kikar · plain, talent, loaf

What it means

kikar (כִּכָּר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “plain, talent, loaf”.

Something round: a region (the plain around the Jordan), a round loaf of bread, or a "talent", the largest weight for metals (about 34 kilograms).

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. Literally "the circle": the lowland around the Jordan.
2. A flat round bread, the size of a loaf, broken into pieces to eat.
3. A very large weight for metals, about 3,000 shekels.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Something round. Depending on the passage it is a circular region (the plain of the Jordan), a round loaf or a talent, the largest weight for metals.

• The plain of the Jordan and its cities Genesis 13:10Genesis 19:29
• A talent of gold or of silver Exodus 25:392 Kings 5:222 Samuel 12:30
• A round loaf 1 Samuel 2:36Proverbs 6:26
• A round cover of lead Zechariah 5:7

Historical and cultural background

The lampstand and all its utensils were made “Of a talent of pure gold” (Exodus 25:39). The hundred talents of silver of the census were cast into a hundred bases, “a talent per base” (Exodus 38:27).

How we translate it

“Talents” 38 times and “talent” 9: this edition leaves measures with their own name, and the equivalence goes in the verse note. “Plain” 13 times for the region of the Jordan (Genesis 13:10). With bread, “a round loaf” or “round loaves” (1 Samuel 2:36), “a loaf” (Proverbs 6:26); once “a round cover” (Zechariah 5:7).

How it is translated

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

• talents ×38
• plain ×13
• talent ×9
• loaf ×4
• round loaves ×2
• cake ×1
• round cover ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×7
• Exodus×9
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×7
• 2 Kings×9
• 1 Chronicles×11
• 2 Chronicles×10
• Ezra×3
• Nehemiah×2
• Esther×1
• Proverbs×1
• Jeremiah×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 13:10

  Lot lifted his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well-watered (before YHWH destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of YHWH, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

• Genesis 13:11

  So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; and they separated, each from his brother.

• 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 19:17

  When they had brought them outside, he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away.”

• 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 19:28

  He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he saw, and look, the smoke of the land was going up like the smoke of a furnace.

• 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.

• Exodus 25:39

  Of a talent of pure gold it shall be made, it, with all these utensils.

• Exodus 29:23

  and one round loaf of bread, and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before YHWH.

• Exodus 37:24

  Of a talent of pure gold he made it and all its utensils.

• Exodus 38:24

  All the gold that was used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, the gold of the wave offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary.

• Exodus 38:25

  And the silver of those counted of the community was a hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary:

• Exodus 38:27

  And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent per base.

• Exodus 38:29

  And the bronze of the wave offering was seventy talents and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

• Deuteronomy 34:3

  and the Negev, and the plain, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

• Judges 8:5

  He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give round loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

• 1 Samuel 2:36

  And it will be that everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a round loaf of bread, and will say, ‘Please attach me to one of the priestly offices so that I may eat a morsel of bread.’”

• 1 Samuel 10:3

  Then you will go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor, and there three men going up to Elohim at Bethel will find you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three round loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.

• 2 Samuel 12:30

  He took the crown of their king from his head (its weight was a talent of gold, and it had a precious stone), and it was on the head of David. And the spoil of the city he brought out, a very great amount.

• 2 Samuel 18:23

  He said, “Whatever happens, I will run.” He said to him, “Run.” So Ahimaaz ran by the road of the plain and passed the Cushite.

• 1 Kings 7:46

  In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the thick ground, between Succoth and Zarethan.

• 1 Kings 9:14

  And Hiram had sent to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

• 1 Kings 9:28

  And they came to Ophir and took from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.

• 1 Kings 10:10

  And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and very many spices, and precious stones; never again came such spices in abundance as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

• 1 Kings 10:14

  And the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty and six talents of gold,

• 1 Kings 16:24

  He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built on the hill; and he called the name of the city that he built after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria.

• 1 Kings 20:39

  And it happened, as the king was passing by, that he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and there, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if he is missing at all, your life will be for his life, or you will weigh out a talent of silver.’

• 2 Kings 5:5

  The king of Aram said, “Go, go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He went and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothes.

• 2 Kings 5:22

  He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Look, just now two young men from the hill country of Ephraim, of the sons of the prophets, have come to me. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.’”

• 2 Kings 5:23

  Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” He urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his young men, and they carried them before him.

• 2 Kings 15:19

  Pul king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, so that his hands might be with him to strengthen the kingdom in his hand.

• 2 Kings 18:14

  Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have sinned; withdraw from me; whatever you put on me I will bear.” The king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

• 2 Kings 23:33

  Pharaoh Neco bound him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he would not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed a fine on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

• 1 Chronicles 16:3

  And he distributed to every man of Israel, from man to woman, to each one a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a raisin cake.

• 1 Chronicles 19:6

  When the sons of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, Hanun and the sons of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves from Aram-naharaim and from Aram of Maacah and from Zobah chariots and horsemen.

• 1 Chronicles 20:2

  David took the crown of their king from his head, and he found it to weigh a talent of gold, and on it was a precious stone; and it was on the head of David. And the spoil of the city he brought out, a very great amount.

• 1 Chronicles 22:14

  Look, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of YHWH a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for it is in abundance. And timber and stones I have prepared; and to them you will add.

• 1 Chronicles 29:4

  three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses;

• 1 Chronicles 29:7

  they gave for the service of the house of Elohim five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand darics, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and a hundred thousand talents of iron.

• 2 Chronicles 3:8

  He made the house of the Most Holy Place: its length, across the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits; and he covered it with good gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

And 28 more times.