to burn
sa.raph denotes consuming things by fire, especially cities, structures, cult objects, bodies, and sacrificial materials.
The verb most often describes setting cities, houses, cult objects, and other things on fire so that they are destroyed or consumed. It also occurs for burning sacrificial material and materials prepared with fire, and for the burning of persons, bodies, or bones in punitive, conflict-related, or funerary settings.
Senses in use
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Burning things to destroy them · dominant
This is the dominant use where the action is directed at a city, house, cult object, vehicle, or written scroll. In Joshua 6:24 the APB renders the clause "They burned the city with fire," while 2 Kings 23:15 places the sequential forms within Josiah's dismantling, crushing, and burning of the high place and Asherah; Jeremiah 36:28 identifies the scroll that Jehoiakim had burned.
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Burning sacrificial or prepared material · common
Several clauses concern material placed in or subjected to fire without focusing on the destruction of a settlement. In Exodus 29:14 the imperfect form occurs in the instruction to burn the bull's flesh, skin, and refuse outside the camp; Genesis 11:3 has a cohortative form in the proposal to make bricks and "burn them thoroughly," and Isaiah 44:16 describes wood burned while meat is roasted and a person is warmed.
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Burning persons, bodies, or bones · occasional
The verb can name burning directed toward human beings or their remains. Genesis 38:24 uses a Niphal imperfect in Judah's command concerning Tamar; 1 Samuel 31:12 recounts the burning of Saul's body and his sons' bodies, while 2 Kings 23:16 says that bones were burned upon the altar.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB regularly uses "burned," "burn," or "burned with fire," whether the object is a city, image, scroll, body, or offering. It also uses "set... on fire" in some city and house clauses; Those renderings indicate the clause's presentation rather than a separate meaning.