חָתַם
cha.tam (H2856)
to seal
AI Word Study
# Analysis of חָתַם (chatam): "To Seal" The Hebrew verb חָתַם appears 26 times throughout the biblical text with the core meaning of "to seal." This act involved physically closing or securing something with a mark or impression—typically using a signet or seal—to authenticate, protect, or authorize its contents. The verb captures a practical ancient Near Eastern practice where a seal served as a personal signature, mark of ownership, or guarantee of authenticity. By applying a seal, the user transformed an ordinary object or document into something officially marked and protected. The frequency of this word's appearance (26 occurrences) suggests that sealing held considerable cultural and practical importance in biblical society. The verb encompasses both literal actions—affixing a seal to a document or container—and potentially metaphorical extensions of that practice. The consistent terminology across these usages indicates that "sealing" operated as a standardized concept with clear social and legal significance, making the word essential for understanding how ancient biblical communities verified authenticity, conveyed authority, and secured important items or information.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
This shall be his uncleanness in his discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body has stopped from his discharge, it is his uncleanness.
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth.
Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal it.”
Now those who sealed were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,
Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s local governors, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring.
Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man.”
He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds.
In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.
My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;”
I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances to him.
So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.’
Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed,” says Yahweh.
“Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be increased.”
He said, “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.