Reference: Coal
American
Usually in Scripture, charcoal, or the embers of fire. Mineral coal is now procured in mount Lebanon, eight hours from Beirut; but we have no certainty that it was known and used by the Jews. The following passages are those which most strongly suggest this substance, 2Sa 22:9,13; Job 41:21.
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Smoke went up in his anger, And fire from his mouth shall consume: Coals were kindled from it
From the shining before him were coals of fire kindled:
His soul will kindle coals, and a flame will go forth from his mouth.
Easton
It is by no means certain that the Hebrews were acquainted with mineral coal, although it is found in Syria. Their common fuel was dried dung of animals and wood charcoal. Two different words are found in Hebrew to denote coal, both occurring in Pr 26:21, "As coal [Heb. peham; i.e., "black coal"] is to burning coal [Heb. gehalim]." The latter of these words is used in Job 41:21; Pr 6:28; Isa 44:19. The words "live coal" in Isa 6:6 are more correctly "glowing stone." In La 4:8 the expression "blacker than a coal" is literally rendered in the margin of the Revised Version "darker than blackness." "Coals of fire" (2Sa 22:9,13; Ps 18:8,12-13, etc.) is an expression used metaphorically for lightnings proceeding from God. A false tongue is compared to "coals of juniper" (Ps 120:4; Jas 3:6). "Heaping coals of fire on the head" symbolizes overcoming evil with good. The words of Paul (Ro 12:20) are equivalent to saying, "By charity and kindness thou shalt soften down his enmity as surely as heaping coals on the fire fuses the metal in the crucible."
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Smoke went up in his anger, And fire from his mouth shall consume: Coals were kindled from it
From the shining before him were coals of fire kindled:
His soul will kindle coals, and a flame will go forth from his mouth.
A smoke went up in his anger, and fire from his mouth will consume, and coals were kindled from it.
From the brightness before him the clouds passed over, hail and coals of fire. And Jehovah will thunder in the heavens, and the Most High will give his voice; hail and coals of fire.
Arrows of the strong one sharpened with burning coals of broom.
If a man shall go upon burning coals shall his feet not be burnt?
As charcoal to burning coals and woods to fire, and a man of strifes to kindle strife.
And one from the seraphs will fly to me, and in his hand a hot stone, he took with the tongs from off the altar:
And none will set to his heart; and not knowledge, and not understanding to say, Half of it I burnt in the fire; and also I baked bread upon its coals; I will roast flesh and eat: and its remainder shall I make for an abomination? shall I fall down to a trunk of wood?
Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.
If therefore thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for doing this, thou shalt heap up-coals of fire on his head.
(And the tongue a fire, a world of iniquity: so the tongue is placed in our members, defiling the whole body, and burning the wheel of creation; and burned by hell.
Fausets
pecham, "a black coal," and gachelath, "burning coals." Pr 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 22:9,13, represent the lightning of God's wrath. In Pr 25:22, "heap coals of fire upon thine enemy's head" (Ro 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 Ps 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. Ps 140:10; 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 De 32:24; Ps 91:6. In La 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."
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Exhausted with hunger, consumed with burning, And bitter destruction: And I will send upon them the tooth of beasts, With the wrath of those crawlers of the dust
Exhausted with hunger, consumed with burning, And bitter destruction: And I will send upon them the tooth of beasts, With the wrath of those crawlers of the dust
And behold, all the family rose up against thy servant, and they will say, Give him striking his brother and we will kill him for the soul of his brother whom he slew; and they destroyed also the heir, and quenched my coal which was left, so that name was not set to my husband and remainder upon the face of the earth.
And behold, all the family rose up against thy servant, and they will say, Give him striking his brother and we will kill him for the soul of his brother whom he slew; and they destroyed also the heir, and quenched my coal which was left, so that name was not set to my husband and remainder upon the face of the earth.
Smoke went up in his anger, And fire from his mouth shall consume: Coals were kindled from it
Smoke went up in his anger, And fire from his mouth shall consume: Coals were kindled from it
From the shining before him were coals of fire kindled:
From the shining before him were coals of fire kindled:
And he will look, and behold, from his head cakes baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water: and he will eat and drink, and turn back and lie down.
And he will look, and behold, from his head cakes baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water: and he will eat and drink, and turn back and lie down.
From the brightness before him the clouds passed over, hail and coals of fire.
From the brightness before him the clouds passed over, hail and coals of fire. And Jehovah will thunder in the heavens, and the Most High will give his voice; hail and coals of fire.
And Jehovah will thunder in the heavens, and the Most High will give his voice; hail and coals of fire.
From the word that shall go in darkness: from the cutting off that shall lay waste the noon-day.
From the word that shall go in darkness: from the cutting off that shall lay waste the noon-day.
Arrows of the strong one sharpened with burning coals of broom.
Arrows of the strong one sharpened with burning coals of broom.
