שׂוּר
sur (H8323A)
to reign
AI Word Study
# שׂוּר (sur): "To Reign" The Hebrew word שׂוּר (sur) appears five times in the biblical text and carries the fundamental meaning "to reign"—denoting the exercise of royal authority or rule. This verb belongs to the semantic field of governance and political power, though its limited occurrence in the biblical corpus suggests it may have been a less common or more specialized term for expressing monarchical rule compared to more frequent alternatives. The scarcity of attestations (only five instances) means this word occupied a specific niche in biblical Hebrew vocabulary for describing kingship. The word's very limited distribution in the text prevents extensive analysis of nuanced variations in meaning, though its core sense of assuming or exercising royal power remains consistent. Without access to the specific passages where it appears, the full range of contexts—whether referring to the beginning of a reign, the act of ruling, or both—cannot be determined from the definition alone. For biblical readers and scholars, שׂוּר represents one of several Hebrew terms available to express the concept of reigning, its relative rarity perhaps indicating that biblical authors drew on a diverse vocabulary when depicting monarchical authority rather than relying on a single dominant term for this concept.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must also make yourself a prince over us?
for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, that every man should rule his own house, speaking in the language of his own people.
By me princes rule, nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.