Hebrew word · H5635
סָרַף
umesarefo
to burn
The word appears only here. It is a participle, 'one who does X', from a root s-r-p. The common Hebrew root for 'burn' is ś-r-p (written with sin). Here the word is written with samekh, a closely related s-sound. Option (3) has little lexical support.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Pael) burnt
Another spelling of sa.raph (שָׂרַף "to burn" H8313)
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
The word appears only here. It is a participle, 'one who does X', from a root s-r-p. The common Hebrew root for 'burn' is ś-r-p (written with sin). Here the word is written with samekh, a closely related s-sound. The two letters are sometimes swapped in Hebrew spelling, so most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) take it as a variant of 'burn'. The meanings proposed are: (1) the one who burns the corpse; (2) the one who burns spices or makes a funeral fire in honour of the dead; (3) less often, a mortuary specialist (an 'embalmer' or 'undertaker'), or even another kinship term. Option (3) has little lexical support.
- Against the English
KJV, BSB, WEB and the NIV keep 'burn'. The ESV has 'the one who anoints him for burial', following the spice or funeral-rite reading. The NASB (1995) has 'his undertaker', a functional guess. YLT has 'his burner'. The English reader gets three different pictures from one word.
- How it drifted
Modern English readers live where cremation is common, so 'he that burneth him' can sound like an ordinary funeral. In ancient Israel it was not. Translators who disliked the idea of Israelites burning their dead moved toward 'anoint' or 'undertaker'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Israelite burial was normally in family tombs (Genesis 23; 2 Samuel 19:37). Burning a body was exceptional, and usually a sign of disaster or curse. Achan and his family were burned (Joshua 7:25). Burning was a punishment for certain crimes (Leviticus 20:14; 21:9). Amos himself condemns Moab for burning the bones of Edom's king to lime (Amos 2:1). The closest parallel is 1 Samuel 31:12–13: the men of Jabesh burned the mutilated bodies of Saul and his sons, then buried the 'bones' (the same word as in our verse). Burning of spices at royal funerals is attested in Jeremiah 34:5 ('as there were burnings for your fathers') and 2 Chronicles 16:14; 21:19. The Vulgate reads comburet eum, 'he will burn him'.
Where it appears
Amos · 1
-
Amos 6:10 וּמְסָרְפ֗וֹ and [the one who] burns him
And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”
Here: 'And the one who burns him.' The word occurs only here. It most likely means the person who burns the corpse, which was an emergency measure in Israel, or else someone who burns spices for the dead. The 'and' may present the kinsman and the burner as one man ('his kinsman, that is, his burner') or as two.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.