שָׂרַף
to burn
‘to burn’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘in making bricks’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H8313 appears in the Book of 2 Samuel — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
2 Samuel
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
שרף (sâraph) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to burn.” Its English rendering has broadened — “burn” classically, “burned” (Berean Standard Bible) and “he burned” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 107 verses in 21 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 11:3. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 4 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8313 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 107
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 107 distinct verses.
- 21 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 21 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #372
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 372 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 107 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 107 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 63 verses · 59%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 34 verses · 32%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 9%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Burn 15×, Burnt 14×, Burned 13×
- American Standard Version: Burn 12×, Burnt 11×, Burned 8×
- Berean Standard Bible: Burned 10×, Burn 8×, He burned 7×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He burned 15×, Burned 9×, They burned 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8313 across 117 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 35 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8313 across 116 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8313 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 42 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 8 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8313 across 102 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 31 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 7 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. שׂ׳ Jos 11:9 +, 3 fs. sf. שְׂרָפָ֫תַם Is 47:14, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִשְׂרֹף Nu 19:5 + 2 times, more often וַיִּשְׂרֹף Ex 32:20 +, 2 mpl. תִּשְׂרְפוּן Dt 7:5 + 2 times; Inf. abs. שָׂרוֹף 2 S 23:7; cstr. שְׂרֹף Je 36:25 +; sf. שָׂרְפוֹ Ju 9:52; Am 2:1; Pt. act. שֹׂרֵף Lv 16:28; Nu 19:8, pl. שֹׂרְפִים 2 K 17:31; pass. mpl. שְׂרֻפִים Nu 17:4; fs. שְׂרוּפָה 1 S 30:3, שְׂרֻפָה ψ 80:17, pl. שְׂרוּפוֹת Ne 3:34, cstr. שְׂרֻפוֹת Is 1:7;—burn (59 times + בָּאֵשׁ, 2 times + בְּמוֹ־אֵשׁ): e.g. Joshua 11:9
- 1. in making bricks, + לִשְׂרֵפָה Gn 11:3 (J; obj. om.). e.g. Genesis 11:3
- 2.
- a. c. acc. rei, usually to destroy, e.g. door Ju 9:52, house Ju 12:1; 1 K 16:18 (both c. עַל pers.), Je 39:8 + 11 times, cf. pt. pass. Ne 3:24, city Jos 6:24 1 S 30:1, 14 + 16 times, cf. pt. pass. 1 S 30:3; Is 1:7, chariots Jos 11:6, 9 2 K 23:11 ψ 46:10 (subj. י׳), idols, etc., Ex 32:20 (acc. om.), Dt 9:21 + 10 times, roll †Je 36:25, 27, 28, 29, 32, wood †Is 44:16, 19 (both + בְּמוֹ־אֵשׁ), cf. ψ 80:17 (fig.), Je 51:32, hair †Ez 5:4; bones, to lime (as outrage) †Am 2:1; upon altars (in desecration) †1 K 13:2; 2 K 23:16, 20 = 2 Ch 34:5; bodies, as funeral rite † 1 S 31:12 (rare custom, RSSem i. 353; 2nd ed. 372; but Klo Bu read יִשְׂפְּדוּ [= יִס׳]; cf. BenzArch. 163; Ency. Bib. Dead NowArch. i. 188); שׂ׳ as funeral rite also (obj. om., prob spices, cf. 2 Ch 16:14), †c. ל pers. mort. Je 34:5, + acc. cogn. שְׂרֵפָה 2 Ch 16:14 (cf. שְׂרֵפָה); in ceremonial of P (never of burning sacrif. on altar, הִקְטִיר, cf. הֶעֱלָה, but) chiefly (14 times) of consuming refuse, especially unused portions of victims, etc. (to prevent use), and infected objects, Ex 29:14, 34 +, sometimes מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה Lv 4:12 (+ עַל־עֵצִים), v 21(×2) + 4 times, etc., cf. Ez 43:21; also of burning red heifer (to produce ashes for purification) Nu 19:5(×2), 8. e.g. Judges 9:52
