Coal
VIEW:43 DATA:01-04-2020
COAL.Mineral coal was unknown in Bible times. Wherever coal (or coals) is mentioned, therefore, we must in the great majority of cases understand wood or charcoal. Several species of wood used for heating purposes are named in Isa_44:14-16, to which Psa_120:4 adds coals of broom (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). In two cases, however, the live coal of Isaiahs vision (Isa_6:6) and the coals on which was a cake haken for Elijah (1Ki_19:6), the Heb. word denotes a hot stone (so RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] see Bread). The charcoal was generally burned in a brasier (Jer_36:22 ff. RV [Note: Revised Version.] , AV [Note: Authorized Version.] hearth) or chafing-dish, the pan of fire of Zec_12:6 RV [Note: Revised Version.] . See, further, House, § 7.
Coal, or rather charcoal, supplies several Scripture metaphors, the most interesting of which is illustrated by the expression of the wise woman of Tekoa, thus shall they quench my coal that is left (2Sa_14:7). By this she means, as shown by the following words, the death of her son and the extinction of her family, an idea elsewhere expressed as a putting out of ones lamp (Pro_13:9).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
pecham, "a black coal," and gachelath, "burning coals." Pro_26:21; "as coals (fuel) are to burning coals," etc.; so we speak of quarrelsome men "adding fuel to the flame." "Coals of fire" in 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, represent the lightning of God's wrath. In Pro_25:22, "heap coals of fire upon thine enemy's head" (Rom_12:20), the meaning is, melt him into burning shame at his own unworthy hatred, and love for thee who hast overcome his evil with thy good. Either he shall be like metals melted by fire or like clay hardened by it. In Psa_120:4 "coals of juniper" rather burning brands of broom, retamim. The Arabs regard the retem (broom) the best firewood.
As their slanders burnt like coals on fire, so, by righteous retribution in kind, God will give them hot coals. Psa_140:10; Psa_18:12-13; compare the same image of the tongue, Jas_3:6. In 2Sa_14:7 "they shall quench my coal that is left," i.e., extinguish the only surviving light of my home, my only son. In Isa_6:6 and 1Ki_19:6 the "coals" are in the Hebrew (rezeph) hot stones, on which cakes were baked and flesh cooked. In Hab_3:5 (resheph) "burning coals" poetically and figuratively express "burning diseases," as the parallel "pestilence" shows; also compare Deu_32:24; Psa_91:6. In Lam_4:8 translate as margin darker than blackness." Mineral coal protrudes through the strata to the surface of parts of Lebanon, at Cornale, eight miles from Beirut, the coal seams are three feet thick; but it seems not to have been anciently known as fuel. Charcoal is what is meant by "coal."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Coal. The first and most frequent use of the word rendered coal is a live ember, burning fuel. Pro_26:21. In 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, "coals of fire" are put metaphorically, for the lightning, s proceeding from God. Psa_18:8; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10. In Pro_26:21, fuel, not yet lighted, is clearly signified. The fuel meant in the above passage is probably charcoal, and not coal in our sense of the word.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
kōl (פחם, peḥam, ?charcoal?; compare Arabic faḥm, ?charcoal?; גּחלת, gaḥeleth, ?burning coal? or ?hot ember?; compare Arabic jaḥam, ?to kindle?; שׁחור, sheḥōr, ?a black coal? (Lam_4:8); compare Arabic shaḥḥār, ?soot? or ?dark-colored sandstone?; רצף, receph (1Ki_19:6), and רצפה, ricpāh (= Rizpah) (Isa_6:6), margin ?a hot stone?; compare רשׁף, resheph, ?a flame? (Son_8:6; Hab_3:5); ἄνθραξ, ánthrax, ?a live coal? (Rom_12:20) (= gaḥeleth in Pro_25:22); ανθρακια, ἀνθρακιά, anthrakiá, ?a live coal? (Joh_18:18; Joh_21:9)): There is no reference to mineral coal in the Bible. Coal, or more properly lignite, of inferior quality, is found in thin beds (not exceeding 3 ft.) in the sandstone formation (see GEOLOGY, Nubian Sandstone), but there is no evidence of its use in ancient times. Charcoal is manufactured in a primitive fashion which does not permit the conservation of any by-products. A flat, circular place (Arabic beidar, same name as for a threshing-floor) 10 or 15 ft. in diameter is prepared in or conveniently near to the forest. On this the wood, to be converted into charcoal, is carefully stacked in a dome-shaped structure, leaving an open space in the middle for fine kindlings. All except the center is first covered with leaves, and then with earth. The kindlings in the center are then fired and afterward covered in the same manner as the rest. While it is burning or smoldering it is carefully watched, and earth is immediately placed upon any holes that may be formed in the covering by the burning of the wood below. In several days, more or less, according to the size of the pile, the wood is converted into charcoal and the heap is opened. The charcoal floor is also called in Arabic mashḥarah, from shaḥḥār, ?soot?; compare Hebrew sheḥōř. The characteristic odor of the mashḥarah clings for months to the spot.
