Aramaic word · H2906

טוּר

letur

mountain

ṭûr is mountain or hill. rab is great or large.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

mountain

Aramaic of tsur (צוּר "rock" H6697H)

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 Daniel 2:35

Range of meaning

ṭûr is mountain or hill. rab is great or large.

Against the English

'Great mountain' is accurate in all versions.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Israel and the wider ancient Near East a great mountain was where heaven and earth met and where the deity lived: Zion as 'the mountain of the LORD's house' raised above all hills (Isa 2:2; Mic 4:1), the 'holy mountain' where 'the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD' (Isa 11:9). Babylon had its own artificial mountain, the ziggurat Etemenanki.

Where it appears

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 2:35 לְט֥וּר <into> a mountain

    Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

    Here: 'Into a mountain.' To an ancient hearer a mountain is permanent and immovable, and often a place where God is present (compare Zion).

  2. Daniel 2:45 מִטּוּרָא֩ from <the> mountain

    And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

    Here: "From the mountain," with the definite ending. The dream as told in 2:34 does not name a mountain. The detail is added here, and it pairs with 2:35, where the stone itself becomes a great mountain filling the earth.

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