to sell
ma.khar denotes transferring goods, land, rights, or persons to another, including self-sale and being handed over to enemies.
The verb most often marks the transfer of property, goods, or a valued right from one party to another; it also describes persons being sold into service or captivity, being delivered into an enemy’s hand, and people selling themselves for wrongdoing. The supplied forms include active commands and participles, passive forms for those sold, and reflexive forms in clauses about self-sale.
Senses in use
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Transfer of goods, land, or a right · dominant
In Genesis 25:31 the imperative occurs in Jacob’s request concerning the birthright, and Genesis 25:33 recounts its transfer after the oath. Exodus 21:35 concerns disposing of a living ox and dividing its silver, while Leviticus 25:27 concerns calculating the years of a land sale; in these clauses the APB renders the action with “sell” or “sold.”
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Persons transferred into service or captivity · common
Genesis 37:27 proposes transferring Joseph to the Ishmaelites, and Genesis 37:28 places that action in an exchange for twenty pieces of silver. Deuteronomy 15:12 and Leviticus 25:39 concern a Hebrew person who is sold and then serves; Esther 7:4 describes a people as sold for destruction.
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Handing someone over to an enemy · occasional
Judges 2:14 places the action alongside giving Israel into the hands of plunderers and enemies. In Judges 4:9, the LORD is said to place Sisera into the hand of a woman; 1 Samuel 12:9 and Deuteronomy 32:30 similarly frame the action as giving people over to hostile powers.
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Selling oneself for wrongful action · rare
The Hithpael forms in 1 Kings 21:20 and 1 Kings 21:25 occur in the clause that Ahab sold himself to do what was bad in the LORD’s eyes. 2 Kings 17:17 likewise joins the form to Israel’s divination and doing what was bad, while Deuteronomy 28:68 describes selling yourselves to enemies as male and female slaves.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “sell,” “sold,” and “seller,” and in enemy-delivery clauses it retains “sold... into the hand of.” It also renders the reflexive clauses as “sold himself” or “sold themselves”; these are presentations of whole clauses.