The puzzle of the root בער has been burning inside me for decades.

1. Six times in Tanach we have a noun with the meaning: “cattle, domestic animal.” (Admittedly, in these six occasions, there is a yod in the middle: בעיר.)

2. At Ex. 22:4 the root is used as a verb and seems to refer to an animal eating. The noun is found here as well. Here is the relevant part of the verse: “When an individual is יבער a field or vineyard, and lets בעירה loose, and it is בער in the field of another…”

3. Many times in Tanach בער has a “burn” meaning.

4. It also many times has meanings like “destroy,” “remove” and “eliminate.” See, e.g., Deut. 26:13: “biarti ha-kodesh min ha-bayit,” and Deut. 21:21: “u-viarta ha-ra mi-kirbecha“ (rebellious son).

5. Many times it has a meaning like “stupid, foolish.” E.g., Psalm 92: “ish baar lo yeida.”

Most agree that meaning 5 derives from meaning 1. (If so, “brute” might be a better translation than “stupid, foolish.”) (There are also those who take the opposite view: animals are called בעיר due to being stupid.)

But what about all the other meanings? Can we relate them?

With regard to Ex. 22:4, admittedly Rashbam and many others see the meaning of the two verbs as animals eating. But since the “eat/feed” meaning is not clearly found elsewhere in Tanach, many see the literal meaning of these verbs as “destroy.” See, e.g., Hizzekuni, S. D. Luzzatto, and Daat Mikra.

If the meaning at 22:4 is “eat/feed,” we can easily see a relation with the noun (=meaning 1). But since the “eat/feed” meaning is not clearly found elsewhere, the “destroy” meaning is more likely here. It is hard to view these domestic animals as “destroyers” (although many are willing to adopt this view; animals are destroyers of grass). More likely, we have two unrelated meanings of בער in the verse: a noun for “animals” and two verbs with the meaning “destroy.” The verse is merely an example of wordplay. (At 22:5, we have further wordplay: the “burn” meaning!) (Shadal points out that wordplay helps the masses remember the laws.)

Another issue in the root בער is the relationship of the “burn” meaning to the “destroy/remove/eliminate” meaning. Perhaps the “burn” meaning is a separate root entirely. Or perhaps the others are merely expansions from it. Or perhaps the verb fundamentally meant “destroy” and burning is just one type of destruction.

Let us see how some scholars have dealt with בער:

—The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon puts most of the meanings in the same category but says that the connection is “obscure.”

—Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament includes the following comment: The words with these three letters “present a very confused picture with regard to both etymology and meaning.”

—The Biblical lexicon of M.Z. Kaddari raises the possibility that “burn” and “remove” are each separate roots. (Also, that “eat/feed” is another separate root, related to the noun.)

—S. Mandelkern, in his concordance, puts all the בער words in the same entry. He takes the position that the fundamental meaning of the root is “removal and cessation.” The “burn” meaning is a type of removal. Animals remove/destroy grass.

—The Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon notes that there is a word in Arabic resembling בער that means “dung.” It suggests that this may have been one of the original meanings of the root and that animals are called בעיר due to the dung they produce.

—Ernest Klein, in his work, p. 79, does not seem to relate the noun meaning, “animal,” to the other meanings. (I think there is a typographical error in the first column in the entry for בעיר. “II” should be “III.”) As to the other meanings, he thinks that the “remove, destroy” meaning is an expansion from the original “burn” meaning.

I agree with both these positions. I do not think that these kinds of animals should be viewed as “destroyers,” even of grass. As to his second position, I agree that “burn” is a very concrete meaning and would likely be an original meaning. The only remaining issue (a minor one) is whether the “destroy/eliminate/remove” meaning is a separate one or, as he suggested, an expansion. (The Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon explicitly leaves this issue unresolved.)

(Although we have a verb in English “consume” that would apply to all meanings including the “burn” meaning, this is too abstract a verb to be an original meaning of the Hebrew root.)

Sometimes we just have to live with different unrelated meanings of a root. Here it seems to me that the בער noun with its “animal” meaning is not related to our “destroy/eliminate/remove” verb or to the “burn” verb.

Let us look at our traditional commentaries:

—Rashi on Ex. 22:4 takes the position that all the בער words in this verse are related and have a fundamental meaning related to בהמה. But Rashi does not attempt to deal with the “burn” meaning of the same root (which is found twice in the next verse!). (A comment in the ArtScroll edition of Rashi implies that he believes the “burn” meaning is not related. This would be unusual. Rashi in general tries to unite words with the same root. If anyone can explain Rashi’s thinking to me here in ignoring the בער “burn” words of verse 22:5, please share it with me.)

—Radak takes the same position that Mandelkern later expressed. See his Sefer Ha-Shorashim. See similarly Hizzekuni to Ex. 22:4.

—Most creative is Rav S.R. Hirsch (comm. to Gen. 45:17 and 39:9). He views the fundamental meaning of the root as “fire” and suggests that with this all can be explained. He views a Divine fire of life as burning in humans and animals. This motivates all our activities. But, unlike humans, animals do not have the ability to restrain this fire. They are called בעיר because they operate purely on this fire instinct. Every damage done by an animal is based on its following its primal fire instinct. (R. Hirsch would presumably view the “destroy/eliminate/remove” meanings as expansions from the “burn” meaning, although that is not stated here.)

The multiple meanings of בער present difficulties in certain verses.

For example, at Ezek. 21:36, the prophet is describing a future punishment of Ammon: “I will deliver you into the hands of ‘anashim boarim,’ skillful in destroying.”

Many give “boarim” the “stupid men” meaning here. For example, Rashi does this and both Mandelkern and Even-Shoshan list this בער word with the other entries with the meaning “stupid.” But another view is that the reference is to men who make fires. See, e.g., Metzudat Tziyon and Metzudat David. (The word אש is found earlier in the verse.) Finally, “boarim” can mean “destroyers,” parallel to the last word in the verse, משחית.

Finally, another ambiguous verse is I Kings 14:10. The end of the verse uses the phrase: “ye-vaer ha-galal.” Is this phrase referring to the “removal” of dung? Or to the “burning” of dung? I will leave it to someone else to research this!

(P.S. There is a good post on our root at balashon.com on 8/23/20.)

Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. On the subject of בער, he is very proud to have written an article for BAR (=Biblical Archaeology Review) in 2012. And for readers with environmental concerns, no animals were burned or destroyed in writing the present column.