In Psa_120:4, there is mention of ?coals of juniper,? the Revised Version, margin ?broom,? rōthem. This is doubtless the Arabic retem, Retama roetam, Forsk., a kind of broom which is abundant in Judea and Moab. Charcoal from oak wood, especially Quercus coccifera, L., Arabic sindyān, is much preferred to other kinds, and fetches a higher price.
In most of the passages where English versions have ?coal,? the reference is not necessarily to charcoal, but may be to coals of burning wood. Peḥam in Pro_26:21, however, seems to stand for charcoal:
?As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire,
So is a contentious man to inflame strife.?
The same may be true of peḥam in Isa_44:12 and Isa_54:16; also of sheḥōr in Lam_4:8.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
It is generally assumed that, in those numerous passages of our version in which the word coal occurs, charcoal, or some other kind of artificial fuel, is to be understood; at all events, that the word has not its English meaning. The idea is founded upon the supposition that fossil coal was not known to the ancients as an article of fuel, and especially to the ancient inhabitants of Syria, whose country it is generally imagined did not produce it. But the existence of coal in Syria is now placed beyond a doubt. Many indications of coal occur in the Lebanon Mountains; the seams of this mineral even protrude through the superincumbent strata in various directions. At Cornale, eight hours from Beirut, at 2500 feet above the level of the sea, where the coal seams are three feet in thickness, a mine is actually being worked by order of Mohammed Ali, in which more than 100 men are employed. The coal is of good quality, and mixed with iron pyrites. In 1837 the quantity of coal extracted was 14,700 cantars of 217 okes, each making about 4000 tons. A furnace for smelting the ore and a railroad to convey the coals to Beirut were then in contemplation.
It appears from the testimony of Theophrastus that pit-coal was used by artificers in Greece, nearly 300 years B.C., and the well-ascertained existence of coal in Syria, emerging to the very surface, may, in conjunction with some particulars respecting the mention of coal in the Scriptures, tend to show the possibility that coal, in the proper sense, was not wholly unknown or unemployed by the ancient Hebrews, etc.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Psa_120:4 (b) The evil words of hostile enemies are compared to coals that burn and hurt when they strike.
Pro_6:23 (b) This is a figure to describe the fact that those who live in sin are defiled and hurt by sin even as those who walk upon coals are burned by them.
Isa_6:6 (b) The purging power of a live coal which destroys germs and corruption is here used to illustrate the effect of the Lord Himself in touching human life to purge, cleanse, and blot out the sins.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Coal
(Sept. and N.T. ἄνθραξ) is a translation usually of one or the other of two Heb. words, viz., גִּחֶלֶת (gachleeth, literally a kindling, ruina), which signifies an ignited or live coal, and is of frequent occurrence (2Sa_14:7; 2Sa_22:9; Job_40:21; Psa_18:8; Psa_120:4; Isa_44:19; Isa_47:14; Eze_24:11), often with the emphatic addition of burning or of fire (Lev_16:12; 2Sa_22:13; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10; Pro_6:28; Pro_25:22; Pro_26:21; Ezekiel 2:13; Eze_10:2), and פֶּחָם (pecham', literally black, carbo), which properly signifies a coal quenched and not reignited, or charcoal (Pro_26:21, where the distinction between this and the former term is clearly made, as coals [pecham] are to burning coals [gacheleth]), and hence an ignited coal (Isa_44:12; Isa_54:16). SEE FUEL.
