H5892b H5892b
ir -- a city or town; any inhabited urban settlement in the ancient Near East
The feminine noun ir denotes a city or town -- any nucleated, typically walled settlement as distinct from open countryside or nomadic encampment. It first appears at Gen 4:17 where Cain builds a city, and its 1,093 occurrences span every period of biblical history: from the 'great city' Nineveh (Gen 10:12) to fortified Judean towns to the eschatological city of God. Hebrew uses it with the full range of prefixed prepositions and the directive he locale, but these inflections produce no semantic shift. Cross-lingual glosses are remarkably stable: Spanish la ciudad, French la ville, German die Stadt -- all pointing to a single core concept of urban habitation.
Senses
1. city, town — An inhabited urban settlement, whether a major fortified city or a smaller town, encompassing the full spectrum from Cain's first city (Gen 4:17) to the fortified cities of Judah to metaphorical and eschatological usage. The word appears with every combination of article, preposition, and suffix, yet cross-lingual evidence -- Spanish ciudad, French ville, German Stadt -- converges on a single undifferentiated concept of 'city/town' with no semantic subdivision warranted by the translation signatures. 1093×
AR["المَدينَةَ", "المَدينَةِ", "الْ-مَدِينَةَ", "الْ-مَدِينَةِ", "الْمَدِينَةَ", "الْمَدِينَةُ", "الْمَدِينَةِ"]·ben["-নগর", "-নগরকে", "-নগরের", "-শহরে", "নগর", "নগরকে", "নগরের", "বেরশেবা", "শহর", "শহরের", "সেই-নগরের"]·DE["Stadt", "der-Stadt", "die-Stadt"]·EN["the-city"]·FR["la-ville", "le-ville"]·heb["ה-עיר", "ל-ה-לעיר", "ל-ה-עיר"]·HI["को", "नगर", "नगर-की", "नगर-के", "नगरि", "नगरि-क", "नगरि-के", "शहर-का"]·ID["kota", "kota-itu"]·IT["il-citta", "il-città", "la-città"]·jav["kitha", "kitha-punika", "kutha", "kutha-punika", "punika"]·KO["그-도시", "그-성", "그-성에", "그-성을", "그-성읍의", "그-성의", "도시의", "성을", "성음의", "성읍", "성읍을", "성읍의", "성읍이"]·PT["Be'er-Sheva'", "a-cidade", "da-cidade", "para-a-cidade"]·RU["-город", "-города", "город", "города"]·ES["la-ciudad"]·SW["ata", "jiji", "mji", "mji-wa", "wa-jiji", "wa-mji", "wote"]·TR["-kentin", "-şehir", "-şehirden", "-şehri", "-şehrin", "kentin", "şehirden", "şehri", "şehrin"]·urd["-شہر-کا", "-شہر-کے", "شہر", "شہر-سے", "شہر-کا", "شہر-کی", "شہر-کے"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)G1519 2. purpose: for, in order to (561×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
II. עִיר1092 n.f. Gn 10:12 (AlbrechtZAW xvi. 49 f.) city, town (√ unkn.; NH id.;? Ph. ער Lzb345; Sab. ער fortified height (cf. 3) PräZMG xxvi (1872), 437, ערן, עהרן city CISiv. pp. 94, 95, 173);—ע׳ abs. Gn 4:17 +, cstr. 24:10 +; הָעִ֫ירָה 1 K 14:12 + 7 times; sf. עִירִי 2 S 19:38 + 2 times, etc.; pl. עָרִים Is 6:11 +, עֲיָרִים Ju 10:4 (textual error, or word-play, cf. GFM); cstr. עָרֵי Gn 19:29…