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qir

קִיר

HebrewH7023wall, side

Appears 75 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 30:3Exo 37:26Lev 1:15Lev 5:9Lev 14:37 (2×)Lev 14:39Num 22:25 (2×)Num 35:4Jos 2:15Jdg 16:131Sa 18:111Sa 19:10 (2×)1Sa 20:251Sa 25:221Sa 25:342Sa 5:111Ki 4:33(5:13)1Ki 6:5 (2×)1Ki 6:61Ki 6:15 (2×)1Ki 6:161Ki 6:27 (2×)1Ki 6:291Ki 14:101Ki 16:111Ki 21:212Ki 4:102Ki 9:82Ki 9:332Ki 20:21Ch 14:11Ch 29:42Ch 3:7 (2×)2Ch 3:112Ch 3:12Psa 62:3(4)Isa 22:5Isa 25:4Isa 59:10Jer 4:19Ezk 4:3Ezk 33:30Ezk 41:5Ezk 41:6Ezk 41:12Ezk 41:13Ezk 41:20Ezk 41:22Ezk 41:25
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyKEERnoun

What qir means

wall: the upright side of a building, room, or object

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Kir is the ordinary word for a wall thought of as the upright side of something built. It is the side of a house, the inner and outer walls of a room, the surface of the temple, or the side panels of an object like the incense altar. The picture is always a flat vertical face that encloses or bounds a space, the thing you stand against, lean on, write on, or that holds a structure up.

Because the wall is the surface closest at hand, it shows up wherever people touch the edges of their world. A donkey crushes a foot against it, a king turns his face to it to pray in private, mildew spreads across the inside of a house, blood is wiped against the side of the altar, and a hand of judgment writes on the plaster. In every case the wall is simply the side of the structure, named for what it bounds.

The word stays one idea across all of this. English keeps a single word too: it is a wall whether it belongs to a house, a temple, a room, or an altar. The variety in the verses comes from what is happening at the wall, not from the wall meaning different things.

Exo 30:3Exo 37:26Lev 1:15Lev 5:9Lev 14:37 (2×)Lev 14:39Num 22:25 (2×)Num 35:4Jos 2:15Jdg 16:131Sa 18:111Sa 19:10 (2×)

What scholars say about qir

The standard lexica treat קִיר as a single common noun meaning "wall," the side of a house, room, building, or object, and distinguish it from חוֹמָה (the defensive city wall) and גָּדֵר (a stone fence or enclosure wall). BDB and HALOT list its applications (house walls, temple and altar walls, the wall one leans on or turns toward) as uses of one word rather than separate meanings; DCH catalogues the same range without positing distinct senses. The homonymous proper name Kir (a place in Moab and an Aramean region) is carried under separate entries and separate Strong's numbers, and the corpus tagging keeps it apart from this common noun.

Sources

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

All attested forms of קִיר

m s absolute

קִּיר, קִיר, קִר

Lev 14:37, Num 22:25, Num 22:25, 1Sa 18:11, 1Sa 19:10, 1Sa 19:10, 1Sa 20:25, 1Ki 4:33

m s construct

קִיר, קִּיר

Lev 1:15, Lev 5:9, Jos 2:15, 1Ki 6:5, 2Ch 3:11, 2Ch 3:12, Ezk 4:3, Ezk 41:5

f p construct

קִירוֹת, קִירֹת

1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:6, 1Ki 6:15, 1Ki 6:15, 1Ki 6:29, 1Ch 29:4, Jer 4:19, Lev 14:37

f p absolute

קִּירוֹת

1Ki 6:16, 2Ch 3:7, Ezk 33:30, Ezk 41:25

f p construct

קִירֹתָיו, קִירוֹתָיו

Exo 30:3, Exo 37:26, Ezk 41:22, 2Ch 3:7

c s absolute

קִּיר

Jdg 16:13

f p construct

קִירוֹתֶיהָ

Ezk 41:13