will come out of his seed/ offspring’, i.e., he will come true, be accomplished in it.37 Pesh’s rendering ܒܪ is also interpretative: ‘A man will come out of his sons [ܡܢ ܒܢ̈ܘܗܝ]’, i.e., he will come true, be accomplished in them. Similarly, בר in TgO of Num 24:7 is an interpretative rendering: ‘The king who will be appointed from (among) his sons (מבנוהי) will be great’. The reading of TgN מן ביניהון, ‘from among them’, is in all probability a secondary development from a reading ‘from his sons’. TgPsJ expands דְּלִי and the rendering of the first three words of Num 24:7 (יִזַּל־מַיִם מִדָּלְיָו) is יקום מנהון מלכהון ופרוקהון מנהון ובהון יהוי, ‘from them their king shall arise and their redeemer be of them and among them’.
The renderings of Num 24:7 in LXX, Pesh, and TgO seem to be based on a comparable exegetical tradition.44 It is possible that at least TgO and Pesh have connected דלי with דלית, ‘branch’, as σ´ did, though this is not strictly necessary.

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

A.1 The word דְּלִי belongs to the semantic field of ‘containers’,45 and as such a reference to a possible liquid content (מַיִם, ‘water’; מַר, ‘drop’) is found in the context. The word is applied in the context of agricultural fertile imagery (Num 24:6), or with ‘drop on a bucket’ antithetical to ‘dust (שַׁחַק) on a balance’ (Isa 40:15).

6. Exegesis

6.1 Literal Use

A.1 Not attested. However, the figurative use, the cognates, some of the versions, and the Judaic sources point to a literal meaning ‘bucket’.46 Modern examples, described by Dalman, are made of leather, and their mouth is usually kept open by crossed wooden sticks.47

6.2 Figurative Use

A.1 After reading Num 24:6, which refers to gardens and ‘cedar trees beside the waters’, one could be tempted to take the word מַיִם in v. 7a literally, as if Balaam, whose oracle we are reading here, was predicting an abundance of water for Jacob’s sowing seed: ‘Water shall flow from his two buckets, and his seed shall be among much water ( ‏יִֽזַּל־מַ֙יִם֙ מִדָּ֣לְיָ֔ו ‏וְזַרְע֖וֹ בְּמַ֣יִם‏ רַבִּ֑ים)’. This is, in fact, the interpretation of most modern commentaries. The gardens and trees of v. 6, however, are merely images for the prosperity of Jacob’s tents (v. 5), that is, his family and personnel. In v. 7 Balaam would seem to introduce a new prophecy in the form of a new image. Gesenius is probably correct in his explanation of this image: the water flowing from Jacob’s two buckets (דָּלְיָו; usually taken as a dual48) may be interpreted as a metaphor for semen virile: Jacob will have a large offspring.49
The buckets would then stand for his testicles.50 As Prov 5:15-18; 9:17; and Cant 4:15 indicate, מַיִם can also be used as an image for female fertility (or sexual relations in general), which may be intended in the second part of v. 7a.

Gesenius realized that the image would appear crude to us, and warned the reader not to be deterred by this. In fact, even the translators of the Septuagint seem to have thought that a literal rendering would be unclear or inappropriate, as they give an interpretative one (→ §4). But they understood at least what the text was about. Other proposals include that of Rouillard, who suggests that the dual refers to the two buckets of a bucket-chain running over a wheel.51 Unfortunately, such machines appeared in the Middle East only many centuries later.52 She thinks the image has a double sense: that of ‘abondance luxuriante’ and that of the new dynasty coming forth from the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah). Though it is certainly too far fetched to interpret the two buckets as referring to the two kingdoms, the basis of such an explanation is indeed the fact that the clause is a figure of fertility and progeny; but Rouillard does not seem to realize that.53 Even more evasive is Levine, who reads, with many predecessors (cf. already σ´ in Ancient Versions), ‘boughs’ instead of ‘buckets’ (from דלית, ‘branch’, cf. Ezek 17:6): ‘water drips from his boughs; his seed grows near plentiful water’.54

Burrows has independently found the same explanation as Gesenius, but connects it with an astral motif: the figure in v. 7aA would be that of Aquarius-Reuben.55 This is not convincing, but Burrows’ reference to Gen 49:4 is helpful, as this verse seems to use water in a comparable image. Here it is applied in a negative sense, however.56

A.2 In Isa 40:15 the insignificance of the nations before God is likened to a drop from a bucket (הֵ֤ן גּוֹיִם֙ כְּמַ֣ר מִדְּלִ֔י). Just as dust, in the parallel clause ( וּכְשַׁ֥חַק מֹאזְנַ֖יִם נֶחְשָׁ֑בוּ) can hardly be accounted on a scale, a single drop hardly contributes to the mass of water contained in a full bucket: this is the position of the nations. God, on the other hand, is able to measure all the waters in the hollow of his hand, as the corresponding v. 12 makes clear.

