In Hebrew, do "really universal" statements always have a double kol?

[Nimrod]

I'm trying to understand the difference between factual statements and hyperbole in the Bible.

When the English word "all" is used in translations of the Bible, what did the original Hebrew mean? Did it literally mean "all" or did it mean "almost all" or "most" or "many"?

How do we distinguish the literal use from the hyperbole?

As an example, 2 Chronicles 9:13-28. Comparing this passage to other passages in the Bible would help clarify the literal/hyperbole distinction.

[Nimrod]

2 Chronicles 9

13 The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
14 besides what the traveling merchants and traders brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.
15 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield.
16 He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
17 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.
18 The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.
19 Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.
20 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
21 For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.
22 So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
23 And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
24 Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.
25 Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
26 So he reigned over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.
27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.
28 And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.
Compared with Genesis 7:

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.
20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.
23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.
Does the word "all" have the same meaning in both passages? If not, would someone please clarify the difference?

[Bib Lit Major]

I have not progressed bery far in Hebrew yet, but let me say that as a rule, whether a stament is hyperbolic or not is deduced from context and literary genre, not from word in general.

Compare this English phrase:

"I was so hungry that I ate all of the food in the cafeteria"

vs.

"Being rather full, I ate all that I could."

The only way you know the difference between "all" as hyperbolic in the first, and "all" as less than everything that could be eaten in the second is context. As for your specific examples, I'd say go with literal on the second, because it is clear that in that narrative, God is fed up with humanity, and thus, it probably would have to be literal all the way.

In the second, its a little fuzzier because it could be hyperbolic, exclaiming the greatness of Solomon. Definitely the first four and the second to last "all"s aren't that much of a stretch. The others could be literal (since the world, in their eyes was only Europe, Asia, and Africa, or it could have been considered even less), but they could also be hyperbolic, stressing the great amount of kings that sought him out and the many gifts of horses from various countries he recieved.

[Trinitarian]

2 Chronicles 9

Compared with [b]Genesis 7:

Does the word "all" have the same meaning in both passages? If not, would someone please clarify the difference?

The key issue to determining the meaning of "all" is the context. I would say it probably has different meaings in these two passages based on the context. When it talks about tribute coming to solomon from "all lands" that certainly would imply all known lands (i.e. this doesn't implies that Native Americans visited Solomon). The Genesis passage seems to be more universal. The only way to discover this is through the context.

As for the Kol, I've never seen it used in duplicate for emphasis, that usually only occurs with adjectives (i.e. qodosh, qodosh qodosh in Isa.6). Kol has a wide range of uses. It can mean all, each, everything, everyone, any, of all sorts, totally. The only way to tell is based on the context in which it occurs.

Hope that helps.