BELLY

[Heb., beʹten].

The front part of the human trunk not enclosed by the ribs, and containing the digestive system, and so forth; generally considered synonymous with the abdomen.

Besides being used to denote the general area of the abdomen (Judg. 3:21, 22; Prov. 13:25), the word is used several times in connection with the formation of a child in its mother’s body. (Gen. 25:23, 24; Job 1:21; Ps. 127:3; Eccl. 11:5; Isa. 44:2; Hos. 9:11) Children are the fruitage of the womb, located in the belly. However, another Hebrew word, reʹhhem (raʹhham), specifically refers to the womb, as can be noted at Job 31:15: “Did not the One making me in the belly make him, and did not just One proceed to prepare us in the womb?”—See also Genesis 49:25; Psalm 22:10; Proverbs 30:16.

“Belly” is also used as an architectural term at 1 Kings 7:20, referring to a protuberance, a “rounded projection.”

In the Christian Greek Scriptures the word koi·liʹa means a “cavity” and is variously rendered “belly” (1 Cor. 6:13; Phil. 3:19), “womb” (Luke 1:15, 41), “intestines” (Matt. 15:17) and “inmost part” (John 7:38), according to the context.

“Belly” is used figuratively to denote fleshly appetite or desire (Rom. 16:18; Phil. 3:19), and as a source of speech or argument. (Job 15:2; 32:19) Jonah referred to himself as being in the common grave of mankind when he said, in the fish’s belly, “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried for help,” because he was as good as dead unless Jehovah would deliver him miraculously.—Jonah 2:2; see BOWELS; WOMB.