Hebrew word · H7531

רִצְפָּה

ritzfah

pavement

Two homonyms (different words spelled the same) share this spelling: (A) "pavement" (Ezek 40:17; Esth 1:6; 2 Chr 7:3), and (B) "glowing stone / hot coal," used only here.

Appears 8 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

pavement

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 Isaiah 6:6

Range of meaning

Two homonyms (different words spelled the same) share this spelling: (A) "pavement" (Ezek 40:17; Esth 1:6; 2 Chr 7:3), and (B) "glowing stone / hot coal," used only here. Sense B is backed by the related retseph, the hot stones on which Elijah's cake was baked (1 Kgs 19:6), and by the Arabic raḍf, heated stones for cooking (HALOT).

Against the English

KJV/WEB/NIV "live coal," ESV/NASB "burning coal," BSB "glowing coal," YLT "burning coal." All give the right temperature. "Coal" can suggest a lump of mineral coal to modern ears, but the Hebrew may mean a hot stone, or an ember of wood from the altar fire.

How it drifted

In older English "coal" meant an ember of burning wood or charcoal ("live coal" = still glowing). Since the industrial age the main sense has been mined coal, a fuel never used on Israel's altars.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kgs 19:6 (ʿugat rətsāpîm, "a cake on hot stones"). The Vulgate translates calculus, "a small stone, pebble," which shows Jerome understood it as a stone. The LXX has anthrax, "coal, ember." The usual word for an altar ember elsewhere is gaḥelet (Lev 16:12), not ritspâ, which makes the choice here unusual.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 7:3 הָרִֽצְפָה֙ the pavement

    When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.”

    Here: The stone-paved floor of the temple courtyard (compare Ezekiel 40:17-18). The crowd was outside in the courts. Even the priests could not go in (v.2).

Esther · 1

  1. Esther 1:6 רִֽצְפַ֥ת a pavement of

    Hangings of white and blue linen were fastened with cords of fine white and purple material to silver rings on the marble pillars. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 6:6 רִצְפָּ֑ה a live coal

    Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

    Here: A red-hot object from the altar fire. The related word *retseph* (1 Kgs 19:6) means hot stones used for baking, so the picture may be a glowing hot stone as much as a charcoal ember.

Ezekiel · 5

  1. Ezekiel 40:17 וְרִֽצְפָ֔ה הָרִֽצְפָֽה׃ and a pavement, the pavement

    Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement laid out all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement,

  2. Ezekiel 40:18 וְהָרִֽצְפָה֙ הָרִֽצְפָ֖ה and the pavement, the pavement

    which flanked the gateways and corresponded to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement.

  3. Ezekiel 42:3 רִֽצְפָ֔ה [the] pavement

    Gallery faced gallery in three levels opposite the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court.

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