Biblical Aramaic
employs plḥ exclusively with a
religious connotation: in Dnl. 3:12, 14, 18, 28 for idol worship that Daniel
and his companions avoid, in 6:17, 21 for the worship of the true God, and,
finally, in 7:14, 27 for the defining relationship of the whole world—all
nations and especially all powers—with God at the dawn of his eschatological
kingdom. Ezra 7:24 employs the participle plḥy
byt ʾlhʾ in a more restricted, probably summary, sense for the other cultic
personnel in addition to various functions previously mentioned explicitly (Holger
Gzella, “פלח,” in Holger Gzella, ed., Theological Dictionary of the Old
Testament, 16 vols. [trans. Mark E. Biddle; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
2018], 607)
