Hebrew word · H2892

טֹ֫הַר

tohorah

purity

Purity, cleanness: ritual purity (Lev 12:4, 6, the days of purification). Visually, brightness, lustre, or unclouded clarity. Some scholars connect it with a Ugaritic word ṭhr used for a gleaming gem in Baal's palace.

Appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) purity, purification, purifying

1a) purity

1b) purifying

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 Exodus 24:10

Range of meaning

Purity, cleanness: ritual purity (Lev 12:4, 6, the days of purification). Visually, brightness, lustre, or unclouded clarity. Some scholars connect it with a Ugaritic word ṭhr used for a gleaming gem in Baal's palace.

Against the English

KJV 'clearness', ESV and WEB 'for clearness', BSB and NASB 'as clear as', YLT 'for purity'. 'Clear' can suggest transparency, like glass, to a modern reader. The Hebrew points to pure, untainted, brilliant colour, like a cloudless sky.

How it drifted

English 'clear' has two senses: 'transparent' and 'cloudless, unobscured'. The second fits the Hebrew. Read with 'sapphire' in the modern sense, it easily turns the scene into a glass floor.

Used elsewhere in the period

The ritual sense appears in Lev 12. The visual sense appears in this verse and possibly Ps 89:44, where a related form may mean 'splendour' (the reading is debated). The Ugaritic Baal cycle (KTU 1.4 V) pairs ṭhrm with iqnim, lapis lazuli, to describe Baal's gleaming palace; per HALOT, the link is plausible but not certain.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 24:10 לָטֹֽהַר׃ to purity

    and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

    Here: 'In respect of brightness or purity'. The root means clean or pure, and here it describes visual purity: unclouded, gleaming, untainted colour. 'Clear' in the sense of a cloudless sky, not glassy transparency.

Leviticus · 4

  1. Leviticus 12:4 טָהֳרָ֑ה טָהֳרָֽהּ׃ purification, purification her

    The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete.

  2. Leviticus 12:5 טָהֳרָֽה׃ purification

    If, however, she gives birth to a daughter, the woman will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstruation. Then she must continue in purification from her bleeding for sixty-six days.

  3. Leviticus 12:6 טָהֳרָ֗הּ purification her

    When the days of her purification are complete, whether for a son or for a daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 89:44 מִטְּהָר֑וֹ from luster his

    You have ended his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.

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