בְּעִי
be.i
ruins
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analytical Synthesis of בְּעִי (be.i) The Hebrew word בְּעִי refers to "ruins"—the remains of destroyed structures or settlements. With only five occurrences in the biblical text, this is a relatively rare term, suggesting it was used in specific contexts rather than as an everyday vocabulary item. The limited frequency indicates that when biblical authors chose this particular word, they were likely making a deliberate rhetorical choice rather than using a standard, common expression. The rarity of בְּעִי in the biblical corpus means it appears in concentrated textual moments where the description of destruction or desolation held particular significance for the writers or their audiences. However, without access to the specific passages where this word appears, we cannot determine its precise literary or historical contexts—whether it describes actual archaeological ruins, metaphorical desolation, or prophetic visions of future destruction. The word's specialized nature suggests it carried distinct semantic weight compared to other potential Hebrew terms for destruction or emptiness.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
5 total occurrences across the text
“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Psalms 79:1God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
Jeremiah 26:18“Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “ ‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
Micah 1:6Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.
Micah 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.