Ranges

Ranges in the KJV refers to cooking ranges — portable furnaces or hearth structures used in ancient Israelite households for preparing food. The Hebrew word kirayim (dual form, two hearths) appears in Leviticus 11:35 in the context of uncleanness: an earthenware oven or cooking range (ranges for pots) that became unclean through contact with a dead animal's carcass was to be broken and discarded, as earthenware could not be purified. The dual form likely reflects a double-hearth cooking arrangement. The term appears also in 2 Kings 11:8 and 2 Chronicles 23:14 with a different meaning: the ranges there refer to military ranks or formations.