- b. burn, c. acc. pers., (1) as penalty Jos 7:25 (JE), Ju 14:15; 15:6 Lv 20:14, cf. Nu 17:4 (pt. pass.), so, אֵשׁ subj., Is 47:14, c. acc. cogn. שְׂרֵפָה Lv 10:6 (P); (2) as sacrifice, Je 7:31; 19:5; + ל dei Dt 12:31; 2 K 17:31. e.g. Joshua 7:25
Niphal
- Impf. 3 ms. יִשָּׂרֵף Jos 7:15 +, 3 fpl. תִּשָּׂרַפְנָה Pr 6:27, etc.;—be burned (11 times + בָּאֵשׁ): of city Je 38:17 + v 23 (read תִּשָּׂרֵף for תִּשְׂרֹף 𝔊 𝔖 𝔗 Hi Ew Gf Gie Du), idols, etc., Mi 1:7; 1 Ch 14:12; ritually (cf. Qal 2 a ad fin.) Lv 4:12; 6:23; 7:17, 19; 13:52; 19:6; of pers., as penalty Gn 38:24 (J), Jos 7:15 (JE), 2 S 23:7 (poet.), Lv 21:9 (H). e.g. Joshua 7:15
Piel
- Pt. sf. מְסָֽרְפוֹ Am 6:10 his burner, usually one burning him, but prob. burning spices for him, v. Dr and cf. Qal supra. e.g. Amos 6:10
Pual
- Pf. 3 ms. שׂרָ֑ף, of goat Lv 10:16 it was burnt up (and gone). e.g. Leviticus 10:16
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. burn (70 times + בָּאֵשׁ, 2 times + בְּמוֹ־אֵשׁ) (NH (rare) = BH; Assyrian šarâpu; Aramaic שְׂרַף (rare); ܣܪܰܦ is absorb, consume);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
שָׂרַף I
- onomatop.) [to sip, absorb, v. שָׂרַף II,] to consume, burn. Pes. I, 4 ושׂוֹרְפִין … שש and the burning (of leavened matter) must take place at the beginning of the sixth hour. Ab. Zar. 11ᵃ שׂורְפִין על המלכים we do burning at the burial of kings; ומה הן שורפין וכ׳ and what is burnt? Their couch and their objects of service (armor &c.); Tosef. Snh. IV, 3; Tosef. Sabb. VII (VIII), 18; a. fr.—Part. pass. שָׂרוּף; f. שְׂרוּפָה &c. Nidd. 24ᵇ עצמותיו שְׂרוּפִין, v. שְׁתִיָּה I; a. e.
- to be burnt. Num. R. s. 236 ונ׳ על שמעל וכ׳ and he (Achan) was burned (after being stoned), because he had misappropriated devoted things. Pes. 34ᵇ יִשָּׂרֵף מיד must be burned at once. Tosef. ib. V, 8 כשם … אינו נִשְׂרָף וכ׳ as the wooden spit (on which the Passover lamb is roasted) does not burn, so the metal spit does not get hot. Zeb. XII, 5 בזמן שהם נִשְׂרָפִין כמצותן נשרפין וכ׳ when they are burned according to the law concerning them (and not because of a disqualification), they are burned in the ash-house. Ib. a. fr. פרים הנִשְׂרָפִים וכ׳ the bullock sacrifices which the law requires to be burned; a. fr.—[Y. Taan. I, 64ᵇ top תשרף, read תשרה, v. שָׁרָה I.]
שְׂרַף
- Targ. O. Gen. XI, 3 (some ed. ונוקדי׳, v. יְקַד).
- to be burned. Zeb. 16ᵃ שפיר אִישְׂתָּרוּף they would have been burned according to law; Yalk. Lev. 534. Gen. R. s. 38 (ref. to Gen. XI, 3) עתידין … מִשְׂתָּרְפָה מן וכ׳ these people are destined to be burned out of the world; Yalk. ib. 62; a. e.—Y. Sabb. IV, 7ᵃ top [read:] מצדתא הוו פריסן והוון מִשְׂטָרְפָן וכ׳ nets were spread, and they were burned in the sun. e.g. Genesis 11:3
שָׂרַף II
- (v.שָׂרַף I) to absorb, quaff, sip, suck. Ab. Zar. II, 5 (29ᵇ) שׂורְפָהּ חיה (not שורפו) sucks it (the maw) out raw, v. גְּמִי I; Cant. R. to I, 2.
שְׂרַף ²
- Naz. 36ᵇ אי דקא שָׂרֵיף ליה מִישְׂרַף if he quaffed it (swallowed it, instead of striking it on bread); Pes. 44ᵃ אי בעיניה דקשריף וקאכיל ליה (Ms. M. בעיניה קאכיל ליה) if he swallowed it in its natural condition, opp. שטר. Ker. 22ᵃ בשעה … מישרף שריף with the last breath of the animal, it (the heart) absorbs (the blood from the blood vessels). Taan. 24ᵇ ש׳ פינכא וכ׳ (Ms. M. טעים מידי, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) he swallowed a dishful of grist. Ib. אי שְׂרִיף מר וכ׳ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 300) if you had swallowed &c. Ber. 62ᵃ כדלא ש׳ תבשילא as if he had never sipped a dish (never had had marital intercourse; Ḥag. 5ᵇ כמאן דלא טעים וכ׳).
