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עִיר

ir · city

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H5892 · appears 1093 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

ir (עִיר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “city”.

In ancient times any settlement with protection, however small.

How to say it

ir

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. A settled place protected by a wall, with a gate and houses.
  2. The walled part: "the city of David".
  3. Sudden fear, like that of an attack.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

City, in a wide sense: BDB includes everything from a large city to a mere post or encampment.

Historical and cultural background

Cities had a wall (Joshua 6:20) and a gate, and at the gate the elders met to settle matters (Ruth 4:1-2). Numbers 35 commands that cities of refuge be set apart, where someone who had killed a person inadvertently could flee.

How we translate it

A constant rendering: “city” 663 times and “cities” 419; “town” or “towns” a few times. It is part of some place names (Rehoboth-Ir).

How it is translated

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

  • city ×663
  • cities ×419
  • towns ×5
  • town ×3
  • Rehoboth-Ir ×1
  • anguish ×1
  • each ×1

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

  • Genesis 4:17

    And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he was building a city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

  • Genesis 10:11

    From that land he went out to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

  • Genesis 10:12

    and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

  • Genesis 11:4

    And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of all the earth.”

  • Genesis 11:5

    YHWH came down to see the city and the tower that the human beings had built.

  • Genesis 11:8

    So YHWH scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

  • Genesis 13:12

    Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

  • Genesis 18:24

    Perhaps there are fifty righteous within the city; will you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

  • Genesis 18:26

    YHWH said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

  • Genesis 18:28

    Perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five; will you destroy for the five the whole city?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find there forty-five.”

  • Genesis 19:4

    Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter.

  • Genesis 19:12

    Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place,

  • Genesis 19:14

    So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for YHWH is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to be joking in the eyes of his sons-in-law.

  • Genesis 19:15

    As the dawn came up, the messengers urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city.”

  • Genesis 19:16

    But he lingered; so the men seized his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hand of his two daughters, because of YHWH’s compassion for him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

  • Genesis 19:20

    Look, this city is near to flee there, and it is small. Please let me escape there (is it not small?) and I will stay alive.”

  • Genesis 19:21

    He said to him, “Look, I grant you this request also, not to overturn the city of which you have spoken.

  • Genesis 19:22

    Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the name of the city was called Zoar.

  • Genesis 19:25

    He overturned those cities, and the whole plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

  • Genesis 19:29

    So it was that when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, Elohim remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overturning, when he overturned the cities in which Lot had lived.

  • Genesis 23:10

    Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

  • Genesis 23:18

    to Abraham as a purchase in the sight of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

  • Genesis 24:10

    The servant took ten camels from the camels of his lord and went, with all kinds of good things of his lord in his hand. He rose and went to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor.

  • Genesis 24:11

    He made the camels kneel outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time the women who draw water go out.

  • Genesis 24:13

    Look, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

  • Genesis 26:33

    He called it Shibah; that is why the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

  • Genesis 28:19

    He called the name of that place Bethel, but Luz was the name of the city at first.

  • Genesis 33:18

    Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and he camped in front of the city.

  • Genesis 34:20

    So Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

  • Genesis 34:24

    All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

  • Genesis 34:25

    It happened on the third day, while they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword and came upon the city, which was unsuspecting, and killed every male.

  • Genesis 34:27

    The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had made their sister unclean.

  • Genesis 34:28

    Their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, they took.

  • Genesis 35:5

    As they set out, the terror of Elohim came upon the cities that were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

  • Genesis 36:32

    Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

  • Genesis 36:35

    Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.

  • Genesis 36:39

    Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pau, and the name of his wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

  • Genesis 41:35

    Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up grain under the hand of Pharaoh, as food in the cities, and let them keep it.

  • Genesis 41:48

    He gathered all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt, and put food in the cities; the food of the fields of each city that surrounded it he put in it.

  • Genesis 44:4

    They had gone out of the city and had not gone far when Joseph said to the one over his house, “Get up, pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

And 1053 more times.