to abuse
a.lal describes abusive or harsh treatment, including mocking someone and engaging in harmful conduct.
The term most often marks harsh, injurious treatment directed against people: threatened abuse, treatment of Egypt, and suffering described as having been done to the speaker or city. It also occurs for making a fool of someone and, in a prayer, for engaging in wanton conduct with evildoers.
Senses in use
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Harsh treatment inflicted on others · dominant
In 1 Samuel 31:4 and 1 Chronicles 10:4, Saul fears what hostile men may do to him; in Judges 19:25, men abuse the concubine through the night. The same hostile-treatment frame appears when Egypt is acted against in Exodus 10:2 and when suffering is described as done to the speaker in Lamentations 1:12 and Lamentations 2:20; the APB renders these clauses with wording such as "abuse," "what I did to Egypt," and "done this."
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Mocking or making someone a fool · rare
In Numbers 22:29, the second-person feminine perfect is addressed to the donkey after Balaam says that she has "made a fool of me." The clause presents the action as humiliating treatment of Balaam.
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Engaging in wanton wrongdoing · rare
In Psalm 141:4, the infinitive construct occurs in a request that the heart not turn toward a harmful word or toward "wantonness in wickedness" with evildoers. Here the term is framed as conduct to be avoided rather than treatment received.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB often presents the term with "abuse" or related language of harsh action, while Numbers 22:29 uses "made a fool of me" and Psalm 141:4 uses "wantonness in wickedness." Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings indicate the clauses' contexts rather than fixed English equivalents.