שָׂרַף III
- Pi. שֵׂירֵף (denom. of שְׂרָף) to cover with resin. Tosef. Mikv. VI (VII), 21 שֵׂירְפָהּ בשרף (not שו׳; Var. סֵירְפָהּ) if he covered it (the handle of a saw) with resin.
שָׂרָף I
- burning, venomous serpent (v. Sm. Dict. s. v. Dipsas). Gen. R. s. 44; Lev. R. s. 13 (ref. to Deut. VIII, 15) ש׳ זו מדי saraf refers to Media; a. e.—Pl. שְׂרָפִים. Num. R. s. 1922 הנחשים הש׳ ששורפים את הנפש they are called burning serpents, because they burn the life out (with thirst); Yalk. ib. 764; Tanḥ. Ḥuck. 19. Num. R. s. 23, beg.; a. e. e.g. Deuteronomy 8:15
שָׂרָף II
- (b. h.) Seraph, an angel.—Pl. שְׂרָפִים. Ḥag. 12ᵇ. Pirké d’R. El. ch. IV. Deut. R. s. 11 בשעה שראו … ושַׂרְפֵי להבה וכ׳ when the wheels of the chariot and the flaming Seraphim saw &c. Pesik. R. s. 20; a. fr.
שָׂרָף
- same, v. סַרְפַיָּא.
שָׂרָף III
- (b. h.) pr. n. m. Saraph. B. Bath. 91ᵇ
שְׂרָף
- (שָׂרַף I) acrid substance, esp. vegetable sap made thick by inspissation; resin, gum (secreted by the heat of the sun). Ber. 44ᵃ כל סעודה שאין בה ש׳ וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. שָׂרִיף) a meal without an acrid substance (bitter herbs &c.) is no meal. Pes. 39ᵃ, v. מַר II. Tosef. ib. I (II), 33 כל שיש בו ש׳ וכ׳ any plant which contains an acrid sap is fit to be used on the Passover night. Orl. I, 7 שְׂרַף העלים the sap of leaves; ש׳ העקרים of roots; ש׳ הפגים of unripe grapes. Y. ib. I, 61ᵇ bot. למה ש׳ פרי פגין פרי why (this difference in the law between resin and juice of unripe fruits)? resin is fruit and grapes are fruit. Ib. קטף בטל ע"י שִׂרְפּוֹ resin ceases to exist when its sap is pressed out; Y. Shebi. VII, end, 37ᶜ. Ib. אילן אינו בטל ע"ג שרפו the tree does not cease to exist when its sap is tapped. Ker. 6ᵃ; Sabb. 26ᵃ צרי אינו אלא ש׳ וכ׳ balsam is only a gum that drips from the balsam tree. Y. ib. II, 4ᵈ אין … מפני שהוא ש׳ you must not use balsam for the Sabbath light, because it is a gum. Gen. R. s. 94, v. סָפַג; Tanḥ. B’midbar 16 השבט (corr. acc.); a. e.—Trnsf. secretion, matter. Nidd. 10ᵇ זו שִׂירְפָּה מצוי וכ׳ with the one (the newly married virgin) secretion (from a wound caused by first coition) is frequent &c.; [oth. opin.: with the wife of older standing secretion is frequent].—Pl. שְׂרָפִים, שְׂרָפִין. Sabb. 23ᵃ כל הש׳ יפין וכ׳ all gums are good for ink, but the gum of the balsam tree is the best.
שְׂרַף II
- , esp. balsam. Targ. Y. Gen. XXXVII, 25 (h. text צרי). Ib. XLIII, 11 (h. text צרי).
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 83 distinct written forms H8313 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 23 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8313, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
- משרפה misrâphâh H4955 burning
- רשף resheph H7565 flame
- שרף sârâph H8314 seraphim
- שרפה sᵉrêphâh H8316 burning
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 99 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 107 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 11:3
- Exodus 12:10
- Leviticus 4:12
- Numbers 19:5
- Deuteronomy 7:5
- Joshua 6:24
- Judges 9:52
- 1 Samuel 30:1
- 2 Samuel 23:7
- 1 Kings 9:16
- 2 Kings 10:26
- 1 Chronicles 14:12
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
