Chol ( ḥōl) is a word mentioned in Job 29:18 in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, by some traditionally understood as the Hebrew word for "phoenix".
The Leningrad Codex reads:
The Greek Septuagint (circa 200 BCE) used the Ancient Greek expression στέλεχος φοίνικος (stélechos phoínikos, "stem/trunk of a palm tree") when rendering Hebrew ḥōl in Job 29, (see also the dictionary definition of στέλεχος, φοῖνιξ and Φοῖνιξ at Wiktionary) which the Latin Vulgate (circa 400 CE) interpreted as palma (Latin for "palm tree").See the Vulgate, and its translation into English in the Douai-Rheims Bible. The Greek term φοῖνιξ ambiguously denotes both the palm tree and the phoenix, the former being a far more common term.
Roelof Van den Broek (1971) believed that "sand" was the most appropriate interpretation of the term ḥōl in Job 29:18, following the common meaning of ḥōl in Hebrew. On his interpretation, "multiply my days like the sand" must be a metaphor for a long life. On the other hand, Mitchell Dahood (1974) argued in favor of the interpretation "phoenix" on the basis of parallels between Job and Ugaritic texts. In particular, the Ugaritic line ḥl rḥb mknpt "phoenix broad of wingspread" strongly points to an Ugaritic noun ḥl "phoenix", as "sand" does not fit this context. Ugaritic ḥl "phoenix" is cognate to Hebrew ḥōl.
The Rabbis preserved the original understanding of the word ḥōl as referring to the phoenix. The school of R. Jannai said: "[the ḥōl] lives a thousand years and at the end of thousand years a fire issues from its nest and burns it until as much as an egg is left of it. Then it grows limbs again and lives." R. Judan b. Simon said: "it lives a thousand years and at the end of thousand years its body is consumed and its wings crumble to pieces until as much as an egg of it is left. Then it grows limbs again and lives."
Notes
References
Slifkin, Natan (2007). Sacred Monsters: Mysterious and Mythical Creatures of Scripture, Talmud and Midrash. Zoo Torah. Lecocq, Françoise (2014). Y a-t-il un phénix dans la Bible ? À propos de Job 29:18, de Tertullien, De resurrectione carnis 13, et d’Ambroise, De excessu fratris 2, 59, Kentron 30, 2014, pp. 55–81 (https://journals.openedition.org/kentron/463). Van den Broek, Roelof (1971). The Myth of the Phoenix: According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions … Door Roelof Van Den Broek. Translated from the Dutch by I. Seeger Brill Archive. pp. 58–60.