Kābâ concerns going out or extinguishing, with literal fire and figurative applications requiring their separate settings. Leviticus 6:12 says the altar fire must not be extinguished and immediately assigns the priest work of adding wood and arranging the offering.
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Full entry for כָּבָה (H3518) · Open the biblical lexicon
Kābâ concerns going out or extinguishing, with literal fire and figurative applications requiring their separate settings. Leviticus 6:12 says the altar fire must not be extinguished and immediately assigns the priest work of adding wood and arranging the offering.
The BSB source-word alignment has 24 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include be quenched (6), be extinguished (4), to extinguish it (2), an unquenchable (1), and extinguished (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 6:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (5), Jeremiah (4), Ezekiel (3), 2 Chronicles (2).
Kābâ concerns going out or extinguishing, with literal fire and figurative applications requiring their separate settings. Leviticus 6:12 says the altar fire must not be extinguished and immediately assigns the priest work of adding wood and arranging the offering. Proverbs 26:20 observes that fire goes out without wood and compares that cessation with conflict ending when gossip is absent. Neither passage makes fire imagery one universal instruction for emotional intensity.
Isaiah 42:3 says the servant will not extinguish a smoldering wick while faithfully bringing justice. Song of Songs 8:7 describes love that mighty waters cannot quench, within poetry that also rejects purchasing love with household wealth. Teaching should explain what is preserved or what ceases rather than using unquenched love to require enduring abuse or altar flame to demand constant exertion. The selected fire images do not settle every other judgment-fire passage or authorize a private canonical decision about its duration and referent.
Maintained altar fire, conflict deprived of gossip, a fragile wick preserved by the servant and love beyond purchase use extinguishing in differing contexts. Each passage identifies what should continue or cease without one universal rule about passion or endurance.
The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it.
The fire must remain burning while the priest adds wood and arranges the offering. The command belongs to altar service rather than a requirement for unbroken personal emotional intensity.
Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases.
A woodless fire's cessation is compared with conflict lacking gossip. The following quarrelsome-person image identifies fuel for strife without forbidding truthful reports of harm.
A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
The servant does not extinguish a smoldering wick and faithfully brings justice. Tender handling of fragility belongs with that justice, not with denial of wrongdoing.
Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.
Love is portrayed as unquenched by mighty waters and unavailable for purchase with wealth. The poetic description does not require a harmed person to remain in a dangerous relationship.
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. Extinguishing literal fire metaphorically represents suppressing or ending anger, rebellion, or divine judgment.
Extinguishing literal fire metaphorically represents suppressing or ending anger, rebellion, or divine judgment.
to expire or (causatively) to extinguish (fire, light, anger) BDB: be quenched Usage: go (put) out, quench.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
כָּבָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Leviticus requires maintained fire in a particular service setting, including the priest's practical work. Proverbs gives a contrasting purpose: a fire loses fuel and ceases, just as conflict can lose the gossip that feeds it. Preserving every flame is therefore no universal moral rule, and the gossip comparison must not be used to silence a factual report that helps protect someone from harm.
Isaiah's servant preserves a fragile wick while bringing justice, holding gentleness and accountability together. Matthew 12:15-21 explicitly applies the Isaiah passage to Jesus, providing a textual connection that does not need speculative fire symbolism. Song of Songs portrays love beyond quenching and purchase, but its poetry cannot make another person's coercion acceptable or prescribe remaining exposed to injury. The selected uses teach attention to what the image does in its passage. They do not authorize this private study to resolve every judgment-fire text or turn durability into unlimited personal availability.
Isa.42.3
The verb expresses going out, being quenched or extinguishing according to construction and actor. Whether that cessation is required or refused depends on the object: altar flame, gossip-fed conflict, a fragile wick and poetic love cannot share one automatic moral verdict.
Matthew 12:15-21 explicitly identifies Jesus' conduct with the Isaiah servant witness and quotes the smoldering wick not extinguished. This is a direct textual connection for that passage. It does not make every kābâ use a Christ symbol or resolve the meaning and duration of all unquenched judgment-fire passages.