Hebrew word · H2564

חֵמָר

chemar

bitumen

Natural bitumen or asphalt: a black, sticky petroleum product that seeps from the ground. The word appears only three times: here, Gen 14:10 (the 'bitumen pits' of the Valley of Siddim near the Dead Sea), and Exod 2:2–3 (Moses' basket coated 'with bitumen and pitch').

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

slime, pitch, asphalt, bitumen

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 Genesis 11:3

Range of meaning

Natural bitumen or asphalt: a black, sticky petroleum product that seeps from the ground. The word appears only three times: here, Gen 14:10 (the 'bitumen pits' of the Valley of Siddim near the Dead Sea), and Exod 2:2–3 (Moses' basket coated 'with bitumen and pitch').

Against the English

KJV 'slime' meant bitumen in 1611 (compare 'slimepits', Gen 14:10 KJV). Modern readers hear wet ooze or mucus. 'Tar' (BSB, NIV, WEB, NASB) is close enough, though tar is strictly a product of heating wood or coal. 'Bitumen' (ESV, YLT) is the exact term.

How it drifted

The English word 'slime' once covered asphalt and bitumen (the sense came through the Latin and Wycliffe tradition). That sense has died out, leaving only the 'gooey' meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint asphaltos, Vulgate bitumen. Mesopotamia had large bitumen seeps, most famously at Hit on the Euphrates, and bitumen was the standard binder for fired brick there. Jubilees 10:20 expands the verse: the bitumen 'comes out of the sea and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar'. Noah's ark is coated with a different word, kofer (Gen 6:14), related to Akkadian kupru.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 11:3 וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר and <the> bitumen

    And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

    Here: Natural bitumen (asphalt), the black tarry material that seeps from the ground in Mesopotamia and around the Dead Sea. Not 'slime' in the modern sense.

  2. Genesis 14:10 חֵמָ֔ר bitumen

    Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some men fell into the pits, but the survivors fled to the hill country.

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 2:3 בַחֵמָ֖ר with <the> bitumen

    But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

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