עִיר ʻîyr

Meaning

a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)

In the King James Version: Ai (from margin), city, court (from margin), town.

Derivation: or (in the plural) עָר; or עָיַר; (Judges 10:4), from H5782 (עוּר)

Where it is used

• 2 Samuel 10:3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Has not David instead sent his servants to explore the city, spy it out, and overthrow it?”
• 2 Samuel 10:12 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. May the LORD do what is good in His sight.”
• 2 Samuel 10:14 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they too fled before Abishai, and they entered the city. So Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
• 2 Samuel 11:16 So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.
• 2 Samuel 11:17 And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.
• 2 Samuel 11:20 if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?
• 2 Samuel 11:25 Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”
• 2 Samuel 12:1 Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.
• 2 Samuel 12:26 Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress.
• 2 Samuel 12:27 Then Joab sent messengers to David to say, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured the water supply of the city.
• 2 Samuel 12:28 Now, therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will capture the city, and it will be named after me.”
• 2 Samuel 12:30 Then he took the crown from the head of their king. It weighed a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.
• 2 Samuel 12:31 David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, and he made them work at the brick kilns. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
• 2 Samuel 15:2 He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out and ask, “What city are you from?” And if he replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,”
• 2 Samuel 15:12 While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept increasing.
• 2 Samuel 15:14 And David said to all the servants with him in Jerusalem, “Arise and let us flee, or we will not escape from Absalom! We must leave quickly, or he will soon overtake us, heap disaster on us, and put the city to the sword.”
• 2 Samuel 15:24 Zadok was also there, and all the Levites with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had passed out of the city.
• 2 Samuel 15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again.
• 2 Samuel 15:27 The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace—you with your son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar with his son Jonathan.
• 2 Samuel 15:34 But you can thwart the counsel of Ahithophel for me if you return to the city and say to Absalom: ‘I will be your servant, my king; in the past I was your father’s servant, but now I will be your servant.’
• 2 Samuel 15:37 So David’s friend Hushai arrived in Jerusalem just as Absalom was entering the city.
• 2 Samuel 17:13 If he retreats to a city, all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it down to the valley until not even a pebble can be found there.”
• 2 Samuel 17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En-rogel, where a servant girl would come and pass along information to them. They in turn would go and inform King David, for they dared not be seen entering the city.
• 2 Samuel 17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.
• 2 Samuel 18:3 But the people pleaded, “You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will not care about us. Even if half of us die, they will not care. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better now if you support us from the city.”
• 2 Samuel 19:3 So they returned to the city quietly that day, as people steal away in humiliation after fleeing a battle.
• 2 Samuel 19:37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.”
• 2 Samuel 20:6 And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.”
• 2 Samuel 20:15 And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it,
• 2 Samuel 20:16 a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.”
• 2 Samuel 20:19 I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
• 2 Samuel 20:21 That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.” “Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”
• 2 Samuel 20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
• 2 Samuel 24:5 They crossed the Jordan and camped near Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the valley, and proceeded toward Gad and Jazer.
• 2 Samuel 24:7 They went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to the Negev of Judah, to Beersheba.
• 1 Kings 2:10 Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.
• 1 Kings 3:1 Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.
• 1 Kings 4:13 Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead belonged to him, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);
• 1 Kings 8:1 At that time Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.
• 1 Kings 8:16 ‘Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there. But I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’
• 1 Kings 8:44 When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,
• 1 Kings 8:48 and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
• 1 Kings 9:11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.
• 1 Kings 9:12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.
• 1 Kings 9:13 “What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.
• 1 Kings 9:16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
• 1 Kings 9:19 as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
• 1 Kings 9:24 As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.
• 1 Kings 10:26 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
• 1 Kings 11:27 and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David.
• 1 Kings 11:32 But one tribe will remain for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
• 1 Kings 11:36 I will give one tribe to his son, so that My servant David will always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put My Name.
• 1 Kings 11:43 And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
• 1 Kings 12:17 but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
• 1 Kings 13:25 And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.
• 1 Kings 13:29 So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.
• 1 Kings 13:32 for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
• 1 Kings 14:11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.’ For the LORD has spoken.
• 1 Kings 14:12 As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.
• 1 Kings 14:21 Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.