Two other Heb. terms (erroneously) rendered coal are, רַצְפָּה (ritspah', live coal, Isa_6:6, literally a pavement, as elsewhere rendered), which appears to nave been a hot stone used for baking upon; רֶשֶׁ (re'sheph), properly flames (to which jealousy is compared, Son_8:6), and hence pestilential fever (Hab_3:5; burning heat, Deu_22:24; elsewhere a spark, Job_5:7; thunderbolt, Psa_78:48); and רֶצֶ (re'tseph, spoken of a cake baken on the coals), which appears to be cognate to both the preceding words and to combine their meaning, and may thus designate (as explained by the Rabbias a coal, Sept. ἐγκρυφία, Vulg. subcinericus) a loaf baked among the embers. SEE BREAD.
In Lam_4:8, their visage is blacker than a coal, the word is שֶׁחוֹר (shechor'), which simply means blackness, as in the margin. In the New Testament, the fire of coals (ἀνθρακία, Joh_18:18) evidently means a mass of live charcoal, used in a chafing-dish for warming in the East, and so explained by Suidas and parallel instances in the Apocrypha (Sir_8:10; Sir_11:32). The substance indicated in all the foregoing passages is doubtless charcoal, although anthracite or bituminous coal has been found in Palestine in modern times (see Browning's Report; also Elliot, 2:257). SEE MINERAL.
In 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, coals of fire' are put metaphorically for the lightnings proceeding from God (Psa_18:8; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10). In Pro_25:22, we have the proverbial expression Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,' which has been adopted by Paul in Rom_12:20, and by which is metaphorically expressed the burning shame and confusion which men must feel when their evil is requited by good. (See the essays on this text by Heinrich [Lug-d. B. 1716], Wahner [Gott. 1740].), In like manner, the Arabs speak of coals of the heart, fire of the liver, to denote burning care, anxiety, remorse, and shame (Gesen. Thesaur. Heb. p. 280). In Psa_120:4, coals' burning brands of wood (not juniper,' but broom), to which the false tongue is compared (Jam_3:6). In 2Sa_14:7, the quenching of the live coal is used to indicate the threatened destruction of the single remaining branch of the family of the widow of Tekoah suborned by Joab; just as Lucian (Timothy § 3) uses the word ζώπυρον in the same connection. SEE FIRE.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Coal, or rather charcoal, supplies several Scripture metaphors, the most interesting of which is illustrated by the expression of the wise woman of Tekoa, thus shall they quench my coal that is left (2Sa_14:7). By this she means, as shown by the following words, the death of her son and the extinction of her family, an idea elsewhere expressed as a putting out of ones lamp (Pro_13:9).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
pecham, "a black coal," and gachelath, "burning coals." Pro_26:21; "as coals (fuel) are to burning coals," etc.; so we speak of quarrelsome men "adding fuel to the flame." "Coals of fire" in 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, represent the lightning of God's wrath. In Pro_25:22, "heap coals of fire upon thine enemy's head" (Rom_12:20), the meaning is, melt him into burning shame at his own unworthy hatred, and love for thee who hast overcome his evil with thy good. Either he shall be like metals melted by fire or like clay hardened by it. In Psa_120:4 "coals of juniper" rather burning brands of broom, retamim. The Arabs regard the retem (broom) the best firewood.
