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 from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.
From the brightness before him flamed burning coals of fire.
Its breath kindles charcoal, and a flame comes from its 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 from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.
From the brightness before him flamed burning coals of fire.
Its breath kindles charcoal, and a flame comes from its mouth.
Smoke went forth from his nose, and fire from his mouth consumed. Burning coals blazed from him.
From the brightness before him his clouds passed over [with] hail and coals of fire. And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
[The] sharpened arrows of a warrior, with burning charcoals from broom trees.
If a man walks upon the hot coals, will his feet not be burned?
[As] charcoal [is] to hot embers and wood [is] to fire, so a man of quarrels [is] to kindling strife.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
And {no one takes it to heart}, and [there is] no knowledge and no understanding to say, "I burned half of it in [the] fire and also I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat, and I have eaten. And I shall make [the] rest of it into an abomination! I shall bow down to a block of wood!"
[Now] their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood.
But "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him [something] to drink; for [by] doing this, you will heap up coals of fire upon his head."
And the tongue [is] a fire! The world of unrighteousness, the tongue, is set among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire {the course of human existence}, being set on fire 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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[They will become] weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with [the] poison of [the] creeping [things] in [the] dust;
[They will become] weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with [the] poison of [the] creeping [things] in [the] dust;
And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, 'Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,' and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth."
And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, 'Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,' and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth."
Smoke went up from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.
Smoke went up from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.
From the brightness before him flamed burning coals of fire.
From the brightness before him flamed burning coals of fire.
He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals [was] near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down.
He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals [was] near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down.
From the brightness before him his clouds passed over [with] hail and coals of fire.
From the brightness before him his clouds passed over [with] hail and coals of fire. And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
[or the] plague [that] spreads in the darkness, [or the] destruction [that] devastates at noon.
[or the] plague [that] spreads in the darkness, [or the] destruction [that] devastates at noon.
[The] sharpened arrows of a warrior, with burning charcoals from broom trees.
[The] sharpened arrows of a warrior, with burning charcoals from broom trees.
Let burning coals fall on them; let them be dropped into the fire, into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot rise.
Let burning coals fall on them; let them be dropped into the fire, into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot rise.
For coals of fire you will heap upon his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
For coals of fire you will heap upon his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
[As] charcoal [is] to hot embers and wood [is] to fire, so a man of quarrels [is] to kindling strife.
[As] charcoal [is] to hot embers and wood [is] to fire, so a man of quarrels [is] to kindling strife.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
[Now] their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood.
[Now] their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood.
But "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him [something] to drink; for [by] doing this, you will heap up coals of fire upon his head."
But "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him [something] to drink; for [by] doing this, you will heap up coals of fire upon his head."
And the tongue [is] a fire! The world of unrighteousness, the tongue, is set among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire {the course of human existence}, being set on fire by hell.
And the tongue [is] a fire! The world of unrighteousness, the tongue, is set among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire {the course of human existence}, being set on fire 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 look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, 'Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,' and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth."
He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals [was] near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down.
[The] sharpened arrows of a warrior, with burning charcoals from broom trees.
The light of the righteous will rejoice, but the lamp of the wicked will die out.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Cutting down cedars for himself, he {chooses} a holm tree and an oak, and he lets it grow strong for him among [the] trees of [the] forest. He plants a cedar, and [the] rain makes [it] grow. And it {becomes fuel for a human}, and he takes some of it and grows warm; also, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and bows in worship; he makes himself an image and bows down to it! read more. He burns half of it in [the] fire; he eats meat over half of it; he roasts a roast and is satisfied. Also he grows warm and says, "Ah! I am warm! I see [the] fire!"
Now the king [was] sitting [in] the quarters of the winter in the ninth month, and a fire-pot [was] burning {before} him.
" 'On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a pan of fire among [sticks of] wood, and like a torch of fire among stalks of grain, and they will devour to [the] right and to [the] left all the surrounding peoples, and Jerusalem will be inhabited again [in] its 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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He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals [was] near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down.
If your enemy [is] hungry, feed him bread, and if thirsty, let him drink water. For coals of fire you will heap upon his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
(Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were warming themselves. And Peter was also standing there with them and warming himself.)
But "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him [something] to drink; for [by] doing this, you will heap up coals of fire upon 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 from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.
From the brightness before him flamed burning coals of fire.
Smoke went forth from his nose, and fire from his mouth consumed. Burning coals blazed from him.
From the brightness before him his clouds passed over [with] hail and coals of fire. And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
Let burning coals fall on them; let them be dropped into the fire, into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot rise.
[As] charcoal [is] to hot embers and wood [is] to fire, so a man of quarrels [is] to kindling strife.