A wall of protection
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H2346 names a wall or fortified barrier, often around a city, and can also be used figuratively for protection supplied by people, wealth, water, or God. The noun can describe built defenses, broken walls, walls under attack, water standing like a wall, imagined security, human protection, or Gods fiery defense, so material structure and metaphorical refuge must remain distinct.
Reader summary
Full entry for חוֹמָה (H2346) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2346 names a wall or fortified barrier, often around a city, and can also be used figuratively for protection supplied by people, wealth, water, or God. The noun can describe built defenses, broken walls, walls under attack, water standing like a wall, imagined security, human protection, or Gods fiery defense, so material structure and metaphorical refuge.
The BSB source-word alignment has 133 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the wall (39), the walls (12), wall (10), your walls (8), walls (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 14:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Nehemiah (32), Isaiah (13), Jeremiah (13), 2 Chronicles (12).
H2346 names a wall or fortified barrier, often around a city, and can also be used figuratively for protection supplied by people, wealth, water, or God. The noun can describe built defenses, broken walls, walls under attack, water standing like a wall, imagined security, human protection, or Gods fiery defense, so material structure and metaphorical refuge must remain distinct.
In Neh. 1. 3, visitors tell Nehemiah that Jerusalems surviving remnant lives in trouble and disgrace because the wall is broken and the gates burned. In Prov. 18. 11, the rich persons wealth appears to be a fortified city and a high wall, but the proverb locates that security in imagination. H2346 opens teaching on the protections people build, the breaches they grieve, the false walls they imagine, and the living protection only God can provide.
It corrects simplistic boundary language that treats every wall as faithful, and it challenges wealth, institutions, secrecy, or control when they function as imagined security rather than truthful protection. H2346 can reveal loss, illusion, and promise: Jerusalem survivors report a broken wall and public disgrace, Proverbs says wealth looks like a high wall in the rich persons imagination, and Zechariah promises the Lord as a wall of fire around an unwalled Jerusalem.
Built defenses matter, but they can fail; wealth can feel secure, but its wall is imagined; Gods presence protects without reducing His people to a closed fortress. For H2346, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. H2346 does not make every boundary loving, guarantee safety because a church has policies or buildings, condemn all walls and borders, or promise that believers will never suffer breach, displacement, or loss.
H2346 appears across passages that develop protection, vulnerable cities, breached defenses, imagined security, neighbor care, divine presence, judgment, rebuilding, and accountable boundaries. For H2346, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
Visitors tell Nehemiah that Jerusalems surviving remnant lives in trouble and disgrace because the wall is broken and the gates burned.
A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.
The rich persons wealth appears to be a fortified city and a high wall, but the proverb locates that security in imagination.
For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.’”
The Lord promises to be a wall of fire around Jerusalem and the glory within as the city expands beyond ordinary walls.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Walls function as both literal fortifications and metaphors for divine protection in covenantal contexts
Walls function as both literal fortifications and metaphors for divine protection in covenantal contexts
a wall of protection BDB: wall Usage: wall, walled.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 133 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2346 can reveal loss, illusion, and promise: Jerusalem survivors report a broken wall and public disgrace, Proverbs says wealth looks like a high wall in the rich persons imagination, and Zechariah promises the Lord as a wall of fire around an unwalled Jerusalem. Built defenses matter, but they can fail; wealth can feel secure, but its wall is imagined; Gods presence protects without reducing His people to a closed fortress.
H2346 names a wall or fortified barrier, often around a city, and can also be used figuratively for protection supplied by people, wealth, water, or God. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Neh. 1. 3 shows that visitors tell Nehemiah that Jerusalems surviving remnant lives in trouble and disgrace because the wall is broken and the gates burned, while Prov.
18. 11 Shows that the rich persons wealth appears to be a fortified city and a high wall, but the proverb locates that security in imagination. Zech. 2. 5 adds that the Lord promises to be a wall of fire around Jerusalem and the glory within as the city expands beyond ordinary walls. H2346 opens teaching on the protections people build, the breaches they grieve, the false walls they imagine, and the living protection only God can provide.
It corrects simplistic boundary language that treats every wall as faithful, and it challenges wealth, institutions, secrecy, or control when they function as imagined security rather than truthful protection. A church teaching H2346 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
H2346 does not make every boundary loving, guarantee safety because a church has policies or buildings, condemn all walls and borders, or promise that believers will never suffer breach, displacement, or loss.
Neh.1.3
H2346 is a Hebrew noun for a wall, especially a citys defensive wall, and can be extended metaphorically to protection, enclosure, or a barrier-like mass.
Jerusalems walls embody security, ruin, rebuilding, and communal responsibility, while prophets also locate true glory and protection in God. The New Testament describes a reconciled people, accountable watchfulness, and the final city secured by Gods presence rather than human wealth or exclusion.