Hebrew word · H8404

תַּבְעֵרָה

tav'erah

Taberah

This is a place name made from the root b-'-r, "to burn, kindle, consume." The same root is used for fire consuming a field and for wrath "burning." The name means "Burning" or "Place of Burning."

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

What it means

§ Taberah = "burning"

a place in the wilderness of Paran

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 Deuteronomy 9:22

Range of meaning

This is a place name made from the root b-'-r, "to burn, kindle, consume." The same root is used for fire consuming a field and for wrath "burning." The name means "Burning" or "Place of Burning."

Against the English

English Bibles only transliterate it ("Taberah"), so the meaning is lost on readers. A Hebrew hearer heard "at Burning."

Used elsewhere in the period

Taberah appears only here and in Numbers 11:3: "He called the name of that place Taberah, because the fire of YHWH burned (ba'arah) among them." The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate translate the name instead of transliterating it (roughly "at the Burning": Greek Empyrismos, Latin Incendium).

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 11:3 תַּבְעֵרָ֑ה Taberah

    So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD had burned among them.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 9:22 וּבְתַבְעֵרָה֙ and at Taberah

    You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

    Here: "And at Taberah." The name means "burning," from the verb ba'ar, "to burn, consume." It recalls Numbers 11:1–3, where YHWH's fire burned at the edge of the camp after the people complained. The opening "and" connects this list to the golden calf story just told, as if to say: and that was not the only time.

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