Hebrew word · H969

בָּחוֹן

bachon

tower

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is built from the root bḥn, 'to test, examine, assay'. The noun pattern describes someone who does an action as a trade, so it means 'tester' or 'assayer', especially of precious metal. BDB and HALOT both give 'assayer, tester' as the most likely meaning.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

assayer (an inspector and valuer of metals)

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 Jeremiah 6:27

Range of meaning

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is built from the root bḥn, 'to test, examine, assay'. The noun pattern describes someone who does an action as a trade, so it means 'tester' or 'assayer', especially of precious metal. Strong's itself defines it as 'an assayer of metals', while noting the KJV's 'tower'. BDB and HALOT both give 'assayer, tester' as the most likely meaning.

Against the English

KJV 'tower' and YLT 'watch-tower' link the word to a similar-looking noun, baḥîn (H971, 'siege tower', Isa 23:13), and to the 'fortress' that follows. Modern versions (BSB 'examine… like ore', WEB 'tester of metals', NIV 'tester of metals', ESV/NASB 'assayer') follow the root meaning.

How it drifted

The word occurs only once, and next to it stood מִבְצָר 'fortress'. That led early translators and the KJV to read a pair of military images, 'tower and fortress'. The supplied gloss 'tower' carries that older tradition forward.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb בָּחַן is used for refining and testing metal and people: Zech 13:9 ('test them as gold is tested'), Ps 66:10, Job 23:10, Prov 17:3 ('the crucible for silver… but the LORD tests hearts'). Jeremiah himself uses it for God testing 'heart and kidneys' (11:20; 17:10; 20:12). The Septuagint translates the noun as dokimastēs, 'tester, assayer'. The Vulgate has probator, 'tester'.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 6:27 בָּח֛וֹן an assayer

    “I have appointed you to examine My people like ore, so you may know and try their ways.

    Here: It comes first for emphasis: what God makes Jeremiah is an *assayer*, the craftsman who tests metal to find out how much real silver it holds. The supplied gloss 'tower' follows an older guess. The play on words with 'you will test' (u-vachanta) later in the verse and the smelting picture in verses 28–30 point clearly to 'assayer'.

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