Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

In my humble opinion there is no Hebrew root which means 'to burn'.  
It can just not be. The root XRR means 'disintegrate, fragment,  
crumble', (as also by the action of fire), and in this sense HAR (as  
well as KAR and GAR) is 'a (tall, noble) pile or heap'. In the  
reverse it is XOR.
In Eccl. 10:17 BEN XORIYM is plausibly enough 'the son of nobles".
The word XERUT 'freedom, independence' is in common use now in spoken  
Hebrew, and essentially means, in my opinion, 'severance of  
restrictive ties'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Oct 20, 2010, at 10:50 AM, JimStinehart AT aol.com wrote:

 XR-YM at I Kings 21: 8, 11 means “nobles”, and comes from the  
Hebrew root word XRR, which means “to burn”