StrongerBible

aremah

עֲרֵמָה

HebrewH6194heap, pile

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Rut 3:72Ch 31:6 (2×)2Ch 31:72Ch 31:82Ch 31:9Neh 4:2(3:34)Neh 13:15Sng 7:2(3)Jer 50:26Hag 2:16
Root family
Word studyah-ray-MAHnoun

What aremah means

a heap: a mounded pile of loose material, most often harvested grain

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Almost everywhere this word appears, it names a heap of grain: the mounded harvest on the threshing floor where Boaz lay down to sleep, the piled tithes of Judah that grew so large that Hezekiah and his officials blessed the LORD when they saw them, the grain heap in Haggai that a farmer expected to yield twenty measures but yielded only ten, and the lover's body likened to a heap of wheat in the Song of Songs. The picture is of a rounded pile of loose harvest, and in that setting a large heap is a sign of plenty and of God's provision.

One place uses the same word for a very different pile. When Judah's enemies mock the effort to rebuild Jerusalem, they sneer at the workers trying to raise living stones out of the burned heaps of rubble left by the city's ruin. The word itself is about the shape, a mound of heaped-up stuff, and the setting tells you what has been heaped.

Hebrew has other words for a pile that carry a fixed content: a heap of stones (גַּל), the long-standing mound of a destroyed city (תֵּל). This word leans toward the granary and the threshing floor.

Nuances

1aa heap of grain or other harvested produce, piled on the threshing floor or in storage
Rut 3:72Ch 31:6 (2×)2Ch 31:72Ch 31:82Ch 31:9Neh 13:15Sng 7:2(3)Jer 50:26Hag 2:16
1ba heap of rubble or debris; a pile of ruins
Neh 4:2(3:34)

What scholars say about aremah

The standard lexica (BDB; HALOT; DCH) gloss עֲרֵמָה as a heap, characteristically a heap of grain on the threshing floor or in storage, and connect it with the verbal root ערם "to heap up, pile up." The agricultural sense dominates the ten occurrences: the threshing-floor heap (Ruth 3:7), the accumulated tithe-heaps of the Hezekian reform (2 Chronicles 31:6-9), the grain brought in on the sabbath (Nehemiah 13:15), the disappointing grain heap of Haggai 2:16, and the simile of the beloved's body in Song of Songs 7:2 (Hebrew 7:3). Nehemiah 4:2 (Hebrew 3:34) extends the noun to heaps of burned rubble, and Jeremiah 50:26 uses it in a simile of piling up for destruction, where the storehouse imagery favors heaps of grain. No text supports positing a second, unrelated homonym.

Sources

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

All attested forms of עֲרֵמָה

f p absolute

עֲרֵמוֹת

2Ch 31:6, 2Ch 31:6, 2Ch 31:7, 2Ch 31:8, 2Ch 31:9, Neh 13:15

f s construct

עֲרֵמַת

Sng 7:2, Hag 2:16

f p construct

עֲרֵמוֹת

Neh 4:2

f s absolute

עֲרֵמָה

Rut 3:7

m p absolute

עֲרֵמִים

Jer 50:26