Machalat is a Latin-letter rendering of the Biblical Hebrew feminine name מָחֲלַת. Many English Bible translations use Mahalath; Machalath, Mahalat, and the more technical Maḥalat or Maḥălaṯ represent other transliteration conventions. The name's exact literal meaning is not known.
Meaning: What Can Be Said Securely
Older reference works connect the name with a Hebrew form also found in the headings of Psalms 53 and 88. That resemblance has produced glosses such as “sickness,” “song,” “tune,” “lyre,” or “stringed instrument,” but the evidence does not justify choosing one of them as the established meaning of the personal name.
The disagreement is visible in the sources. James Strong connected the form with the Hebrew root חלה, “to be weak or sick,” and consequently glossed it “sickness.” Brown, Driver, and Briggs treated the women's name as a feminine proper name but described the identically written psalm term as being of doubtful meaning, perhaps a catchword that identified a tune. The 2023 Revised JPS translation takes the cautious course: it leaves mahalath untranslated in Psalm 53 and says its meaning is unknown; in Psalm 88 it labels maḥalath leannoth uncertain.
Accordingly, “sickness” and “lyre” are proposed etymologies, not interchangeable translations and not facts about a person given this name.
Hebrew Form and English Spellings
The vocalized Masoretic spelling in Genesis 28:9 is מָחֲלַת. In a precise romanization, the letter ח can be represented by ḥ; Machalat instead uses the familiar digraph ch. The traditional English form Mahalath uses plain h for that consonant and th for the final ת. The ALA-LC Hebrew romanization table illustrates why a catalog form such as Maḥalat may differ from a familiar biblical spelling.
These spellings can therefore identify the same Hebrew name:
- Machalat
- Mahalat
- Machalath
- Mahalath
- Maḥalat or Maḥălaṯ
They are orthographic forms, not separate meanings. Machalat should also not be confused merely by appearance with Mahlah (מַחְלָה), another biblical feminine name with a different vocalization, or with every modern word or name written without Hebrew vowel points.
The Two Biblical Bearers
The Hebrew Bible applies the name to two women:
1. Genesis 28:9 calls Mahalath a daughter of Ishmael, a granddaughter of Abraham, and a sister of Nebaioth. Esau takes her as a wife in addition to his existing wives. 2. 2 Chronicles 11:18–19 names a Mahalath in Rehoboam's household and identifies her as a daughter of Jerimoth son of David; the following verse names her sons Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
These are two separate figures in the biblical text. Their shared name does not imply a family connection beyond the relationships that the passages themselves state.
The wording of 2 Chronicles 11:18 is compressed and translations do not all parse the reference to Abihail in the same way. The Revised JPS presents Mahalath and Abihail as two women whom Rehoboam married. The Steinsaltz commentary records another reading in which Abihail is Mahalath's mother. Verse 19 then reports that “she” bore Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. This grammatical question affects the description of that bearer, but not the spelling of the name.
Mahalath or Basemath in Genesis?
There is an important textual complication. Genesis 28:9 calls Esau's Ishmaelite wife Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. Genesis 36:3 gives the same father and brother but calls the woman Basemath.
The passages have been reconciled in several ways. Ibn Ezra, for example, treated Mahalath and Basemath as two names of the same woman. Modern literary and source-critical readings may instead regard the differing lists of Esau's wives as traditions that cannot be harmonized with confidence. Reuven Chaim Klein's study of the passages surveys these competing readings rather than treating one reconstruction as a historical certainty.
For a name entry, the safe conclusion is simple: Mahalath is explicitly attested in Genesis 28:9, while any claim that this bearer was certainly renamed Basemath depends on an interpretation of the conflicting lists.
The Word in the Psalm Headings
מָחֲלַת also appears in the superscriptions of Psalm 53 and Psalm 88. In those locations it is not a third woman. It is part of an instruction or label associated with the performance or classification of each psalm.
Its precise function has been lost. A tune name, a catchword from another song, and a musical designation have all been proposed. Because even recent scholarly translation leaves the term unexplained, the psalm headings cannot securely turn the personal name into “lyre,” “song,” or any other single definition.
What the Biblical Evidence Does Not Show
The biblical occurrences establish ancient literary use of a feminine Hebrew personal name. They do not establish modern popularity, a continuous naming tradition, or a hereditary surname lineage. If Machalat appears as a family name in a modern record, that use needs its own documentary history; the shared biblical spelling alone cannot identify how or when the surname arose.
References
- Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; and Briggs, Charles A. @@1@@. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907, entries for
מַחֲלַת; see also the digitized proper-name entry H4258 and psalm-term entry H4257. - Jewish Publication Society. The JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition (RJPS), 2023, text and notes for Genesis 28, 2 Chronicles 11, Psalm 53, and Psalm 88, via Sefaria.
- Klein, Reuven Chaim. “Did Esau Marry 3, 4, 5, or 6 Women?” TheTorah.com, 3 December 2025; updated 21 July 2026. Revised from “The Wives of Esau,” Jewish Bible Quarterly 42, no. 4 (2014): 211–220.
- Library of Congress and American Library Association. @@0@@, 2011.