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# בֹּר

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H1253

**lye** — used 2 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

lye [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1253/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

בֹּר: n.m. lye, potash [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1253/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. lye, potash, alkali used in smelting metals Is 1:25; Jb 9:30 (see בֹּרִית. Is 1:25 read prob. כַּכֻּר as in a furnace (Is 48:10); there seems no evidence that ‘lye’ (i.e. water mixed with the burnt ashes of plants containing potash, used formerly for washing) was ever used in refining gold or silver: cf. J. NapierAnc. Workers in Metal (1856), 15, 20, 25 WAW in SmithDB ii, 368; Amer. Rev. Ed. (1871, vol. iii), 1939.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 2 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (17 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 0 with the glosses (10 candidates)

## Glosses

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

## In the verses

[Job 9:30](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.9.30/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.9.30/#tree)

אִם־הִתְרָחַ֥צְתִּי בְמֵי־שָׁ֑לֶג וַ֝הֲזִכּ֗וֹתִי בְּבֹ֣ר כַּפָּֽי׃

*Word for word:* if I.washed.myself in water of.snow and I.cleansed with potash palms my

*JPS 1917:* If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;

[Isaiah 1:25](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.1.25/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.1.25/#tree)

וְאָשִׁ֤יבָה יָדִי֙ עָלַ֔יִךְ וְאֶצְרֹ֥ף כַּבֹּ֖ר סִיגָ֑יִךְ וְאָסִ֖ירָה כָּל־בְּדִילָֽיִךְ׃

*Word for word:* and I.will.turn hand my on you and I.will.refine like (the) potash dross(es) your and I.will.remove all slag(s) your

*JPS 1917:* And I will turn My hand upon thee, and purge away thy dross as with lye, and will take away all thine alloy;

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/1253.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/1253/): 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).