to eat
a.khal denotes consuming food, and in destructive contexts consuming or devouring people, bodies, crops, or fortifications.
The dominant use describes people consuming food or drink, whether in ordinary meals, invitations, prohibitions, feasts, hunger, or provision. In destructive settings it depicts fire, animals, or locusts consuming their targets, and the causative forms describe providing food to others.
Senses in use
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Consume food in meals, commands, and provision · dominant
Qal forms occur in clauses about taking food: in 1 Kings 13:15 the imperative invites a man home for food, while 1 Kings 13:19 reports that he went back and ate in the house. The term also stands in commands and prohibitions concerning food, as in Deuteronomy 12:16, and in 2 Kings 4:43 the jussive concerns giving food to the people so that they may eat.
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Consume or devour a destructive target · occasional
The term is used where the consuming subject destroys its target: in 2 Kings 1:10 the APB renders fire that came down and “ate” the ruler and his fifty, and in Amos 1:10 it renders fire that “devour[s]” Tyre's citadels. It also occurs with animals or locusts consuming bodies or crops in 1 Kings 14:11 and Amos 4:9; 2 Samuel 22:39 uses a Piel form in a clause rendered “I consumed them.”
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Provide food for another · rare
Hiphil forms place the action with those supplying food rather than those consuming it. In 1 Kings 22:27 the APB renders the king's command as “feed him bread of affliction,” and 2 Chronicles 28:15 describes named men who provided captives with food and drink.
In the Anselm Paraphrase: Across meal and provision contexts, the APB commonly uses “eat,” “eaten,” or “eating.” In destructive clauses it also uses “eat,” “devour,” and “consumed”; these are verse-level paraphrase renderings rather than word-aligned equivalents.