Hebrew word · H6393
פְּלָדָה
peladot
iron
Found only here, so the meaning is uncertain.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
iron, steel
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
Found only here, so the meaning is uncertain. Three main proposals: (1) 'steel' or 'iron', compared with Persian pūlād, Syriac and Arabic fūlādh 'steel'; (2) a scribal swap of letters for lappîdôt, 'torches'; (3) some other part of the chariot, such as metal fittings, coverings, or (in the ancient versions) reins.
- Against the English
KJV 'flaming torches' (swapped-letter reading); WEB/NASB 'steel'; NIV/ESV 'metal'; BSB 'fittings'. These are different guesses at an unknown word, not differences in style.
- How it drifted
The KJV's 'torches' later fed a popular reading of 2:3–4 as headlights on motor vehicles (see popular_drift). The Hebrew word is too uncertain to bear any such weight.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Not found elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. The Persian word for steel is attested only later, so it is debated how it could have reached a Judean poet in the 7th century BC. Supporters suggest an older shared trade word for a metal. Some medieval Jewish interpreters explained the word as 'torches' by swapping the letters. The Septuagint ('reins') and Vulgate ('fiery reins') show that the ancient translators were guessing too.
Where it appears
Nahum · 1
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Nahum 2:3 פְּלָד֥וֹת iron<s>
The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.
Here: Found only here and uncertain. Most connect it with a later Persian-Arabic word for steel, so the picture is the 'fire of steel', metal parts flashing in the sun. Others rearrange the letters to read 'torches' (KJV).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.