Hebrew word · H217

אוּר

'ur

flame

ʾûr means flame, blaze or the glow of a fire. It is related to ʾôr, 'light'. Isa 31:9 calls God the one 'whose fire (ʾûr) is in Zion'. Isa 44:16 has the idol-maker saying 'I am warm, I have seen the fire'. Isa 47:14 says of Babylon's sorcerers: 'no coal for warming, no fire to sit before'.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

flame, light of fire

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 50:11

Range of meaning

ʾûr means flame, blaze or the glow of a fire. It is related to ʾôr, 'light'. Isa 31:9 calls God the one 'whose fire (ʾûr) is in Zion'. Isa 44:16 has the idol-maker saying 'I am warm, I have seen the fire'. Isa 47:14 says of Babylon's sorcerers: 'no coal for warming, no fire to sit before'.

Against the English

English versions mostly say 'in/by the light of your fire'. That is defensible, but it brings out only the lamp sense. WEB's 'in the flame of your fire' keeps the danger.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 31:9; 44:16; 47:14; Ezek 5:2.

From the study of Isaiah 24:15

Range of meaning

The noun ʾur (plural ʾurîm) means 'flame, fire' and by extension 'light'. It is related to ʾôr, 'light', and the verb 'to shine'. Elsewhere in Isaiah it plainly means fire: 'whose fire (ʾur) is in Zion' (31:9), the fire for warming oneself (44:16; 47:14), 'walk in the light of your fire' (50:11). The plural ʾurîm is also the spelling of the priestly Urim (as in 'Urim and Thummim'), the objects used to seek a divine decision.

Against the English

The KJV keeps the literal 'in the fires'. Most modern versions (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV, NASB) give 'in the east', and the NLT expands this to eastern lands. YLT's 'in prosperity' treats 'lights' as a picture of good fortune. The Vulgate's 'in doctrinis' ('in teachings') reads it as the oracular Urim.

How it drifted

This is not drift so much as real obscurity. 'East' is an interpretation, not a dictionary gloss: no other Hebrew Bible text uses ʾurîm for the east. Translators adopt it because of the surrounding geography, with 'from the sea/west' in v. 14, 'coastlands of the sea' in v. 15b and 'the wing (edge) of the earth' in v. 16. The KJV's 'fires' is accurate as a word but leaves the reader without the geographic sense the context suggests.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint's rendering of this line differs from the Hebrew and has no clear 'fires/lights' word. The Vulgate gives 'in doctrinis', matching Jerome's rendering of the Urim as 'doctrina' in Exodus 28:30. The Targum paraphrases with the idea of light coming to the righteous. Modern lexicons (HALOT, BDB) list the 'east, region of light' sense for this verse as a proposal, and many commentators (e.g. Wildberger, Blenkinsopp) discuss emending it to בָּאִיִּים, 'in the coastlands'.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 5

  1. Isaiah 24:15 בָּאֻרִ֖ים in the east

    Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

    Here: Literally 'in the fires' or 'in the lights'. This is the verse's hardest word. Most modern translators take it as 'the regions of light', meaning the east where the sun rises, to answer 'from the sea' (the west) in v. 14 and 'the coastlands of the sea' in the next line. The meaning is uncertain.

  2. Isaiah 31:9 א֥וּר fire

    Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

  3. Isaiah 44:16 אֽוּר׃ a fire

    He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

  4. Isaiah 47:14 א֖וּר a fire

    Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.

    Here: The glow of a fire, a warmer and more domestic word than the two fire words earlier in the verse. It is the word the idol-maker uses in Isaiah 44:16 when he sighs, "I am warm, I see the fire."

  5. Isaiah 50:11 בְּא֣וּר by [the] light of

    Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who array yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and of the firebrands you have lit! This is what you will receive from My hand: You will lie down in a place of torment.

    Here: ʾûr means the blaze or glow of a fire (Isa 31:9; 44:16; 47:14). With the preposition it can mean 'by the light of' or 'into the flame of'. The ambiguity lets the line slide from 'walk by your own light' to 'walk into your own blaze'.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 5:2 בָּא֤וּר in the fire

    When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

    Here: 'In the fire.' A less common, mostly poetic word for fire (compare Isa 31:9; 44:16; 50:11), the blaze itself rather than the ordinary word ’esh. Here it is a real fire into which the hair goes.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.