<strong>PITCH</strong> (Heb. <em>zepheth, kōpher, pitch</em>)<br /><br />

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The noun “pitch” is a tr. of <span class="hebrew">זֶ֫פֶת</span>, <span class="gknumber">H2413</span>, which should be tr. “bitumen,” esp. if a distinction is made between natural material and a product of distillation. <em>See</em> [[Bitumen]]; [[Slime]].<br /><br />

<h2>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)</h2>

pich: The translation of the noun kopher, and the verb kaphar, in <bibleref ref="Gen.6.14">Ge 6:14</bibleref> and of the noun zepheth, in <bibleref ref="Exod.2.3">Ex 2:3</bibleref>; <bibleref ref="Isa.34.9">Isa 34:9</bibleref>. In <bibleref ref="Gen.6.14">Ge 6:14</bibleref> the words are the ordinary forms for "covering," "cover," so that the translation "pitch" is largely guesswork, aided by the Septuagint, which reads asphaltos, "bitumen," here, and by the fact that pitch is a usual "covering" for vessels. The meaning of zepheth, however, is fixed by the obvious Dead Sea imagery of <bibleref ref="Isa.34.9-Isa.34.15">Isa 34:9-15</bibleref>--the streams and land of Edom are to become burning bitumen, like the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah. In <bibleref ref="Exod.2.3">Ex 2:3</bibleref> zepheth is combined with chemar, which also means bitumen (<bibleref ref="Gen.14.10">Ge 14:10</bibleref>; see [[Slime]]), and the distinction between the words (different consistencies of the same substance?) is not clear.<br /><br />

Pitch