עׇרְלָה
or.lah
foreskin
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word עׇרְלָה (or.lah), Strong's number H6190, has a very specific meaning: foreskin. This word appears 15 times in the Bible, indicating its importance or frequent mention in various contexts. The repeated use of this word may indicate that circumcision, which is the removal of the foreskin, holds significant ceremonial or social value within Hebrew culture. This may suggest that the word is not just a neutral term for a body part, but carries emotional, cultural, or even symbolic connotations. Further analysis would be needed to uncover the exact nature of its significance, but its high frequency suggests that it is more than just a utilitarian term.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
15 total occurrences across the text
Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Jeremiah 9:25“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh:
Genesis 17:11You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you.
Genesis 17:14The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
Genesis 17:23Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money: every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.
Genesis 17:24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 17:25Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 34:14and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.
Exodus 4:25Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
Leviticus 12:3In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Leviticus 19:23“ ‘When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. For three years it shall be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten.
Deuteronomy 10:16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
1 Samuel 18:25Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’ ” Now Saul thought he would make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
1 Samuel 18:27David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.
2 Samuel 3:14David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I was given to marry for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”