Hebrew word · H8447

תּוֹר

torei

plait

In the Song of Songs (1:10–11) a row or string, as of beads or ornaments. In Esther (2:12, 15) a turn, someone's place in a sequence. Later Hebrew and Aramaic use the root for order or succession.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) circlet, plait, turn (of hair or gold)

2) (CLBL) succession, order

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 Esther 2:15

Range of meaning

In the Song of Songs (1:10–11) a row or string, as of beads or ornaments. In Esther (2:12, 15) a turn, someone's place in a sequence. Later Hebrew and Aramaic use the root for order or succession.

Against the English

English 'turn' is accurate. The supplied gloss 'plait' comes from the Song of Songs use and does not fit here.

Used elsewhere in the period

The 'turn' sense appears only in Esther 2:12 and 2:15, a mark of the book's late (Persian-period) Hebrew. Herodotus (Histories 3.69) also says Persian wives came to the king in turns.

From the study of Song of Songs 1:10

Range of meaning

Basic idea: a 'turn' or something in sequence. In Esther 2:12, 15 it means each young woman's 'turn'. In the plural (here and in 1:11, 'tōrê of gold'), it means ornaments in a row or ring: circlets, rows of pendants, a string of ornaments. Some lexicons also suggest 'plaits' of hair. The exact object is uncertain.

Against the English

BSB and ESV say 'ornaments', NASB 'ornaments', NIV and WEB 'earrings', KJV 'rows [of jewels]', YLT 'garlands'. 'Earrings' is too specific, because ears are not mentioned. 'Garlands' suggests flowers, which the word does not mean. KJV's 'of jewels' is added in italics and is not in the Hebrew.

How it drifted

Translators have to name a concrete object for a word whose exact shape is unknown. Each choice (earrings, jewels, garlands) brings in a picture the Hebrew does not specify.

Used elsewhere in the period

Esth 2:12, 15 ('turn'). Song 1:11 ('circlets of gold with studs of silver'). There is a separate word, tōr 'turtledove' (H8449; Song 2:12), spelled the same. The Septuagint read that word here ('like turtledoves'). Rabbinic tradition (Song Rabbah) linked the plural tōrîm to 'Torah' by sound and read it as the two Torahs, written and oral. That is a later sermon-style reading, not the plain sense.

From the study of Esther 2:12

Range of meaning

"Turn" in a rotation or sequence (Esth 2:12, 15). Song 1:10–11 uses the same spelling for "rows" or "strings" of jewellery. The basic idea is things set in a line, one after another.

Against the English

All the major versions say "turn." The supplied lexicon gloss "plait" reflects the Song of Songs usage, not this one.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is common in later Hebrew and Aramaic for "turn, order." The Greek historian Herodotus (Histories 3.69) notes that Persian wives went in to their husband "in turn," which fits the rotation described here.

Where it appears

Esther · 2

  1. Esther 2:12 תֹּר֩ [the] turn of

    In the twelve months before her turn to go to King Xerxes, the harem regulation required each young woman to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months, and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months.

    Here: "The turn of." A late Hebrew word for one's place in a rotation. It pictures the women lined up in a schedule, each waiting for her slot.

  2. Esther 2:15 תֹּר־ [the] turn of

    Now Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle from whom Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. And when it was her turn to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, had advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.

    Here: 'The turn of', meaning her place in the rotation of young women brought to the king one by one (see 2:12). This is a late Hebrew use of a word that elsewhere means a row or string of ornaments.

Song of Songs · 2

  1. Song of Songs 1:10 בַּתֹּרִ֔ים with <the> strings of jewels

    Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

    Here: 'With (or among) the rows/circlets'. These are ornaments set in a row or a ring that frame her face, perhaps pendants hanging from a headband or rings of beads. The Hebrew does not say they were jewels or earrings.

  2. Song of Songs 1:11 תּוֹרֵ֤י necklaces of

    We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with beads of silver.

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