to swallow up
ba.la describes engulfing or consuming people, objects, and, in figurative clauses, counsel, wisdom, or a way of conduct.
The dominant usage depicts the engulfing or ingestion of persons and tangible things, whether the earth takes people, a rod takes other rods, or someone consumes food or wealth. Other clauses use the verb for destructive removal of cities, peoples, and enemies, and for the loss or consumption of abstract matters such as counsel, wisdom, and a way of conduct.
Senses in use
-
Engulfing people or tangible things · dominant
Qal forms describe concrete taking in: in Numbers 16:32 the earth opens its mouth and takes Korah's company and property, while in Exodus 7:12 Aaron's rod takes the other rods. The APB also renders the clause in Job 20:15 as a man who has consumed riches and later expels them from his belly.
-
Overwhelming destruction or removal · common
Piel forms can portray an agent's destructive taking of a people, place, or opponent. In Lamentations 2:2 the APB renders the LORD's action against Jacob's habitations as having consumed them, and in Habakkuk 1:13 it describes the wicked taking the righteous; 2 Samuel 20:19 applies the action to a city and the LORD's inheritance.
-
Consuming or eliminating abstract matters · occasional
The verb is applied to non-material objects in clauses of loss or corruption. In Isaiah 19:3 the APB renders the action against Egypt's counsel as its being consumed, while Isaiah 3:12 speaks of leaders taking away the way of the people's conduct; Psalm 107:27 describes all wisdom as lost amid staggering.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses the APB commonly uses “swallowed” or “swallowed up,” but also uses terms such as “consume,” “devours,” “destroy,” and “taken away” in destructive or abstract clauses. Those variations describe the verse's presentation rather than separate fixed English equivalents.