tora · instruction, law

What it means

tora (תּוֹרָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “instruction, law”.

"Torah": instruction, teaching that gives direction; hence "law". Later it is the name of the five books of Moses. This translation uses "instruction", and "law" when the body of laws is meant.

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. Teaching that guides, like what a father or mother gives a child.
2. What YHWH teaches his people so they may live.
3. Literally "teaching": what YHWH commands, written in Moses' book.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Torah: instruction, teaching that gives direction; from there, law. BDB defines it as a precept or statute, especially the Decalogue or Pentateuch. It comes from יָרָה, “throw; teach” (H3384).

• The instruction of a father or a mother Proverbs 1:8
• The instruction of YHWH, meditated on Psalms 1:2Exodus 24:12
• The instruction that Moses wrote Deuteronomy 31:9Joshua 1:8
• The instruction for a sacrifice Leviticus 6:9
• Law: “the book of the law”; one law for all 2 Kings 22:8Exodus 12:49

How we translate it

“Instruction” 153 times, “law” 54, “instructions” 11. This edition writes “instruction”, and “law” when it is the body of laws (“the book of the law”, “one law for the native and for the resident alien”). So it can be seen that the word is not first of all a code, but teaching.

How it is translated

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

• instruction ×153
• law ×54
• instructions ×11
• laws ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×7
• Leviticus×16
• Numbers×10
• Deuteronomy×22
• Joshua×9
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×10
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×17
• Ezra×4
• Nehemiah×21
• Job×1
• Psalms×36
• Proverbs×13
• Isaiah×12
• Jeremiah×11
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×7
• Daniel×4
• Hosea×3
• Amos×1
• Micah×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×1
• Malachi×5

• Genesis 26:5

  because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my instructions.”

• Exodus 12:49

  There shall be one law for the native and for the resident alien who resides among you.”

• Exodus 13:9

  It shall be for you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, so that the instruction of YHWH may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand YHWH brought you out of Egypt.

• Exodus 16:4

  YHWH said to Moses, “Look, I am going to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether they will walk in my instruction or not.

• Exodus 16:28

  YHWH said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?

• Exodus 18:16

  When they have a matter, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the statutes of Elohim and his instructions.”

• Exodus 18:20

  Teach them the statutes and the instructions, and make known to them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.

• Exodus 24:12

  YHWH said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the instruction and the commandment that I have written to teach them.”

• Leviticus 6:9

  “Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the instruction for the burnt offering: the burnt offering itself shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.

• Leviticus 6:14

  This is the instruction for the grain offering: the sons of Aaron shall present it before YHWH, in front of the altar.

• Leviticus 6:25

  “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the instruction for the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before YHWH; it is a most holy thing.

• Leviticus 7:1

  This is the instruction for the guilt offering: it is a most holy thing.

• Leviticus 7:7

  As the sin offering, so the guilt offering; there is one instruction for them: the priest who makes expiation with it, it shall be his.

• Leviticus 7:11

  This is the instruction for the sacrifice of peace that one presents to YHWH.

• Leviticus 7:37

  This is the instruction for the burnt offering, for the grain offering, for the sin offering, for the guilt offering, for the ordination, and for the sacrifice of peace,

• Leviticus 11:46

  This is the instruction for the beasts, and the birds, and every living being that moves in the waters, and for every being that swarms on the earth,

• Leviticus 12:7

  He shall present it before YHWH and make expiation for her, and she will be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the instruction for her who gives birth to a male or a female.

• Leviticus 13:59

  This is the instruction for a mark of leprosy in a garment of wool or of linen, or in the woven material or in the knitted material, or in any article of skin, for declaring it clean or for declaring it unclean.”

• Leviticus 14:2

  “This shall be the instruction for the leper on the day of his purification: he shall be brought to the priest.

• Leviticus 14:32

  This is the instruction for one who has a leprous sore, whose means do not reach for his purification.”

• Leviticus 14:54

  This is the instruction for every leprous sore and for ringworm,

• Leviticus 14:57

  to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the instruction for leprosy.”

• Leviticus 15:32

  This is the instruction for the man with the discharge and for the one from whom an emission of semen goes out so that he becomes unclean by it,

• Leviticus 26:46

  These are the statutes and the rules and the instructions that YHWH made between himself and the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.

• Numbers 5:29

  This is the instruction for jealousy, when a wife, while under the authority of her husband, goes astray and makes herself unclean,

• Numbers 5:30

  or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before YHWH, and the priest shall carry out for her all this instruction.

• Numbers 6:13

  And this is the instruction for the Nazirite: on the day when the days of his consecration are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting,

• Numbers 6:21

  This is the instruction for the Nazirite who vows his offering to YHWH for his consecration, besides what his hand can afford; according to his vow that he vows, so he shall do, according to the instruction for his consecration.”

• Numbers 15:16

  One instruction and one rule shall be for you and for the resident alien who resides with you.’”

• Numbers 15:29

  For the native-born among the sons of Israel and for the resident alien who resides among them there shall be one instruction for you for the one who acts by oversight.

• Numbers 19:2

  “This is the statute of the instruction that YHWH has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, that they bring you a red cow whole, on which there is no defect, and on which a yoke has never come.

• Numbers 19:14

  This is the instruction when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

• Numbers 31:21

  Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army who had gone to the war, “This is the statute of the instruction that YHWH commanded Moses:

• Deuteronomy 1:5

  Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this instruction, saying:

• Deuteronomy 4:8

  And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this instruction that I am setting before you today?

• Deuteronomy 4:44

  This is the instruction that Moses set before the sons of Israel.

• Deuteronomy 17:11

  According to the instruction that they instruct you and according to the judgment that they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word that they announce to you, to the right or the left.

• Deuteronomy 17:18

  And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this instruction in a book, from the one that is before the priests, the Levites.

• Deuteronomy 17:19

  And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear YHWH his Elohim, keeping all the words of this instruction and these statutes, doing them,

• Deuteronomy 27:3

  And you shall write on them all the words of this instruction when you cross, so that you may enter into the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, has spoken to you.

And 179 more times.