7. Conclusions

A.1 A דְּלִי is a bucket, used chiefly to draw water from a well, river or cistern for purposes of drinking, irrigation, and bathing. In the Middle East of more recent times, leather was used to make such buckets, but there is no reason to assume that such a choice of material is implied in the Hebrew word of biblical times. Even in Mishnaic Hebrew, the word can still refer to a metal bucket.

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Burrows 1938
Eric Burrows, The Oracles of Jacob and Balaam (The Bellarmine Series, 3), London: Burns Oates & Washbourne.
De Moor 1966
Johannes C. de Moor, ‘Der mdl Baals im Ugaritischen’, ZAW 78:69-71.
Gray 1903
George B. Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (ICC), Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Jouanna 2012
Jacques Jouanna et al. (eds), L’eau en Méditerranée de l’Antiquité au Moyen Âge, Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Kotansky 1991
Roy D. Kotansky, ‘Two Inscribed Jewish Aramaic Amulets from Syria’, IEJ 41:267-81.
Leslau 2010
Wolf Leslau, Concise Dictionary of Geʿez, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Levine 2000
Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 21-36 (AB, 4A), New York: Doubleday.
Naveh 1978
Joseph Naveh, On Stone and Mosaic: The Aramaic and Hebrew Inscriptions from Ancient Synagogues, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv: Israel Exploration Society.
Oleson 1992
John P. Oleson, ‘Water Works’, ABD, vol. 6:883-92.
Reymond 1958
Philippe Reymond, L’eau, sa vie, et sa signification dans l’Ancien Testament (SVT, 6), Leiden: Brill.
Rouillard 1985
Hedwige Rouillard, La péricope de Balaam (Nombres 22-24): la prose et les ‘oracles’ (Etudes bibliques NS, 4), Paris: J. Gabalda.
Schulthess 1903
Friedrich Schulthess, Lexicon Syropalaestinum, Berlin: G. Reimer.
Volk 2009-11
Konrad Volk, ‘Schöpfwerk’, RLA vol. 12: 247-48.
Wevers 1998
John W. Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Numbers (SBLSCS, 46) Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Winton Thomas 1968
David Winton Thomas, ‘ “A Drop of a Bucket”? Some Observations on the Hebrew Text of Isaiah 4015’, in Matthew Black and Georg Fohrer (eds.), In Memoriam Paul Kahle (BZAW, 103) Berlin: De Gruyter, 214-21.
Weitzman 1999
Michael P. Weitzman, The Syriac Version of the Old Testament: An Introduction (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 56), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Notes

This article is based on an unpublished paper by Bas ter Haar Romeny, originally written for the KLY-project. For the publication in Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database the paper was thoroughly reworked and expanded by Raymond de Hoop.

  1. HAL, 213; HALOT, 222; DCH ii:439; DCHR ii:531; Ges18, 251. ↩

  2. CAD D, 56-57. ↩

  3. AHw, vol. 1, 155 (s.v. dalû). ↩

  4. Naveh 1978:27,11 (from Hamat-Tiberias), 45,11 (Bet-Alpha), and 70,4 (En-Gedi). ↩

  5. DNWSI, 249. ↩

  6. Sokoloff, DJPA, 150 only refers to the verb דלי for Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. ↩

  7. Kotansky 1991:275, l. 6. ↩

  8. ATTM, 333. ↩

  9. Kotansky 1991:279. ↩

  10. Schulthess 1903:43, 46: ‘situla’. ↩

  11. WTM, vol. 1, 383: ‘Schöpfgefäss, Schöpfeimer; Graben, woraus man das Wasser schöpft; die Berieselung, das Schöpfen’; cf. Jastrow, DTT, 283f., and 1. ↩

