ELUL

(Eʹlul).

The postexilic name of the 6th Jewish lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the 12th of the secular calendar, corresponding to part of August and part of September. The meaning of the name is uncertain.

In this closing month of the summer season, the dates were ripe, as was the principal crop of figs. The general vintage was under way, and by the month’s end the new wine was flowing.​—Le 26:5; Nu 13:23; Jer 8:13.

It was in the month of Elul that Nehemiah completed the 52-day project of reconstructing Jerusalem’s walls. (Ne 6:15) In the other Scriptural references the month Elul is mentioned only as the sixth month.​—1Ch 27:9; Eze 8:1; Hag 1:1, 15.

The tables prepared by Parker and Dubberstein, in Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75 (1971, pp. 27-47), show that the month Elul was used intermittently by the Babylonians as an intercalary month along with the month Adar.