saf · basin; threshold

What it means

saf (סַף) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “basin; threshold”.

Vessel, bowl; also the threshold of a door.

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 low part of a doorway, which one steps over on entering.
2. An open vessel, of silver or gold, for drinking or for collecting a liquid.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• threshold ×18
• thresholds ×7
• basins ×2
• bowl ×2
• cups ×2
• cup ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×2
• Judges×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Kings×5
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×3
• Esther×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×3
• Ezekiel×7
• Amos×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×1

• Exodus 12:22

  Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the bowl, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood that is in the bowl. As for you, none shall go out of the door of his house until morning.

• Judges 19:27

  And her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way; and look, the woman, his concubine, was fallen at the entrance of the house, with her hands on the threshold.

• 2 Samuel 17:28

  brought beds, basins, and potter’s vessels, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, and roasted grain,

• 1 Kings 7:50

  and the cups, and the tongs, and the bowls, and the spoons, and the firepans, of fine gold; and the sockets for the doors of the inner house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the house, the temple, of gold.

• 1 Kings 14:17

  Jeroboam’s wife got up and went and came to Tirzah. As she was coming over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

• 2 Kings 12:9

  Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right as one enters the house of YHWH; and the priests who guarded the threshold would put there all the silver that was brought into the house of YHWH.

• 2 Kings 12:13

  But there were not made for the house of YHWH basins of silver, tongs, bowls, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, from the silver that was brought into the house of YHWH;

• 2 Kings 22:4

  “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let him count the silver that has been brought into the house of YHWH, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered from the people;

• 2 Kings 23:4

  The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out from the temple of YHWH all the utensils made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their dust to Bethel.

• 2 Kings 25:18

  The chief of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold;

• 1 Chronicles 9:19

  And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers of his father’s house, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent; and their fathers had been over the camp of YHWH, keepers of the entrance.

• 1 Chronicles 9:22

  All of them who were chosen as gatekeepers at the thresholds were two hundred and twelve. They were enrolled in the genealogy in their villages; David and Samuel the seer established them in their office of trust.

• 2 Chronicles 3:7

  He covered the house —the beams, the thresholds, its walls and its doors— with gold, and he engraved cherubim on the walls.

• 2 Chronicles 23:4

  This is the thing that you are to do: a third of you, those who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, will be gatekeepers of the thresholds;

• 2 Chronicles 34:9

  They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave the silver that was brought into the house of Elohim, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

• Esther 2:21

  In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the gate of the king, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, of the keepers of the threshold, became angry and sought to stretch out their hand against King Ahasuerus.

• Esther 6:2

  And it was found written that Mordecai had made known about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, of the keepers of the threshold, who had sought to stretch out their hand against King Ahasuerus.

• Isaiah 6:4

  And the pivots of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the house was filling with smoke.

• Jeremiah 35:4

  and I brought them into the house of YHWH, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of Elohim, which was next to the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold.

• Jeremiah 52:19

  The cups, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the libation bowls, what was gold, in gold, and what was silver, in silver, the chief of the guard took.

• Jeremiah 52:24

  The chief of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold;

• Ezekiel 40:6

  And he came to the gate that faced toward the east, and went up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed wide, and the other threshold, one reed wide.

• Ezekiel 40:7

  And the guardroom, one reed long and one reed wide; and between the guardrooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate beside the portico of the gate on the house side, one reed.

• Ezekiel 41:16

  the thresholds and the closed windows and the terraces all around for the three of them, opposite the threshold, paneled with wood all around, and from the floor to the windows, and the windows were covered;

• Ezekiel 43:8

  by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost beside my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them; and they defiled my holy name by their abominations that they committed; so I consumed them in my anger.

• Amos 9:1

  I saw Adonai standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the capital, so that the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the head of all of them; and the last of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them who flees will get away, and not one of them who escapes will be delivered.

• Zephaniah 2:14

  And flocks will lie down in her midst, every animal of the nations; both the pelican and the hedgehog will lodge in her capitals; a voice will sing in the window; dryness will be on the threshold; for her cedar work has been laid bare.

• Zechariah 12:2

  “Look, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the peoples around; and also on Judah it will be, in the siege against Jerusalem.

And 4 more times.