zur · strange, outsider

What it means

zur (זוּר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “strange, outsider”.

Be strange or foreign; the one who does not belong to the group (the family, the priesthood, the people).

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. An outsider, not part of the group.
2. Something alien, not belonging: other gods, unauthorized fire.
3. To become a stranger to someone.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To be strange, alien; as a participle (זָר), the stranger: one who does not belong to a group, whether the family, the priesthood or the people; also what is not authorized. Another verb of the same form means to turn away. BDB: to become estranged; as an adjective, strange, and as a noun, a stranger.

• “The stranger who comes near shall be put to death”: one who is not a priest Numbers 3:10Exodus 29:33
• “Strange fire”, “strange incense” Leviticus 10:1Exodus 30:9
• Outside the family: “a strange man” Deuteronomy 25:5Psalms 69:8
• Strangers who carry off what is not theirs Hosea 8:7
• “The strange woman” of Proverbs Proverbs 5:3Proverbs 27:2

How we translate it

“Strangers” 28 times, “stranger” 23, “strange” 19, “foreign” 2. This edition keeps זָר = “stranger” apart from נָכְרִי = “foreigner” and גֵּר = “resident alien” (“A stranger I have become to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother”, Psalm 69:8); with the other sense of the verb, “they have turned away” (Isaiah 1:4).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• strangers ×28
• stranger ×23
• strange ×19
• foreign ×2
• they have turned away ×2
• estranged ×1
• have turned aside ×1
• turned away ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×3
• Leviticus×4
• Numbers×8
• Deuteronomy×2
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×1
• Job×5
• Psalms×7
• Proverbs×14
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×7
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×8
• Hosea×4
• Joel×1
• Obadiah×1

• Exodus 29:33

  They shall eat those things by which expiation was made to ordain and to consecrate them; but a stranger shall not eat them, for they are holy.

• Exodus 30:9

  You shall not offer on it strange incense, or burnt offering or grain offering, and a libation you shall not pour on it.

• Exodus 30:33

  Whoever blends any like it, or whoever puts some of it on a stranger, shall be cut off from his people.’”

• Leviticus 10:1

  The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in them, laid incense on it, and presented before YHWH strange fire that he had not commanded them.

• Leviticus 22:10

  And no stranger shall eat a holy thing; the temporary resident of a priest and the hired worker shall not eat a holy thing.

• Leviticus 22:12

  And if the daughter of a priest becomes the wife of a man who is a stranger, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things.

• Leviticus 22:13

  But if the daughter of a priest becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; but no stranger shall eat of it.

• Numbers 1:51

  When the dwelling sets out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the dwelling camps, the Levites shall set it up. And the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

• Numbers 3:4

  But Nadab and Abihu died before YHWH when they offered strange fire before YHWH in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no sons; so Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the presence of Aaron their father.

• Numbers 3:10

  And Aaron and his sons you shall appoint, and they shall keep their priesthood; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”

• Numbers 3:38

  And those who camp in front of the dwelling on the east, in front of the tent of meeting, toward the sunrise, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary, as the charge of the sons of Israel; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

• Numbers 16:40

  a memorial for the sons of Israel, so that no stranger, who is not of the offspring of Aaron, should come near to burn incense before YHWH, and not become like Korah and like his community, as YHWH said to him through Moses.

• Numbers 18:4

  They shall be joined to you and keep the charge of the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent; and a stranger shall not come near to you.

• Numbers 18:7

  But you and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood in every matter of the altar and of what is inside the veil, and you shall serve. As a service of gift I give your priesthood, and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”

• Numbers 26:61

  But Nadab and Abihu died when they presented strange fire before YHWH.

• Deuteronomy 25:5

  If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not belong, outside the family, to a strange man. Her brother-in-law shall go in to her and take her for himself as a wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

• Deuteronomy 32:16

  They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.

• 1 Kings 3:18

  And it happened, on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

• 2 Kings 19:24

  I have dug and drunk foreign waters, and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the rivers of Egypt.’

• Job 15:19

  to them alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.

• Job 19:13

  My brothers he has removed far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

• Job 19:15

  Those who reside in my house and my female slaves count me as a stranger; a foreigner I have become in their eyes.

• Job 19:17

  My breath is strange to my wife, and I plead with the sons of my belly.

• Job 19:27

  whom I will see for myself, and my eyes will look on him, and not a stranger. My kidneys are consumed within my bosom.

• Psalms 44:20

  If we had forgotten the name of our Elohim and spread out our palms to a strange god,

• Psalms 54:3

  For strangers have risen up against me, and tyrants seek my soul; they have not set Elohim before them. Selah.

• Psalms 58:3

  The wicked have turned aside from the womb; they have gone astray from the belly, those who speak lies.

• Psalms 69:8

  A stranger I have become to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.

• Psalms 78:30

  They had not turned away from what they craved; their food was still in their mouths,

• Psalms 81:9

  There shall not be among you a strange god, nor shall you bow down to a foreign god.

• Psalms 109:11

  Let the creditor lay snares for all that he has, and let strangers plunder his toil.

• Proverbs 2:16

  to rescue you from the strange woman, from the foreign woman who makes smooth her sayings,

• Proverbs 5:3

  For the lips of the strange woman drip honey from the comb, and smoother than oil is her palate;

• Proverbs 5:10

  lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your toil go to the house of a foreigner;

• Proverbs 5:17

  Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

• Proverbs 5:20

  And why would you be lost, my son, with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

• Proverbs 6:1

  My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, if you have struck your palms with a stranger,

• Proverbs 7:5

  so that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreign woman who makes smooth her sayings.

• Proverbs 11:15

  It will go badly for one who becomes surety for a stranger, but whoever hates striking palms is secure.

• Proverbs 14:10

  The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, and in its joy no stranger shares.

And 37 more times.