To be (causatively, set ) on fire
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שָׂרַף (saraph) is a Hebrew verb meaning to burn, burn up, consume by fire, or incinerate. Its objects vary widely: bricks are fired, Passover leftovers and sacrificial remains are burned, contaminated cloth is destroyed, an idol is burned and ground, cities and buildings are burned in war, a royal scroll is burned, bones are burned, and bodies are burned in episodes of law, violence, or burial.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׂרַף (H8313) · Open the biblical lexicon
שָׂרַף (saraph) is a Hebrew verb meaning to burn, burn up, consume by fire, or incinerate. Its objects vary widely: bricks are fired, Passover leftovers and sacrificial remains are burned, contaminated cloth is destroyed, an idol is burned and ground, cities and buildings are burned in war, a royal scroll is burned, bones are burned, and bodies are burned.
The BSB source-word alignment has 117 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and burned (6), . . . (5), he burned (4), - (3), and burn (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 11:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (23), Leviticus (21), 2 Kings (11), Joshua (9).
שָׂרַף (saraph) is a Hebrew verb meaning to burn, burn up, consume by fire, or incinerate. Its objects vary widely: bricks are fired, Passover leftovers and sacrificial remains are burned, contaminated cloth is destroyed, an idol is burned and ground, cities and buildings are burned in war, a royal scroll is burned, bones are burned, and bodies are burned in episodes of law, violence, or burial. The verb identifies the burning action but does not make every fire sacrificial, purifying, divine, or morally approved.
Torah assigns particular burning procedures to particular covenant settings and also condemns burning children as an abominable practice. Prophets announce or narrate fires of judgment, while Jeremiah 36 portrays officials refusing to fear when the king cuts and burns the prophetic scroll. Historical conquest accounts contain destruction that belongs to Israel's narrated land and covenant setting. Psalm 46, by contrast, celebrates the ending of wars through the burning of military equipment.
H8313 does not occur in the fire that consumes the offering in Leviticus 9, the deaths in Leviticus 10, the wilderness fire of Numbers 11, or Isaiah's seraphim and altar-coal scene. Those passages use other words or the related noun H8314 and cannot define this verb's direct usage. No ancient burning command authorizes arson, destruction of another religion's property, book burning, cremation shaming, execution, self-harm, or violence against a person today.
H8313 describes physical burning in domestic, sacrificial, purity, judicial, anti-idolatry, warfare, prophetic, royal, burial, and poetic settings. Its theological force follows the object and governing context.
The builders of Babel burn bricks thoroughly for construction, an ordinary technological use of the verb.
Israel is to burn any Passover meat remaining until morning, a specific household ritual instruction.
Moses burns the calf, grinds it, scatters it on water, and makes Israel drink, publicly dismantling the object of apostasy.
A garment or leather article with a persistent destructive condition is to be burned, a material-disposal rule within purity instruction.
Israel is warned not to imitate nations that burn sons and daughters in worship, explicitly condemning human sacrifice.
Officials urge King Jehoiakim not to burn Jeremiah's scroll, but he refuses, making destruction of testimony an act of royal resistance.
Moab is condemned for burning the bones of Edom's king to lime, an act of desecration in a judgment oracle.
God ends wars, breaks weapons, and burns shields, directing destructive fire toward the cessation of armed conflict.
Jericho and its contents are burned within the book's conquest account, a historically and theologically bounded narrative of warfare.
Valiant men recover Saul and his sons from Beth-shan, burn the bodies, bury the bones, and mourn, an exceptional burial response after desecration.
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. Destructive fire consuming completely; used of God's judgment incinerating offerings or enemies utterly
Destructive fire consuming completely; used of God's judgment incinerating offerings or enemies utterly
to be (causatively, set) on fire BDB: burn Usage: (cause to, make a) burn((-ing), up) kindle, × utterly.
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 117 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׂרַף is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8313 rewards exact lexical discipline. The old theological shortcut that joined Leviticus 9:24, Leviticus 10:2, Numbers 11:1, and Isaiah 6 under this verb is not supported by the Hebrew rows. The direct corpus is more materially diverse and ethically demanding: brick manufacture, ritual leftovers, contaminated objects, idolatrous images, cities, a prophetic scroll, human sacrifice, desecrated bones, weapons, and bodies.
The object and context decide whether burning is ordinary craft, regulated disposal, protest, reform, warfare, judgment, crime, or mourning. Deuteronomy's condemnation of child sacrifice and Amos's condemnation of bone desecration must shape pastoral safety. Conquest and reform accounts do not authorize attacks on people, libraries, art, houses of worship, or private property.
Cremation and burial practices require cultural and pastoral care without declaring that fire determines resurrection. Fire fascination, threats, arson plans, or urges toward self-immolation demand immediate safety intervention and qualified emergency or clinical help.
Exod.12.10
H8313 is a verb of physical burning. H8314 is the related noun used for a fiery serpent or seraph, including the plural seraphim in Isaiah 6. Other common Hebrew verbs describe kindling, burning, eating, or consuming by fire. Shared fire imagery does not establish a shared lexical identity.
New Testament fire, burning, sacrifice, judgment, testing, and the Spirit use Greek vocabulary and many different images. Those texts require direct study. They do not retroactively place H8313 in every Old Testament fire scene or make physical burning a universal sign of purification.