Hearth

Hearth in the Old Testament translates several Hebrew terms for cooking and heating fires in household and palace settings. In Jeremiah 36:22–23, the Hebrew ah describes the large brazier or fire pot burning in the king's winter house — into which Jehoiakim cut and burned the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecies column by column as it was read to him, a gesture of defiant rejection of God's word. Zechariah 12:6 uses the hearth as a figure for Jerusalem's military power in the last days: "In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood." Psalm 102:3 uses "hearth" (burning brand) for the consuming nature of divine affliction: "My bones are burned as an hearth."