StrongerBible

lahat

לַהַט

HebrewH3858“flame”

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Gen 3:24
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeLAH-hatnoun

What lahat means

flame: fire seen as a leaping, blazing tongue of light and heat

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyContested

This word names flame: the bright, leaping fire that blazes off something burning. It is rare, standing clearly only at Genesis 3:24, where God posts the winged guardians and "the flame of the whirling sword" to block the way back to the tree of life. The related verb meaning "to blaze" or "to burn up" (לָהַט) is far more common, and it almost always describes fire that consumes, from the burning judgment of Deuteronomy 32 to the furnace-like day of Malachi 3.

Hebrew keeps a small cluster of words for fire and its flame, and they shade into one another: the plain word for "fire" (אֵשׁ), the common word for "flame" (לֶהָבָה), a "torch" (לַפִּיד), and a near-twin of this word (לָהַב) that means both "flame" and the "blade" of a weapon. That last overlap matters at Eden: because a flame and a blade can be named by the same kind of word, the guarding "flame of the sword" has been read both as literal fire and as the flashing edge of the blade itself.

Wherever this flame appears, its feel is danger and holiness together: it both dazzles and consumes. At the garden it is not a punishment falling on anyone but a barrier, a burning guard set across the road home.

Gen 3:24
Gen 3:24

What the flame of the whirling sword at Genesis 3:24 refers to.

  • majorityLiteral flame accompanying the cherubim as a fiery guard.; Gunkel, Genesis (HKAT, 1901); Skinner, Genesis (ICC, 1930); Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (WBC, 1987); Hamilton, The Book of Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990)
  • minorityA flashing blade: the word denotes the sword's edge, which only looks fiery.; Targum Onqelos, Genesis 3:24; Peshitta, Genesis 3:24
  • minorityA lightning-like or mythic divine weapon, the storm-weapon in older imagery.; von Rad, Genesis (OTL, 1968); Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible, 1964), 24-25; Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis I (1961), 176
  • minorityA named fiery being, a minor divinity paired with the cherubim.; Hendel, 'The Flame of the Whirling Sword,' JBL 104 (1985) 671-74

What scholars say about lahat

Every major critical lexicon (BDB, HALOT, DCH) places the verbal root להט in the semantic domain of burning, glossing it "blaze, flame" and the intensive stem "set ablaze, consume," with the noun לַהַט "flame" at Genesis 3:24. The comparative evidence is a restricted Northwest-Semitic isogloss: Aramaic and Syriac attest the burn-root securely, while the Akkadian cognate cited by BDB and HALOT is marginal (CAD L attests no productive G-stem laḫāṭu "burn"), and Arabic and Ugaritic support only the b-form (לָהַב, Arabic lahaba). Genesis 3:24 is the interpretive linchpin: the phrase is a construct chain in which the feminine reflexive participle modifies חֶרֶב, so it is the sword that whirls (Hendel, JBL 104 [1985] 671 n. 6). Ancient renderings split, with the Septuagint and Vulgate reading a flaming sword while Targum Onqelos (שְׁנָן) and the Peshitta read a blade-edge. Modern proposals range across literal flame (Gunkel, Skinner, Wenham, Hamilton), a lightning or mythic weapon (von Rad, Speiser, Cassuto), a personified Flame-being parallel to Phoenician Reshep-of-the-Arrow (Hendel), and a Persian scythed chariot wheel (Lichtenstein, JBL 134 [2015] 53-57). A separate question concerns the לְהָטִים of the Egyptian magicians (Exodus 7:11): the modern consensus (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Sarna, JPS Exodus [1991] 37; Propp, Exodus 1-18 [AB, 1999]) derives their "secret arts" from √לוט "to wrap, conceal" (compare לוֹט "veil," Isaiah 25:7; adverbial לָט, Judges 4:21), treating the ה-form as an allomorph or a deliberate pun, against the rabbinic reading (b. Sanhedrin 67b; Jastrow; Klein) that keeps a single root bridging "flash" to "dazzling illusion."

Where scholars disagree about lahat

Whether the "secret arts" of the Egyptian magicians (Exodus 7:11) belong to this flame word or to a separate root meaning "to wrap, conceal."

  • majorityTwo roots: the magicians' "secret arts" derive from a separate root meaning "to cover, conceal," and are unrelated to the flame word; the flame-like spelling in Exodus 7:11 is a byform or a literary pun.; BDB, s.v. לוט; HALOT, s.v. להט II / לוט; Sarna, Exodus (JPS, 1991), 37; Propp, Exodus 1-18 (Anchor Bible, 1999)
  • minorityOne root: "secret arts" is a developed sense of the flame word, moving from "flash" through "dazzling display" to sleight-of-hand.; b. Sanhedrin 67b; Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, s.v. לַהַט; Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, s.v. להט
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

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. להטlexicon
  • HALOT, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. להטlexicon
  • DCH, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. להטlexicon
  • Smick, TWOT #1081/1081atheological-dictionary
  • NIDOTTE, vol. 2, s.v. להטtheological-dictionary
  • Hendel, 'The Flame of the Whirling Sword: A Note on Genesis 3:24,' JBL 104 (1985) 671-74article
  • Lichtenstein, 'The Fearsome Sword of Genesis 3:24,' JBL 134 (2015) 53-57article
  • Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (WBC 1, 1987)commentary
  • Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible 1, 1964), 24-25commentary
  • Sarna, Exodus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1991), 37commentary
  • Propp, Exodus 1-18 (Anchor Bible 2, 1999)commentary

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

All attested forms of לַהַט

m s construct

לַהַט

Gen 3:24