זַלְעָפָה (zal.a.phah)
zal.a.phah
scorching
H:N-FQuick Reference
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
- Testament
- Old Testament
- Occurrences
- 3 verses
- Root
- —
- Part of speech
- H:N-F
Word Overview
The noun zalʿāpâ describes an intense, scorching heat that feels like a fever or a burning wind. It appears only three times in the Hebrew Bible, always in poetic texts to convey extreme distress. In Psalms 120:4 and Lamentations 4:8, it represents physical suffering caused by divine judgment or enemy attack.
The word’s root likely relates to heat or burning, emphasizing a dry, oppressive warmth rather than gentle sunshine. Translators often render it as "scorching" or "raging heat" to capture its violent intensity. The imagery suggests a heat that consumes and weakens, mirroring the spiritual anguish of those who cry out for deliverance.
This rare term highlights how ancient Hebrew poetry used physical sensations to express emotional and spiritual states. The burning heat serves as a metaphor for persecution or divine discipline, showing how bodily suffering can reflect deeper crises of faith. Its scarcity in Scripture underscores the severity of the situations it describes.
Based on public-domain lexicons (Strong's, Thayer, Gesenius, Brown-Driver-Briggs and others).
What This Word Means for Your Faith
The prophets and poets of Scripture knew what it felt like when life turns into a scorching wind. The Hebrew word zalʿāpâ names a heat so fierce it feels like a fever burning through your body, a dry blast that leaves nothing untouched. In Lamentations we read of skin blackened like an oven from the burning heat of famine. The word does not hold back—it speaks of real affliction, the kind that makes you cry out for shade and water. Yet these ancient prayers are preserved for a reason. They tell us that God listens when we are at the end of our strength.
In Psalm 11 the same scorching wind is described as the portion of the wicked, a promise that oppression will not have the last word. To a suffering people that image offered hope: the One who permits the heat also sets its limit. When your own life feels parched by circumstances or your spirit is worn thin by what you see in the world, these honest words invite you to bring every raw emotion to God. The burning wind is real, but it is not the final reality. The Lord who walks with you through the wilderness stays close even in the hottest hour.
How it's translated
How this word is rendered word-by-word in the 3 verses where it appears, by frequency.
- burning indignation1×
- burning heat1×
- [the] burning heat of1×
Forms in the text
The inflected forms of this word as they appear in Scripture, by frequency.
- זַלְעָפָ֣ה1×
- זַלְעֲפ֥וֹת1×
- זִלְעָפ֗וֹת1×
Key Verses
-
Psalms 11:6
On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
Here zalʿāpâ is part of the judgment God rains down on the wicked, portraying divine justice as a scorching, purifying force.
-
Psalms 119:53
Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law.
The psalmist uses zalʿāpâ to describe a burning indignation against those who abandon God's law, showing how distress can feel like an inward fever.
-
Lamentations 5:10
Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.
In this lament the physical scorching of famine becomes a concrete expression of communal suffering, linking bodily anguish to spiritual desolation.