As their slanders burnt like coals on fire, so, by righteous retribution in kind, God will give them hot coals. Psa_140:10; Psa_18:12-13; compare the same image of the tongue, Jas_3:6. In 2Sa_14:7 "they shall quench my coal that is left," i.e., extinguish the only surviving light of my home, my only son. In Isa_6:6 and 1Ki_19:6 the "coals" are in the Hebrew (rezeph) hot stones, on which cakes were baked and flesh cooked. In Hab_3:5 (resheph) "burning coals" poetically and figuratively express "burning diseases," as the parallel "pestilence" shows; also compare Deu_32:24; Psa_91:6. In Lam_4:8 translate as margin darker than blackness." Mineral coal protrudes through the strata to the surface of parts of Lebanon, at Cornale, eight miles from Beirut, the coal seams are three feet thick; but it seems not to have been anciently known as fuel. Charcoal is what is meant by "coal."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Coal. The first and most frequent use of the word rendered coal is a live ember, burning fuel. Pro_26:21. In 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, "coals of fire" are put metaphorically, for the lightning, s proceeding from God. Psa_18:8; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10. In Pro_26:21, fuel, not yet lighted, is clearly signified. The fuel meant in the above passage is probably charcoal, and not coal in our sense of the word.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
kōl (פחם, peḥam, ?charcoal?; compare Arabic faḥm, ?charcoal?; גּחלת, gaḥeleth, ?burning coal? or ?hot ember?; compare Arabic jaḥam, ?to kindle?; שׁחור, sheḥōr, ?a black coal? (Lam_4:8); compare Arabic shaḥḥār, ?soot? or ?dark-colored sandstone?; רצף, receph (1Ki_19:6), and רצפה, ricpāh (= Rizpah) (Isa_6:6), margin ?a hot stone?; compare רשׁף, resheph, ?a flame? (Son_8:6; Hab_3:5); ἄνθραξ, ánthrax, ?a live coal? (Rom_12:20) (= gaḥeleth in Pro_25:22); ανθρακια, ἀνθρακιά, anthrakiá, ?a live coal? (Joh_18:18; Joh_21:9)): There is no reference to mineral coal in the Bible. Coal, or more properly lignite, of inferior quality, is found in thin beds (not exceeding 3 ft.) in the sandstone formation (see GEOLOGY, Nubian Sandstone), but there is no evidence of its use in ancient times. Charcoal is manufactured in a primitive fashion which does not permit the conservation of any by-products. A flat, circular place (Arabic beidar, same name as for a threshing-floor) 10 or 15 ft. in diameter is prepared in or conveniently near to the forest. On this the wood, to be converted into charcoal, is carefully stacked in a dome-shaped structure, leaving an open space in the middle for fine kindlings. All except the center is first covered with leaves, and then with earth. The kindlings in the center are then fired and afterward covered in the same manner as the rest. While it is burning or smoldering it is carefully watched, and earth is immediately placed upon any holes that may be formed in the covering by the burning of the wood below. In several days, more or less, according to the size of the pile, the wood is converted into charcoal and the heap is opened. The charcoal floor is also called in Arabic mashḥarah, from shaḥḥār, ?soot?; compare Hebrew sheḥōř. The characteristic odor of the mashḥarah clings for months to the spot.
In Psa_120:4, there is mention of ?coals of juniper,? the Revised Version, margin ?broom,? rōthem. This is doubtless the Arabic retem, Retama roetam, Forsk., a kind of broom which is abundant in Judea and Moab. Charcoal from oak wood, especially Quercus coccifera, L., Arabic sindyān, is much preferred to other kinds, and fetches a higher price.
In most of the passages where English versions have ?coal,? the reference is not necessarily to charcoal, but may be to coals of burning wood. Peḥam in Pro_26:21, however, seems to stand for charcoal:
?As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire,
So is a contentious man to inflame strife.?
The same may be true of peḥam in Isa_44:12 and Isa_54:16; also of sheḥōr in Lam_4:8.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
It is generally assumed that, in those numerous passages of our version in which the word coal occurs, charcoal, or some other kind of artificial fuel, is to be understood; at all events, that the word has not its English meaning. The idea is founded upon the supposition that fossil coal was not known to the ancients as an article of fuel, and especially to the ancient inhabitants of Syria, whose country it is generally imagined did not produce it. But the existence of coal in Syria is now placed beyond a doubt. Many indications of coal occur in the Lebanon Mountains; the seams of this mineral even protrude through the superincumbent strata in various directions. At Cornale, eight hours from Beirut, at 2500 feet above the level of the sea, where the coal seams are three feet in thickness, a mine is actually being worked by order of Mohammed Ali, in which more than 100 men are employed. The coal is of good quality, and mixed with iron pyrites. In 1837 the quantity of coal extracted was 14,700 cantars of 217 okes, each making about 4000 tons. A furnace for smelting the ore and a railroad to convey the coals to Beirut were then in contemplation.
