2457. chelah
Lexical Summary
chelah: Sickness, disease

Original Word: חֶלְאָה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: chel'ah
Pronunciation: khay-lah
Phonetic Spelling: (khel-aw')
KJV: scum
NASB: rust
Word Origin: [from H2456 (חָלָא - became diseased)]

1. (properly) disease
2. (hence) rust

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
scum

From chala'; properly, disease; hence, rust -- scum.

see HEBREW chala'

NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
from an unused word
Definition
rust
NASB Translation
rust (5).

Brown-Driver-Briggs
I. [חֶלְאָה] noun feminine rust (perhaps as filth see above) — חֶלְאָתָהּ Ezekiel 24:6,12 + Ezekiel 24:11; Ezekiel 24:12 (strike out Co internal grounds) + Ezekiel 24:6 חֶלְאָתָהֿ (compare Ges§ 91, 1; R. 2) rust on metal pot, symbol of impurity of Jerusalem.

Topical Lexicon
Overview

The noun חֶלְאָה appears only in Ezekiel 24, where it is rendered by the Berean Standard Bible as “corrosion” or “rust.” The prophet’s parable of the boiling pot employs the imagery of stubborn corrosion on a bronze cauldron to expose Jerusalem’s entrenched guilt and to announce the certainty of divine judgment.

Context in Ezekiel 24

1. Siege setting (Ezekiel 24:1–2). On the very day Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is commanded to dramatize the city’s fate.
2. Parable of the pot (24:3–5). Choice pieces of meat are placed in a bronze pot over a blazing fire, portraying the citizens and their leaders surrounded by hostile armies.
3. The unveiled verdict (24:6–13). Five uses of חֶלְאָה punctuate Yahweh’s lament, “Woe to the city of bloodshed, the pot now encrusted whose corrosion has not been removed!” (24:6). As the meat is removed piece by piece, the empty pot is returned to the flames “so that it becomes hot and its bronze glows. The impurity inside it will be melted; its corrosion consumed” (24:11). Yet the indictment concludes, “It frustrates all efforts; its thick corrosion does not leave it. Into the fire with its rust!” (24:12).

Theological Significance

• Persistent defilement. The unremovable corrosion pictures sin that has permeated every layer of Jerusalem’s civic and religious life (compare Isaiah 1:22; Micah 3:10–11).
• Judicial exposure. God’s command to empty the pot “without casting lots” (24:6) signals indiscriminate judgment; every inhabitant is accountable.
• Purifying fire. The intensified heat represents the siege, exile, and subsequent hardships designed to burn away impurity. The language anticipates later promises of refinement (Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2–3).

Historical Impact

The fulfillment came in 586 B.C. when Babylon destroyed the city and temple. The corrosion motif underscored that the catastrophe was not random political misfortune but the outworking of divine justice foretold by the prophets.

Ministry Applications

• Preaching on hidden sin. Like corrosion concealed beneath a polished exterior, unconfessed transgression eventually surfaces under the heat of God’s scrutiny (Hebrews 4:13).
• Call to repentance. The failed attempts to scour away the rust (24:12) illustrate the futility of self-reformation apart from divine cleansing (Psalm 51:2; Titus 3:5).
• Warning against complacency. The boiling-pot image cautions communities that cherish external privileges while tolerating internal corruption (Revelation 3:17–18).
• Hope of restoration. Although Ezekiel 24 is uncompromising, the book later promises a new heart and Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25–27), showing that God’s ultimate aim is purification, not annihilation.

Christological Perspective

Jesus Christ fulfills the prophetic hope by providing the once-for-all means of cleansing. His blood “purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), accomplishing what the fire of judgment could only prefigure. Believers are therefore urged to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1), living lives that display the reality of the gospel’s refining power.

Summary

חֶלְאָה, though confined to a single chapter, vividly communicates the depth of human corruption, the inevitability of divine judgment, and the necessity of a cleansing only God can accomplish. The stubborn rust on Jerusalem’s cauldron warns every generation that holiness cannot coexist with hidden iniquity, while pointing forward to the perfect purification secured in the Savior.

Forms and Transliterations
וְחֶ֨לְאָתָ֔הּ וחלאתה חֶלְאָתָ֔הּ חֶלְאָתָ֣ה חֶלְאָתָֽהּ׃ חלאתה חלאתה׃ chelaTah ḥel’āṯāh ḥel·’ā·ṯāh veChelaTah wə·ḥel·’ā·ṯāh wəḥel’āṯāh
Links
Interlinear GreekInterlinear HebrewStrong's NumbersEnglishman's Greek ConcordanceEnglishman's Hebrew ConcordanceParallel Texts
Englishman's Concordance
Ezekiel 24:6
HEB: סִ֚יר אֲשֶׁ֣ר חֶלְאָתָ֣ה בָ֔הּ וְחֶ֨לְאָתָ֔הּ
NAS: in which there is rust And whose rust
KJV: to the pot whose scum [is] therein, and whose scum
INT: to the pot which is rust rust Without

Ezekiel 24:6
HEB: חֶלְאָתָ֣ה בָ֔הּ וְחֶ֨לְאָתָ֔הּ לֹ֥א יָצְאָ֖ה
NAS: there is rust And whose rust has not gone
KJV: whose scum [is] therein, and whose scum is not gone out
INT: which is rust rust Without gone

Ezekiel 24:11
HEB: טֻמְאָתָ֔הּ תִּתֻּ֖ם חֶלְאָתָֽהּ׃
NAS: may be melted in it, Its rust consumed.
KJV: in it, [that] the scum of it may be consumed.
INT: filthiness consumed rust

Ezekiel 24:12
HEB: מִמֶּ֙נָּה֙ רַבַּ֣ת חֶלְאָתָ֔הּ בְּאֵ֖שׁ חֶלְאָתָֽהּ׃
NAS: Yet her great rust has not gone
KJV: and her great scum went not forth
INT: Yet her great rust the fire rust

Ezekiel 24:12
HEB: חֶלְאָתָ֔הּ בְּאֵ֖שׁ חֶלְאָתָֽהּ׃
NAS: has not gone from her; [Let] her rust [be] in the fire!
KJV: went not forth out of her: her scum [shall be] in the fire.
INT: rust the fire rust

5 Occurrences

Strong's Hebrew 2457
5 Occurrences


ḥel·’ā·ṯāh — 4 Occ.
wə·ḥel·’ā·ṯāh — 1 Occ.

2456
Top of Page
Top of Page