saraf · burn

What it means

saraf (שָׂרַף) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “burn”.

Bake in the fire.

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. To destroy a city, an idol or a thing with fire until it is consumed.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To burn, to set on fire; also to bake in the fire. BDB: to be (causatively, to set) on fire. From the same root come שְׂרֵפָה, “burning”, and שָׂרָף, “fiery serpent, seraph”.

• “Let us make bricks and burn {them} thoroughly” Genesis 11:3
• Burning what is left of the Passover Exodus 12:10
• Burning outside the camp what does not go on the altar Leviticus 4:12
• Burning a conquered city Joshua 6:242 Kings 25:9
• The king burns Jeremiah's scroll Jeremiah 36:27
• Burning the idols of the nations Deuteronomy 7:5

How we translate it

“Burned” 65 times, “burn” 33, “you shall burn” 10… שָׂרַף בָּאֵשׁ is “burn with fire” (Joshua 6:24).

How it is translated

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

• burned ×65
• burn ×33
• you shall burn ×10
• he burns ×2
• one who burns ×2
• burns them ×1
• has kindled ×1
• they made ×1
• they will be utterly ×1
• were burning ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×4
• Leviticus×21
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×6
• Joshua×9
• Judges×5
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×4
• 2 Kings×11
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Nehemiah×1
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×23
• Ezekiel×4
• Amos×1
• Micah×1

• Genesis 11:3

  They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.

• Genesis 38:24

  About three months later Judah was told, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has prostituted herself, and moreover, look, she is pregnant by prostitution.” And Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”

• Exodus 12:10

  You shall not leave any of it until morning; and what is left of it until morning you shall burn in the fire.

• Exodus 29:14

  But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

• Exodus 29:34

  If any of the flesh of ordination or of the bread remains until the morning, you shall burn what remains with fire; it shall not be eaten, for it is holy.

• Exodus 32:20

  And he took the calf that they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it until it was fine dust, and scattered it on the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

• Leviticus 4:12

  all the bull, he shall bring out to outside the camp, to a clean place, to the ash heap, and burn it on wood with fire; on the ash heap it shall be burned.

• Leviticus 4:21

  He shall bring the bull to outside the camp and burn it just as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering of the assembly.

• Leviticus 6:30

  But no sin offering of which some of its blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make expiation in the Holy Place shall be eaten; it shall be burned with fire.

• Leviticus 7:17

  What is left of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire.

• Leviticus 7:19

  The flesh that touches anything unclean shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire. As for the other flesh, everyone who is clean may eat flesh.

• Leviticus 8:17

  But the bull, its skin, its flesh, and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as YHWH had commanded Moses.

• Leviticus 8:32

  What is left of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire.

• Leviticus 9:11

  The flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.

• Leviticus 10:6

  Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose and do not tear your garments, so that you do not die and he does not become angry with all the community; but your brothers, all the house of Israel, shall weep over the burning that YHWH has kindled.

• Leviticus 10:16

  Moses searched diligently for the goat of the sin offering, and look, it had been burned; and he was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the remaining sons of Aaron, saying,

• Leviticus 13:52

  He shall burn the garment, or the woven material or the knitted material of wool or of linen, or any article of skin in which the mark is, for it is a malignant leprosy; it shall be burned with fire.

• Leviticus 13:55

  The priest shall examine the mark after it has been washed, and if the mark has not changed its appearance —even though the mark has not spread— it is unclean; you shall burn it with fire; it is a corrosion, whether on its back or on its front.

• Leviticus 13:57

  And if it appears again in the garment or in the woven material or in the knitted material or in any article of skin, it is breaking out; you shall burn with fire that in which the mark is.

• Leviticus 16:27

  And the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make expiation in the Holy Place, someone shall take out to outside the camp, and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their flesh and their dung.

• Leviticus 16:28

  And the one who burns them shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and after that he may come into the camp.

• Leviticus 19:6

  It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it and on the next day, and what is left until the third day shall be burned in the fire.

• Leviticus 20:14

  And a man who takes a woman and her mother — it is infamy; they shall burn him and them in the fire, so that there may not be infamy among you.

• Leviticus 21:9

  And the daughter of a priest, if she profanes herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she shall be burned in the fire.

• Numbers 16:39

  So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that those who were burned had presented, and they hammered them into a covering for the altar,

• Numbers 19:5

  And one shall burn the cow before his eyes; her skin and her flesh and her blood, with her dung, he shall burn.

• Numbers 19:8

  And the one who burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.

• Numbers 31:10

  All their cities in their dwelling places and all their encampments they burned with fire.

• Deuteronomy 7:5

  But thus you shall do to them: their altars you shall tear down, their standing stones you shall break, their Asherahs you shall cut down, and their carved images you shall burn with fire.

• Deuteronomy 7:25

  The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver and gold on them or take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

• Deuteronomy 9:21

  And your sin that you had made, the calf, I took and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

• Deuteronomy 12:3

  You shall tear down their altars, smash their standing stones, burn their Asherahs with fire, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their name from that place.

• Deuteronomy 12:31

  You shall not act this way toward YHWH your Elohim, for every abomination to YHWH, which he hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

• Deuteronomy 13:16

  All its spoil you shall gather into the middle of its square, and you shall burn with fire the city and all its spoil as a whole offering to YHWH your Elohim, and it shall be a heap of ruins forever; it shall not be rebuilt again.

• 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 7:15

  And it shall be that the one who is taken with the things devoted to destruction shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of YHWH and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

• Joshua 7:25

  And Joshua said, “Why have you brought ruin on us? YHWH will bring ruin on you this day.” And all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.

• Joshua 8:28

  So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap of ruins forever, a desolation, to this day.

• Joshua 11:6

  YHWH said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for tomorrow at this time I will give all of them slain before Israel. Their horses you shall hamstring and their chariots you shall burn with fire.”

• Joshua 11:9

  Joshua did to them as YHWH had told him: their horses he hamstrung, and their chariots he burned with fire.

And 77 more times.