StrongerBible

zur

זוּר

HebrewH2114“stranger, foreigner, ...”

Appears 77 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 29:33Exo 30:9Exo 30:33Lev 10:1Lev 22:10Lev 22:12Lev 22:13Num 1:51Num 3:4Num 3:10Num 3:38Num 16:40(17:5)Num 18:4Num 18:7Num 26:61Deu 25:5Deu 32:161Ki 3:182Ki 19:24Job 15:19Job 19:13Job 19:15Job 19:17Job 19:27Psa 54:3(5)Psa 58:3(4)Psa 69:8(9)Psa 78:30Psa 109:11Pro 2:16Pro 5:3Pro 5:10Pro 5:17Pro 5:20Pro 6:1Pro 7:5Pro 22:14Pro 23:33Isa 1:4Isa 1:7 (2×)Isa 25:2Isa 25:5Isa 29:5Isa 61:5Jer 2:25Jer 3:13Ezk 7:21Ezk 14:5
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeZOOR (participle ZAR)adjective

What zur means

to be an outsider: to stand on the wrong side of a line that matters here, whether a circle, a household, a nation, the covenant, or holy space

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This word does not name a fixed kind of person. It marks a position. The same word covers a layman standing next to a priest, an enemy army standing on Israel's land, an idol standing where the LORD belongs, another man's wife standing in place of one's own, and even a person who has become strange inside his own house. In each case the word says one thing: this one is outside the circle that counts right here.

The context, not the word, tells you which line is in view. That is why the word can do priestly law, prophetic warning, love poetry, and wisdom teaching with the same three letters. The senses below are the different circles the word draws a line around, not different words. The core idea, a turning aside out of place, is what they all share.

Most English Bibles flatten this into "stranger" or "foreigner," which makes the word sound like it always means a person from another nation. It does not. In the laws about the sanctuary the outsider is usually an ordinary Israelite who simply is not a priest. The word is about access and belonging, not about nationality.

Nuances

1athe unauthorized one near holy things: a person without right of access to the sanctuary, or a substance brought into worship without warrant
Exo 29:33Exo 30:9Exo 30:33Lev 10:1Lev 22:10Lev 22:12Lev 22:13Num 1:51Num 3:4Num 3:10Num 3:38Isa 17:10
1ba hostile foreign nation or invading army, set against Israel from outside
2Ki 19:24Psa 54:3(5)Psa 109:11Isa 1:7 (2×)Isa 25:2Isa 25:5Isa 29:5Isa 61:5Jer 30:8Jer 51:2Jer 51:51Lam 5:2
1ca foreign god: a deity belonging outside Israel's covenant, set against the LORD
Deu 32:16Psa 44:20Psa 81:9Isa 43:12Jer 2:25Jer 3:13Jer 5:19
1danother person not of one's own family or circle: the outsider in ordinary social and legal life
Deu 25:51Ki 3:18Job 15:19Job 19:15Pro 5:10Pro 5:17Pro 6:1Pro 11:15Pro 14:10Pro 20:16Pro 27:2Pro 27:13
1ethe illicit woman of Proverbs: a woman outside the bond of one's own marriage
Pro 2:16Pro 5:3Pro 5:20Pro 7:5Pro 22:14Pro 23:33
1fout of place or estranged: a person, an act, or even the LORD treated as outside the relationship that was expected
Job 19:13Job 19:17Job 19:27Psa 58:3(4)Psa 69:8(9)Psa 78:30Isa 1:4Isa 28:21Jer 18:14Ezk 14:5Hos 5:7Hos 8:12

What scholars say about zur

The standard lexica and the major commentators now read this word as a single relational term meaning "out of place relative to a defined inner circle," not as a fixed word for foreigners. L. A. Snijders, who wrote his Leiden dissertation on the word and the entry in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, argued that the participle should not be split into separate meanings (non-priest, foreigner, another's wife, unauthorized substance); the core is one, and context supplies the circle. HALOT and NIDOTTE absorb his refinement by adding "unauthorized" for the priestly material. BDB gives the verb as "be a stranger" with four overlapping uses, and floats a second root "be loathsome" (Job 19:17) tied to an Akkadian "hate" cognate, while noting most scholars derive even that from this same root. Gesenius traces the verb to "turn aside," comparing Arabic zara "turn aside to visit" and grouping it with other turning roots. The lexica agree that the "press out" verb (Judges 6:38, etc.) is a wholly separate root. On the priestly material, Jacob Milgrom's reading of the unauthorized coals of Leviticus 10 and his graded analysis of the encroacher who "draws near" the sanctuary are foundational. On the "strange woman" of Proverbs the scholarship genuinely splits, mapped below in the disputes.