It appears from the testimony of Theophrastus that pit-coal was used by artificers in Greece, nearly 300 years B.C., and the well-ascertained existence of coal in Syria, emerging to the very surface, may, in conjunction with some particulars respecting the mention of coal in the Scriptures, tend to show the possibility that coal, in the proper sense, was not wholly unknown or unemployed by the ancient Hebrews, etc.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Psa_120:4 (b) The evil words of hostile enemies are compared to coals that burn and hurt when they strike.
Pro_6:23 (b) This is a figure to describe the fact that those who live in sin are defiled and hurt by sin even as those who walk upon coals are burned by them.
Isa_6:6 (b) The purging power of a live coal which destroys germs and corruption is here used to illustrate the effect of the Lord Himself in touching human life to purge, cleanse, and blot out the sins.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Coal
(Sept. and N.T. ἄνθραξ) is a translation usually of one or the other of two Heb. words, viz., גִּחֶלֶת (gachleeth, literally a kindling, ruina), which signifies an ignited or live coal, and is of frequent occurrence (2Sa_14:7; 2Sa_22:9; Job_40:21; Psa_18:8; Psa_120:4; Isa_44:19; Isa_47:14; Eze_24:11), often with the emphatic addition of burning or of fire (Lev_16:12; 2Sa_22:13; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10; Pro_6:28; Pro_25:22; Pro_26:21; Ezekiel 2:13; Eze_10:2), and פֶּחָם (pecham', literally black, carbo), which properly signifies a coal quenched and not reignited, or charcoal (Pro_26:21, where the distinction between this and the former term is clearly made, as coals [pecham] are to burning coals [gacheleth]), and hence an ignited coal (Isa_44:12; Isa_54:16). SEE FUEL.
Two other Heb. terms (erroneously) rendered coal are, רַצְפָּה (ritspah', live coal, Isa_6:6, literally a pavement, as elsewhere rendered), which appears to nave been a hot stone used for baking upon; רֶשֶׁ (re'sheph), properly flames (to which jealousy is compared, Son_8:6), and hence pestilential fever (Hab_3:5; burning heat, Deu_22:24; elsewhere a spark, Job_5:7; thunderbolt, Psa_78:48); and רֶצֶ (re'tseph, spoken of a cake baken on the coals), which appears to be cognate to both the preceding words and to combine their meaning, and may thus designate (as explained by the Rabbias a coal, Sept. ἐγκρυφία, Vulg. subcinericus) a loaf baked among the embers. SEE BREAD.
In Lam_4:8, their visage is blacker than a coal, the word is שֶׁחוֹר (shechor'), which simply means blackness, as in the margin. In the New Testament, the fire of coals (ἀνθρακία, Joh_18:18) evidently means a mass of live charcoal, used in a chafing-dish for warming in the East, and so explained by Suidas and parallel instances in the Apocrypha (Sir_8:10; Sir_11:32). The substance indicated in all the foregoing passages is doubtless charcoal, although anthracite or bituminous coal has been found in Palestine in modern times (see Browning's Report; also Elliot, 2:257). SEE MINERAL.
In 2Sa_22:9; 2Sa_22:13, coals of fire' are put metaphorically for the lightnings proceeding from God (Psa_18:8; Psa_18:12-13; Psa_140:10). In Pro_25:22, we have the proverbial expression Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,' which has been adopted by Paul in Rom_12:20, and by which is metaphorically expressed the burning shame and confusion which men must feel when their evil is requited by good. (See the essays on this text by Heinrich [Lug-d. B. 1716], Wahner [Gott. 1740].), In like manner, the Arabs speak of coals of the heart, fire of the liver, to denote burning care, anxiety, remorse, and shame (Gesen. Thesaur. Heb. p. 280). In Psa_120:4, coals' burning brands of wood (not juniper,' but broom), to which the false tongue is compared (Jam_3:6). In 2Sa_14:7, the quenching of the live coal is used to indicate the threatened destruction of the single remaining branch of the family of the widow of Tekoah suborned by Joab; just as Lucian (Timothy § 3) uses the word ζώπυρον in the same connection. SEE FIRE.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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