Hebrew word · H6503

פַּרְוָר

baparvarim

colonnade

Meaning uncertain. Proposals include a colonnade or portico, an annex or outbuilding, a porch or vestibule, or an open precinct on the edge of the temple. It also appears as parbar in 1 Chronicles 26:18, where gatekeepers are posted 'at the parbar on the west'.

Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Parbar = "open apartment"

a structure or building attached to the west side of Solomon's temple

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 2 Kings 23:11

Range of meaning

Meaning uncertain. Proposals include a colonnade or portico, an annex or outbuilding, a porch or vestibule, or an open precinct on the edge of the temple. It also appears as parbar in 1 Chronicles 26:18, where gatekeepers are posted 'at the parbar on the west'.

Against the English

KJV and YLT 'suburbs'; BSB and WEB 'court'; some modern versions 'precincts'. They range from outside the city ('suburbs') to inside the temple grounds ('court').

How it drifted

KJV's 'suburbs' follows later Jewish usage, where an Aramaic/Hebrew parvar could mean outskirts or the edge of a town. In 1611 'suburbs' meant the area just outside a city's walls. A modern reader thinks of residential neighbourhoods, which cannot be meant here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Some scholars connect it with a possible Old Persian word for 'vestibule' (that would be odd in a pre-exilic text, and the link is disputed). Others treat it as a native architectural term. The Dead Sea Temple Scroll (11QT) seems to use a related word for a columned structure in its ideal temple. The ancient Greek and Latin translations simply transliterate the word, which shows that its meaning was lost early.

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 23:11 בַּפַּרְוָרִ֑ים [was] in the Parbar

    And he removed from the entrance to the house of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.

    Here: 'In the parvarim': some kind of structure or open area on the edge of the temple precinct. This exact form occurs only here, so its meaning is uncertain: colonnade, porch, annex and courtyard have all been proposed.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 26:18 לַפַּרְבָּ֖ר לַפַּרְבָּֽר׃ for the Parbar

    As for the court on the west, there were four at the highway and two at the court.

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