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# בִּירָה

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H1002

**castle** — used 16 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

castle [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1002/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

בִּירָה: n.f. castle, palace [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1002/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.f. castle, palace (late & prob. loan-word; cf. Assyrian bîrtu, fortress DlHA 22; Pers. bâru = Skr. bura, bari, v. Ry Ne 2:8)— of temple at Jerusalem 1 Ch 29:1, 19 הַבִּירָה; of fortress near temple Ne 2:8; 7:2 (cf. βᾶρις 𝔊L Ne 1:1; 2:8; 7:2—B ἁβιρά, βειρά—and later βᾶρις JosAnt. xv, 11, 4). בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה Ne 1:1 Est 1:2, 5; 2:3, 5, 8; 3:15; 8:14; 9:6, 11, 12 Dn 8:2; in these passages it appar. means a fortress in the city bearing the same name (cf. especially Est 3:15; 8:14, 15; 9:6, 12, 15, 18).

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 16 of its verses cited, 0 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (4 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 0 with the glosses (3 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: citadel (12); temple (2); the citadel (2).

## In the verses

[Esther 9:6](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.9.6/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.9.6/#tree)

וּבְשׁוּשַׁ֣ן הַבִּירָ֗ה הָרְג֤וּ הַיְּהוּדִים֙ וְאַבֵּ֔ד חֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת אִֽישׁ׃

*Word for word:* and in Susa the citadel they.killed the Jews and they.destroyed five hundred(s) man

*JPS 1917:* And in Shushan the castle the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.

[Esther 9:11](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.9.11/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.9.11/#tree)

בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא בָּ֣א מִסְפַּ֧ר הַֽהֲרוּגִ֛ים בְּשׁוּשַׁ֥ן הַבִּירָ֖ה לִפְנֵ֥י הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃ס

*Word for word:* on the day (the) that it.came the.number of.\[those\] killed in Susa the citadel before the king

*JPS 1917:* On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the castle was brought before the king.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/1002.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1002/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).