  12. Sokoloff, SLB, 282: ‘water bucket’, ‘Aquarius, name of a constellation’; Payne Smith, TS, 904: (‘situla, urna ad aquam hauriendam; Aquarius e signis Zodiaci’. ↩

  13. Drower and Macuch, 98f.: ‘pitcher for drawing water, water-vessel, water-pot, bucket, pail; (as a sign of the Zodiac) Water-carrier, Aquarius’. ↩

  14. ATTM, 333. ↩

  15. Ed. Lieberman, Zera’im, 22. ↩

  16. Ed. Theodor-Albeck, 454. ↩

  17. Jastrow, DTT, 310 ↩

  18. Thus also WTM, vol. 1, 408). ↩

  19. Ed. Hyman-Shiloni, שמות, 2, 789. ↩

  20. Ed. Hyman-Shiloni, נביאים ראשונים, 437. ↩

  21. According to WTM, vol. 1, 383; perhaps rather ‘irrigated land’? ↩

  22. Lane, 909; cf. also Wehr, 336. ↩

  23. HAL, 213; HALOT, 222. ↩

  24. De Moor 1966:69-71. ↩

  25. De Moor 1966:69-71. DLU, 262, hesitatingly proposes ‘un meteoro’. ↩

  26. Translations according to Leslau 2010:190. ↩

  27. Winton Thomas 1968:220-21. ↩

  28. LLAe, 1078: it should be; Leslau 2010:132: it should not. ↩

  29. GK 280, §93.z. ↩

  30. LSJ, 1626; GELS, 630. ↩

  31. LSJ, 848. ↩

  32. GELS, 347. ↩

  33. Cf. Field I:256, nn. 7, 9. ↩

  34. Sokoloff, SLB, 1319; Payne Smith TS, 3498 (‘olla, lebes’); Payne Smith, CSD, 491. ↩

  35. Cf. Field I:256, n. 8. ↩

  36. Sokoloff, SLB, 883; Payne Smith, TS, 2266 (‘surculus, virgultum, fons’); Payne Smith, CSD, 325. ↩

  37. Wevers (1998:406; see Gray 1903:365) suggested that the expression ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ reflect וזרעו, ‘and his seed’ (v. 7bb), but this is not exactly the case. On the other hand, the Hebrew וזרעו may have triggered this interpretative rendering. ↩

  38. Sokoloff, SLB, 177; Payne Smith, CSD, 53. ↩

  39. Sokoloff, SLB, 1319; Payne Smith TS, 3498 (‘olla, lebes’); Payne Smith, CSD, 491. ↩

  40. Tal, DSA, 80. ↩

  41. Jastrow, DTT, 188-189. ↩

  42. Jastrow, DTT, 283-84; Tal, DSA, 172; Levy, CWT, vol. 1, 165 (‘Schöpfeimer’). ↩

  43. Lewis and Short, LD, 1713; OLD, 1775. ↩

  44. Cf. Weitzman 1999:70. ↩

  45. Cf. DCHR ii:531, ‘Objects > Products > Artifacts > Containers’. ↩

  46. Gesenius, TPC, 340: ‘haustrum, situla aquae hauriendae’; BDB, 194; DCH ii:439 (cf. 628: ‘pail’); DCHR ii:531 (‘made of leather’); ‘Schöpfeimer’: GB, 162; HAWAT, 70 (‘Num 24:7: sein Eimerpaar’); Reymond 1958:55, 144, 259, ‘seau (pour puiser)’; KBL, 210; HAL, 213; HALOT, 222; Ges18, 251; Zorell, 173: ‘vas quo aqua hauritur, situla’. ↩

  47. Dalman, AuS, vol. 2, 222; vol. 6, 270; followed in KBL, 210: (‘ledern, Mündung durch Holzkreuz offen gehalten’); HAL, 213 (idem); HALOT, 222. ↩

  48. BL, 583, §72x'; GK, 280, §93z. ↩

  49. Gesenius, TPC, 340: manat aqua ex situlis eius, i.e. larga erit posteritas eius, metaphora ab aqua de situla destillante ad semen virile translata’. ↩

  50. Cf. BDB, 194. ↩

  51. Rouillard 1985:366-67. ↩

  52. See Oleson 1992:892. ↩

  53. Rouillard 1985:363-64, 366-69. ↩

  54. Levine 2000:197. ↩

  55. Burrows 1938:72. ↩

  56. See already Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 42.2, ed. Tonneau [CSCO 152], 111. ↩

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