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or

עוֹר

HebrewH5785skin, hide, ...

Appears 99 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 3:21Gen 27:16Exo 22:27(26)Exo 25:5 (2×)Exo 26:14 (2×)Exo 29:14Exo 34:29Exo 34:30Exo 34:35Exo 35:7 (2×)Exo 35:23 (2×)Exo 36:19 (2×)Exo 39:34 (2×)Lev 4:11Lev 7:8Lev 8:17Lev 9:11Lev 11:32Lev 13:2 (2×)Lev 13:3 (2×)Lev 13:4 (2×)Lev 13:5Lev 13:6Lev 13:7Lev 13:8Lev 13:10Lev 13:11Lev 13:12 (2×)Lev 13:18Lev 13:20Lev 13:21Lev 13:22Lev 13:24Lev 13:25Lev 13:26Lev 13:27Lev 13:28Lev 13:30Lev 13:31Lev 13:32Lev 13:34 (2×)Lev 13:35Lev 13:36Lev 13:38Lev 13:39Lev 13:43Lev 13:48 (2×)Lev 13:49Lev 13:51Lev 13:52
Root family
Word studyohrnoun

What or means

skin: the outer covering of a body, whether living skin on a person or animal or the hide and leather taken from a dead one

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary word for skin, the layer that covers a body. The same word does duty for living skin and for what is left once an animal is dead, because both are the same thing seen at different stages: the integument that wraps flesh and bone. So it names the skin of a person, the hide of a beast, and the worked leather that hide becomes.

On a living body the word is vivid and physical. The Bible uses it for skin worn thin by suffering, for the skin that disease attacks, and for the unchangeable skin color of a person. Moses' face is described by its skin, which shone after he met God.

Off a living body the same word turns to what the skin becomes once removed. The first clothes God made were garments of skin. Hides covered the tabernacle, leather made a prophet's belt, and the skin of a sacrificed animal was either given to the priest or burned outside the camp with the rest of the carcass.

Two of the best known phrases in the Bible use this word as a stand-in for the body or life itself: Job's friend says a person will give skin for skin to save his own life, and Job says he has escaped with the skin of his teeth, that is, by the barest margin.

Nuances

1athe living skin of a person, the body's surface that can waste, shine, or take a fixed color
Exo 22:27(26)Exo 34:29Exo 34:30Exo 34:35Job 7:5Job 10:11Job 18:13Job 19:20 (2×)Job 19:26Job 30:30Lam 3:4Lam 4:8
1bhuman skin as the surface a disease attacks and a priest inspects
Lev 13:2 (2×)Lev 13:3 (2×)Lev 13:4 (2×)Lev 13:5Lev 13:6Lev 13:7Lev 13:8Lev 13:10Lev 13:11Lev 13:12 (2×)Lev 13:18Lev 13:20
1can animal's hide and the worked leather made from it, used as a material for clothing, coverings, and gear
Gen 3:21Gen 27:16Lev 13:48 (2×)Lev 13:49Lev 13:51Lev 13:52Lev 13:53Lev 13:56Lev 13:57Lev 13:58Lev 13:59Job 41:7(40:31)
1dthe hide of a slaughtered sacrificial animal, given to the priest or burned with the carcass
Exo 29:14Lev 4:11Lev 7:8Lev 8:17Lev 9:11Lev 16:27Num 19:5
1eskin standing for the body or for life itself, in proverbs of survival and bare escape
Job 2:4 (2×)Job 19:20 (2×)

What scholars say about or

The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) treat עור as a single noun for the skin or hide of a body, ranging from living human and animal skin to the removed hide and the leather made from it, with no warrant for splitting it into separate homonyms. Leviticus 13 develops the collocation "skin of the flesh" as the technical surface examined for disease, and the Job and Lamentations passages exploit the word figuratively for the body and for survival.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. עוֹרlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. עוֹרlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. עוֹרlexicon

All attested forms of עוֹר

m s absolute

בָּעוֹר, עוֹר, הָעוֹר, בְעוֹר

Lev 13:5, Lev 13:6, Lev 13:7, Lev 13:8, Lev 13:10, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:22, Lev 13:27

m s construct

עוֹר, בְּעוֹר, מֵעוֹר

Exo 34:29, Exo 34:30, Exo 34:35, Lev 4:11, Lev 7:8, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:43, Num 4:6

f p construct

עֹרֹת, עוֹרֹת

Gen 27:16, Exo 25:5, Exo 25:5, Exo 26:14, Exo 26:14, Exo 35:7, Exo 35:7, Exo 35:23

m s construct

עֹרוֹ, עוֹרוֹ

Exo 22:27, Exo 29:14, Lev 8:17, Lev 13:18, Lev 13:24, Job 18:13, Job 41:7, Jer 13:23

m s construct

עוֹרִי, בְּעוֹרִי, וְעוֹרִי

Job 7:5, Job 19:26, Job 30:30, Job 19:20, Lam 3:4

m s construct

עוֹרָם, וְעוֹרָם

Lam 4:8, Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3

f p construct

עֹרֹתָם

Lev 16:27

m s construct

עוֹרֵנוּ

Lam 5:10

m s construct

עֹרָהּ

Num 19:5