קִיר

From the study of Isaiah 38:2

Range of meaning

A wall, chiefly the wall of a house or room (Lev 14:37–39, the walls of a house with mildew; 1 Sam 18:11, the wall Saul tried to pin David to; 2 Kgs 4:10, the small walled upper room built for Elisha). It can also mean the side of the altar, and occasionally a city wall, though the ordinary word for a fortification wall is ḥômāh.

Against the English

English 'wall' fits. The detail worth noticing is that this is an interior wall of a room, almost certainly the one beside his sickbed, not a city or temple wall. The text does not say which wall.

Used elsewhere in the period

Targum Jonathan of Isaiah (Aramaic paraphrase, roughly 1st–5th centuries AD) reads 'to the wall of the house of the sanctuary', taking it as the temple wall. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 10b) records other readings: 'the walls of his heart' (playing on Jer 4:19, 'the walls of my heart') and the wall of the Shunammite's room (2 Kgs 4:10). Berakhot 5b uses this verse as the basis for the rule that nothing should come between a person praying and the wall.

From the study of Jeremiah 4:19

Range of meaning

Qîr is a wall: of a house, a city or an altar. Lēb is the heart, in the Hebrew Bible chiefly the centre of thinking, understanding and will. It is also the physical organ in the chest. The phrase 'walls of the heart' occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.

Against the English

ESV and YLT keep 'walls of my heart'. KJV and WEB have 'my very heart', BSB 'the pain in my chest' and NIV 'the agony of my heart'. Each of these loses the picture of walls under pressure.

Used elsewhere in the period

There is no exact parallel. The Vulgate paraphrases with sensus cordis mei ('the feelings of my heart'). The Greek reads differently (see textual notes). Lēb as a physical organ appears in Hosea 13:8 ('the enclosure of their heart'), a similar idea of a chest-wall or casing around the heart.

From the study of Numbers 35:4

Range of meaning

A wall, whether of a house, an altar or a town.

Against the English

English 'wall' is accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used for house walls (Lev 14:37) and for town walls (Josh 2:15, where Rahab's house was 'in the wall').