Hebrew word · H8650

תֹּ֫רֶן

toren

mast

Mast, pole. It occurs only three times: a ship's mast in Isaiah 33:23 and Ezekiel 27:5 (made 'from cedar of Lebanon'), and here.

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

What it means

beacon, mast, flagpole

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: Mast, pole. It occurs only three times: a ship's mast in Isaiah 33:23 and Ezekiel 27:5 (made 'from cedar of Lebanon'), and here.
Against the English: KJV and WEB have 'beacon'. BSB has 'pole'. NIV and ESV have 'flagstaff'. 'Beacon' suggests a fire or light, which the Hebrew word does not mean.
How it drifted: The KJV translators seem to have read the word as a signal post on a hill, and early modern English beacons were often fire-posts. To modern ears 'beacon' means a guiding, shining light, which is the opposite of the desolate picture.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ezekiel 27:5 (a cedar mast). Isaiah 33:23 (rigging and mast that cannot hold the sail steady). The Vulgate renders it malus navis, 'a ship's mast', and the Greek translation uses histos, 'mast'.

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 30:17 כַּתֹּ֙רֶן֙ like <the> flagstaff

A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.

Here: 'Like the mast/pole.' Elsewhere the word means a ship's mast. Here it is a single bare pole standing on a summit: tall, visible and alone.
Isaiah 33:23 תָּרְנָם֙ mast their

Your ropes are slack; they cannot secure the mast or spread the sail. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided, and even the lame will carry off plunder.

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 27:5 תֹּ֖רֶן a mast

They constructed all your planking with cypress from Senir. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.

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