Burning coals shall be shaken upon them; he shall cast them into fire, into whirlpools; they shall not rise up.
Burning coals shall be shaken upon them; he shall cast them into fire, into whirlpools; they shall not rise up.
For thou tookest up coals of fire upon his head, and Jehovah will recompense to thee.
For thou tookest up coals of fire upon his head, and Jehovah will recompense to thee.
As charcoal to burning coals and woods to fire, and a man of strifes to kindle strife.
As charcoal to burning coals and woods to fire, and a man of strifes to kindle strife.
And one from the seraphs will fly to me, and in his hand a hot stone, he took with the tongs from off the altar:
And one from the seraphs will fly to me, and in his hand a hot stone, he took with the tongs from off the altar:
Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.
Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.
Before his face shall go the word, and a flame will go forth at his feet.
Before his face shall go the word, and a flame will go forth at his feet.
If therefore thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for doing this, thou shalt heap up-coals of fire on his head.
If therefore thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for doing this, thou shalt heap up-coals of fire on his head.
(And the tongue a fire, a world of iniquity: so the tongue is placed in our members, defiling the whole body, and burning the wheel of creation; and burned by hell.
(And the tongue a fire, a world of iniquity: so the tongue is placed in our members, defiling the whole body, and burning the wheel of creation; and burned by hell.
Hastings
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 Ps 120:4 adds 'coals of broom' (Revised Version margin). In two cases, however, the 'live coal' of Isaiah's 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 Revised Version margin
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And behold, all the family rose up against thy servant, and they will say, Give him striking his brother and we will kill him for the soul of his brother whom he slew; and they destroyed also the heir, and quenched my coal which was left, so that name was not set to my husband and remainder upon the face of the earth.
And he will look, and behold, from his head cakes baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water: and he will eat and drink, and turn back and lie down.
Arrows of the strong one sharpened with burning coals of broom.
The light of the just shall rejoice: and the lamp of the unjust shall be quenched.
And one from the seraphs will fly to me, and in his hand a hot stone, he took with the tongs from off the altar:
To cut down for him cedars, and he will take the fir tree and the oak, and he will strengthen for himself among the trees of the forest: he planted an ash and the rain will cause to grow. And it was for a man to burn: and he will take from them and he will be warmed; also he will kindle, and bake bread; also he will make a god, and he will worship; he made it a carved image, and he will fall down to them. read more. Half of it he burnt in the fire; upon half of it he will eat flesh; he will roast roast, and he will be satisfied: also he will be warm, and he will say, Aha, I was warm, I saw the light
And the king will sit in the winter house in the ninth month, and a furnace burning before him.
In that day I will set the thousands of Judah as a fire-pan of fire among the woods, and as a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they devoured upon the right and upon the left all the peoples round about: and Jerusalem shall yet dwell in her place in Jerusalem.
Morish
Mineral coal is now known to exist in the Lebanon range, but was unknown in Biblical times. Fires were seldom needed for warmth, and were as a rule used only for the cooking of food: the fire named in Joh 18:18 was in the night; food was cooked by charcoal or by warming the ovens with any vegetable refuse. The coal generally referred to in the O.T. was charcoal; but other words are used which imply the hot or glowing stones on which cakes were cooked. 1Ki 19:6; Cant. 8:6; Isa 6:6; Hab 3:5.
Heaping coals of fire on an enemy's head by kindness (Pr 25:21-22; Ro 12:20) becomes a test to him (as metal is tested by the fire), the kindness shown him will either bring about contrition and friendship, or harden him yet the more.
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And he will look, and behold, from his head cakes baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water: and he will eat and drink, and turn back and lie down.
If thine enemy hunger, give him bread to eat; and if he thirst, give him water to drink: For thou tookest up coals of fire upon his head, and Jehovah will recompense to thee.
And one from the seraphs will fly to me, and in his hand a hot stone, he took with the tongs from off the altar:
Before his face shall go the word, and a flame will go forth at his feet.
And the servants and attendants stood, having made a heap of burning coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter was standing with them, and warming himself.
If therefore thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for doing this, thou shalt heap up-coals of fire on his head.
Smith
Coal.
The first and most frequent use of the word rendered coal is a live ember, burning fuel.
In
coals of fire are put metaphorically for the lightnings proceeding from God.
In
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.
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Smoke went up in his anger, And fire from his mouth shall consume: Coals were kindled from it
From the shining before him were coals of fire kindled:
A smoke went up in his anger, and fire from his mouth will consume, and coals were kindled from it.
From the brightness before him the clouds passed over, hail and coals of fire. And Jehovah will thunder in the heavens, and the Most High will give his voice; hail and coals of fire.
Burning coals shall be shaken upon them; he shall cast them into fire, into whirlpools; they shall not rise up.
As charcoal to burning coals and woods to fire, and a man of strifes to kindle strife.