Hebrew word · H6748

צָלִי

tzeli-

roasted

Meat roasted by direct heat, "fire-roast". The verb ṣālāh means to roast (Isa 44:16, 19; 1 Sam 2:15).

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

1) roasted, roast

2) (CLBL) roasted

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Meat roasted by direct heat, "fire-roast". The verb ṣālāh means to roast (Isa 44:16, 19; 1 Sam 2:15).
Against the English: "Roasted over the fire" (BSB), "roast with fire" (KJV), and "roasted" (some modern versions, which drop "fire"). Dropping "fire" loses the deliberate echo of v. 8 and the emphasis on direct flame.
Used elsewhere in the period: In 1 Sam 2:15 Eli's sons demand meat "for roasting" rather than boiled meat, which shows that roasting was the less ordinary and more prized method. Mishnah Pesachim 7:1 gives later Jewish practice: the lamb was roasted on a spit of pomegranate wood, not on metal, so that only fire, and not a heated metal surface, did the cooking. Samaritans still roast whole lambs on spits in fire pits on Mount Gerizim.

Range of meaning: Tsali means roasted, cooked by dry direct heat over or in a fire. The verb tsalah ("to roast") appears for roasting meat (1 Sam 2:15, where the priests' servant wants raw meat "to roast") and for roasting over coals (Isa 44:16, 19). The phrase "roasted of fire" stresses the method: flame, not water.
Against the English: English versions say "roasted over the fire" (BSB, NIV), "roasted on the fire" (ESV), or "roast with fire" (KJV, YLT). All are accurate. The difference is only whether the picture is a spit over the flame or meat set into the fire. The Hebrew phrase "roasted of fire" does not say which.
Used elsewhere in the period: Verse 9 defines the term by what it rules out: not na' (raw or underdone) and not bashel mevushal bammayim ("boiled, boiled in water"). The animal is roasted whole: "its head with its legs and its inner parts." No bone may be broken (12:46). The Mishnah (m. Pesachim 7:1) records the Second Temple practice of roasting the Passover animal whole on a spit of pomegranate wood. The Samaritans still roast whole lambs in earth ovens on Mount Gerizim. The Septuagint renders the phrase opta pyri, "roasted with fire."

Exodus · 2

Exodus 12:8 צְלִי־ roasted of

They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Here: "Roasted of…": cooked by direct heat. Verse 9 makes the contrast explicit: not raw or half-done, and not boiled in water.
Exodus 12:9 צְלִי־ roasted of

Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts.

Here: "Roast of…", meaning meat roasted by direct heat. The same root is used of roasting meat over an open fire in Isa 44:16, 19 and 1 Sam 2:15.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 44:16 צָלִ֖י roasted meat

He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

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