Bible Dictionary
Halt
To limp or walk with an uncertain gait. In Elijah’s challenge, “halting between two opinions” describes moral indecision between the LORD and Baal.
Definition
To halt is to limp or walk with an uncertain gait. The word can also describe wavering between alternatives.
Biblical Usage
In Elijah’s challenge, “halting between two opinions” describes Israel’s moral indecision between the LORD and Baal. Elsewhere the word denotes literal lameness or an irregular movement.
Historical Background
The expression has been understood as describing a lame, uncertain gait, moving first one way and then another. The same verb is used of the irregular leaping around the altar of Baal.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Lame on the feet (Gen. 32:31; Ps. 38:17). To “halt between two opinions” (1 Kings 18:21) is supposed by some to be an expression used in “allusion to birds, which hop from spray to spray, forwards and backwards.” The LXX. render the expression “How long go ye lame on both knees?” The Hebrew verb rendered “halt” is used of the irregular dance (“leaped upon”) around the altar (ver. 26). It indicates a lame, uncertain gait, going now in one direction, now in another, in the frenzy of wild leaping.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>holt (tsala`, "to limp"; cholos, "lame," "crippled"): the American Standard Revised Version in Ge 32:31 prefers "limped"; in Mic 4:6,7; Ze 3:19, "is (or was) lame"; in Lu 14:21, the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version have "lame." In 1Ki 18:21 a different word (pacach) is used in English Versions of the Bible of moral indecision: "How long halt ye between two opinions?" the American Standard Revised Version renders, "How long go ye limping between the two sides?"</p>