Where scholars disagree about zur

Whether the participle is one relational word or should be divided into separate meanings (non-priest, foreign nation, another's wife, unauthorized substance), and whether a separate root "be loathsome" stands behind Job 19:17.

  • majorityOne relational word meaning "out of place relative to a defined inner circle"; the apparent meanings are contextual shades of a single core, and Job 19:17 is ordinary use ("my breath has become alien to my wife").; L. A. Snijders, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament IV, 52-58; HALOT 1:268
  • minorityA separate root "be loathsome" may stand behind Job 19:17, tentatively linked to an Akkadian verb "to hate," though even its proposers grant most scholars derive it from the same root.; BDB, 267
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • L. A. Snijders, "זוּר / זָר," Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament IV (Eerdmans, 1980), 52-58lexicon
  • L. A. Snijders, "The Meaning of zr in the Old Testament: An Exegetical Study," Oudtestamentische Studiën 10 (1954): 1-154article
  • F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Clarendon, 1906), 266-67lexicon
  • L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, English ed. (Brill, 1994-2000), 1:268lexicon
  • W. Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 18th ed., ed. H. Donner (Springer, 1987-2010), 2:310lexicon
  • A. H. Konkel, "זָר," and J. A. Thompson, "זוּר," New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Zondervan, 1997), 1:1142-43, 1:1092lexicon
  • J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible 3 (Doubleday, 1991), 595-608, 633-35commentary
  • J. Milgrom, Studies in Levitical Terminology, I: The Encroacher and the Levite (University of California, Near Eastern Studies 14, 1970)monograph
  • J. Milgrom, Numbers (Bemidbar), JPS Torah Commentary (JPS, 1990)commentary
  • B. A. Levine, Numbers 1-20, Anchor Bible 4A (Doubleday, 1993), 154-78commentary
  • M. V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9, Anchor Yale Bible 18A (Doubleday, 2000), 134-41commentary
  • C. V. Camp, Wise, Strange and Holy: The Strange Woman and the Making of the Bible, JSOTSup 320 (Sheffield Academic Press, 2000)monograph
  • G. A. Yee, "'I Have Perfumed My Bed with Myrrh': The Foreign Woman (אִשָּׁה זָרָה) in Proverbs 1-9," JSOT 43 (1989): 53-68article
  • J. Blenkinsopp, "The Social Context of the 'Outsider Woman' in Proverbs 1-9," Biblica 72 (1991): 457-73article
  • N. N. H. Tan, The "Foreignness" of the Foreign Woman in Proverbs 1-9, BZAW 381 (de Gruyter, 2008)monograph
  • R. Achenbach, "gēr – nåkhrî – tôshav – zār," in The Foreigner and the Law, BZABR 16 (Harrassowitz, 2011), 29-51article
  • D. I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 1-24, NICOT (Eerdmans, 1997)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of זוּר

m p absolute

זָרִים, זָּרִים

Deu 32:16, 2Ki 19:24, Psa 54:3, Psa 109:11, Pro 5:10, Pro 5:17, Isa 1:7, Isa 1:7

m s absolute

זָר, זָּר

Exo 29:33, Exo 30:33, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:12, Lev 22:13, Num 16:40, Num 18:4, Deu 25:5

qal participle f s absolute

זָרָה

Exo 30:9, Lev 10:1, Num 3:4, Num 26:61, Pro 2:16, Pro 5:3, Pro 7:5

f p absolute

זָרוֹת

Pro 22:14, Pro 23:33

niphal perfect 3cp

נָזֹרוּ

Isa 1:4, Ezk 14:5

qal perfect 3cp

זָרוּ

Job 19:13, Psa 78:30

f s absolute

זָרָה

Pro 5:20

hophal passive-participle m s absolute

מוּזָר

Psa 69:8

m p construct

זָרָיִךְ

Isa 29:5

pual perfect 3cp

זֹרוּ

Psa 58:3

qal perfect 3fs

זָרָה

Job 19:17