Chol (Hebrew: ח֗וֹל) in the Hebrew Bible is translated in different ways: as 'palm tree' (Ancient Greek: στέλεχος φοίνικος stélechos phoínikos "stem / trunk of a palm tree"; Latin: palma; French: palmier), occasionally as 'phoenix', and usually as 'sand' (German: Sand). The Westminster Leningrad Codex reads:
אֹמַר עִם־קִנִּ֣י אֶגְוָ֑ע וְ֝כַח֗וֹל אַרְבֶּ֥ה יָמִֽים׃
In Jewish folklore, chol refers to a supernatural bird, often glossed as, or identified with, the Greek 'phoenix'.
Alternately, chol may have simply been a noun meaning 'sand', which condensates idiomatic expressions like ″so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the [very, very many grains of] sand which is by the sea shore innumerable″[Hebrews 11:12]. Subsequently, due to the context of its employment, the word 'sand' was displaced by the long-lived 'palm tree' and the very, very long-lived regenerative bird.
The understanding of chol as a phoenix-like bird has resulted in an amount of discourse on the topic.