Hebrew word · H5296
נְעֹ֫רֶת
lin'oret
tow
'Tow': the coarse, broken fibres shaken or beaten out of flax stalks when linen is made. It comes from the root na'ar, 'to shake out'. It is fluffy, dry, waste material that ignites at once and burns out quickly.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
a strand of flax, tow (as shaken from flax when beaten)
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
- Range of meaning
'Tow': the coarse, broken fibres shaken or beaten out of flax stalks when linen is made. It comes from the root na'ar, 'to shake out'. It is fluffy, dry, waste material that ignites at once and burns out quickly.
- Against the English
KJV 'tow' is exact but obscure today. Most modern versions say 'tinder', which keeps the point (it catches instantly) but loses the picture of something worthless left over from processing.
- How it drifted
'Tow' dropped out of everyday English as flax processing became unfamiliar, so translators switched to 'tinder'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Only Judg 16:9 and here. In Judges, Samson's new bowstrings snap 'as a strand of tow snaps when it touches fire', so the word was already a proverbial image of something that fails the moment fire touches it.
Where it appears
Judges · 1
-
Judges 16:9 הַנְּעֹ֙רֶת֙ <the> tow
While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.
Isaiah · 1
-
Isaiah 1:31 לִנְעֹ֔רֶת <into> tow
The strong man will become tinder and his work will be a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the flames.
Here: 'Into tow': the short, loose flax fibres shaken out during processing, which catch fire instantly. The strong one becomes the most flammable thing in a household.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.