Coal
COAL
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 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Coal
(Sept. and N.T. ) is a translation usually of one or the other of two Heb. words, viz., (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 (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, (ritspah’, live coal, Isa 6:6, literally a pavement, as elsewhere rendered), which appears to nave been a hot stone used for baking upon; (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 (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. , Vulg. subcinericus) a loaf baked among the embers. SEE BREAD.
In Lam 4:8, their visage is blacker than a coal, the word is (shechor’), which simply means blackness, as in the margin. In the New Testament, the fire of coals (, 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 in the same connection. SEE FIRE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Coal
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 Prov. 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; Prov. 6:28; Isa. 44:19. The words “live coal” in Isa. 6:6 are more correctly “glowing stone.” In Lam. 4:8 the expression “blacker than a coal” is literally rendered in the margin of the Revised Version “darker than blackness.” “Coals of fire” (2 Sam. 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; James 3:6). “Heaping coals of fire on the head” symbolizes overcoming evil with good. The words of Paul (Rom. 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.”
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Coal
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, Jam 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.”
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Coal
COAL.This word occurs in the Gospels only in Joh 18:18; Joh 21:9 (Gr. in both , meaning properly a brazier filled with lighted charcoal). As a mineral, coal does not exist in Palestine except in the Wdy Humman in the Lebanon, and was mined there only during the rule of Muhammad Ali about 1834 (Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1886, iii. 193). The rendering coal must be taken as = charcoal. Both in ancient and in modern times, the latter substance, prepared from native timber, has been the common fuel of the East. The destruction of the forests of Palestine and Syria may be assigned as the main reason for the absence of timbered gables, and the universal prevalence, instead, of brickwork cupola roofs, and also for the wretched substitutes for fuel now employed by the natives, such as sun-dried cakes of chaff and dung, etc. The charred roots of the desert broom (rthem, see Psa 120:4) make an excellent fuel, and are much in demand in Cairo (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, 1889, p. 360).
The geological survey of Palestine reveals its uniformly cretaceous formation, extending from the Lebanon ranges to the plateau of Hebron. The earlier rocks of the carboniferous period, if they do exist there at all under the subsequent strata, are buried at quite inaccessible depths. Traces of carboniferous outcrop, but destitute of carbonaceous deposits, have been found in the sandstone of the southern desert and the limestone of the Wdy Nasb.
Literature.W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1886, iii. 193; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, 1889, p. 360; Conder, Tent Work in Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] ii. 326; Hull, Mount Seir, etc., 1889, p. 194; Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 280; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , article Coal.
P. Henderson Aitken.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Coal
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.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Coal
kol (, peham, charcoal; compare Arabic fahm, charcoal; , gaheleth, burning coal or hot ember; compare Arabic jaham, to kindle; , shehor, a black coal (Lam 4:8); compare Arabic shahhar, soot or dark-colored sandstone; , receph (1Ki 19:6), and , ricpah (= Rizpah) (Isa 6:6), margin a hot stone; compare , resheph, a flame (Son 8:6; Hab 3:5); , anthrax, a live coal (Rom 12:20) (= gaheleth in Pro 25:22); , , anthrakia, 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 mashharah, from shahhar, soot; compare Hebrew shehor. The characteristic odor of the mashharah clings for months to the spot.
In Psa 120:4, there is mention of coals of juniper, the Revised Version, margin broom, rothem. 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 sindyan, 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. Peham 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 peham in Isa 44:12 and Isa 54:16; also of shehor in Lam 4:8.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Coal
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.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Coal
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; Son 8:6; Isa 6:6; Hab 3:5.
Heaping coals of fire on an enemy’s head by kindness (Pro 25:21-22; Rom 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.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Coal
Figurative
Pro 25:22
Symbolic
Isa 6:6-7; 2Sa 14:7
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Coal
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.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Coal
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.