barzel · iron

What it means

barzel (בַּרְזֶל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “iron”.

An iron tool.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The hard metal of weapons, tools and chains.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Iron, the metal; and what is made of it: tools, weapons, chariots. Figuratively, an image of hardness. BDB: iron; by extension, an iron implement.

• Tubal-cain, forger of bronze and iron Genesis 4:22
• “A land whose stones are iron” Deuteronomy 8:9
• The altar without iron; the temple without the sound of iron Deuteronomy 27:51 Kings 6:7
• Chariots and weapons of iron Judges 1:191 Samuel 17:7
• “A rod of iron”; “Iron with iron is sharpened” Psalms 2:9Proverbs 27:17

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 27:5 commands building the altar of uncut stones: “you shall not wield iron on them”. In Solomon's temple, “hammer or axe, any tool of iron, was not heard in the house while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7). The Canaanites of the valley “had chariots of iron” (Judges 1:19).

How we translate it

Always “iron” (76 times).

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Leviticus×1
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×8
• Joshua×6
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×3
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×7
• 2 Chronicles×4
• Job×5
• Psalms×5
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×6
• Jeremiah×8
• Ezekiel×6
• Amos×1
• Micah×1

• Genesis 4:22

  And Zillah, she also, gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of every tool of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

• Leviticus 26:19

  And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your land like bronze.

• Numbers 31:22

  Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

• Numbers 35:16

  But if with an object of iron he struck him and he died, he is a manslayer; the manslayer shall surely be put to death.

• Deuteronomy 3:11

  (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Look, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its width, by the cubit of a man.)

• Deuteronomy 4:20

  But you YHWH has taken and brought out you from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are this day.

• Deuteronomy 8:9

  a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose hills you will dig out copper.

• Deuteronomy 19:5

  as when someone goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off from the wood and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live,

• Deuteronomy 27:5

  And you shall build there an altar to YHWH your Elohim, an altar of stones; you shall not wield iron on them.

• Deuteronomy 28:23

  And your heavens that are over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron.

• Deuteronomy 28:48

  you will serve your enemies, whom YHWH will send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of everything; and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

• Deuteronomy 33:25

  Iron and bronze be your bolts, and as your days, so your strength.”

• Joshua 6:19

  And all the silver and gold, and the utensils of bronze and iron, it is a holy thing to YHWH; it shall go into the treasury of YHWH.”

• Joshua 6:24

  And the city they burned with fire, and all that was in it; only the silver and the gold and the utensils of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of YHWH.

• Joshua 8:31

  just as Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the instruction of Moses: an altar of whole stones, on which no iron had been lifted. And they offered up on it burnt offerings to YHWH, and sacrificed peace offerings.

• Joshua 17:16

  And the sons of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, and there are iron chariots among all the Canaanite who live in the land of the valley, both those in Beth-shean and its towns and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”

• Joshua 17:18

  but the hill country shall be yours; for it is forest, and you will clear it, and its ends shall be yours; for you will dispossess the Canaanite, though he has iron chariots, though he is strong.”

• Joshua 22:8

  and said to them, saying, “With great riches return to your tents, and with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very many garments. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

• Judges 1:19

  YHWH was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country; but he could not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

• Judges 4:3

  The sons of Israel cried out to YHWH, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had oppressed the sons of Israel with force twenty years.

• Judges 4:13

  Sisera summoned all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the brook Kishon.

• 1 Samuel 17:7

  The shaft of his spear was like a beam of weavers, and the point of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and the one who carried the shield was going before him.

• 2 Samuel 12:31

  And the people who were in it he brought out, and he put them with the saw and with the picks of iron and with the axes of iron, and he made them pass through the brick kiln; and so he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

• 2 Samuel 23:7

  The man who touches them will be filled with iron and the shaft of a spear, and with fire they will be utterly burned in their place.”

• 1 Kings 6:7

  And the house, when it was built, was built of whole stone from the quarry; and hammer or axe, any tool of iron, was not heard in the house while it was being built.

• 1 Kings 8:51

  for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron.

• 1 Kings 22:11

  Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says YHWH: ‘With these you will gore Aram until they are finished.’”

• 2 Kings 6:5

  And it happened, as one was felling a beam, that the iron fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, my lord! And it was borrowed!”

• 2 Kings 6:6

  The man of Elohim said, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place, and he cut off a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.

• 1 Chronicles 20:3

  And the people who were in it he brought out, and he sawed them with the saw and with the picks of iron and with the saws; and so David did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

• 1 Chronicles 22:3

  David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the clamps, and bronze in abundance beyond weighing,

• 1 Chronicles 22:14

  Look, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of YHWH a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for it is in abundance. And timber and stones I have prepared; and to them you will add.

• 1 Chronicles 22:16

  Of the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron there is no number. Arise and do it, and may YHWH be with you.”

• 1 Chronicles 29:2

  With all my strength I have prepared for the house of my Elohim the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood; onyx stones and stones for setting, stones of antimony and of colors, and every precious stone, and marble stones in abundance.

• 1 Chronicles 29:7

  they gave for the service of the house of Elohim five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand darics, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and a hundred thousand talents of iron.

• 2 Chronicles 2:7

  So now send me a wise man to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, with the wise men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared.

• 2 Chronicles 2:14

  the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father is a man of Tyre; he knows how to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, and in wood, in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, and to engrave any engraving and to devise any design that may be assigned to him, with your wise men and the wise men of my lord David your father.

• 2 Chronicles 18:10

  Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says YHWH: ‘With these you will gore Aram until they are finished.’”

• 2 Chronicles 24:12

  The king and Jehoiada gave it to those doing the work of the service of the house of YHWH; and they were hiring stonecutters and craftsmen to renew the house of YHWH, and also craftsmen in iron and bronze to repair the house of YHWH.

• Job 19:24

  that with a stylus of iron and lead forever in the rock they were carved.

And 36 more times.