שרש בער. שמות 35:3

[OsehAlyah]

The root בער seems to have a few meanings and I would dearly love to pin down what it means in the context of the Shabbat commandment. As an example here's the verse cited in the title:
לֹא-תְבַעֲרוּ אֵשׁ, בְּכֹל מֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם, בְּיוֹם, הַשַּׁבָּת.

Some dictionaries translate בָּעַר as burn/blaze and בִּעֵר as lite/kindle. So what do you think the word represents grammatically in the above sentence. Incidentally, I noticed that the Torah always uses the same root בער in conjunction with this commandment, even though there are many other words with similar or identical meanings.

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[origumi]

לבער means to set fire, covering all aspects of burn/blaze/kindle etc.

Why wouldn't the Bible use the most accurate word?

 

[OsehAlyah]

Why wouldn't the Bible use the most accurate word?

There's zero doubt that the Bible would. There's even less doubt that I don't understand what that word is.
1. The verb בִּעֵר appears to belong to binyan פִּעֵל and means to lite/ignite and such.
2. The verb בָּעַר appears to belong to binyan קל/פָּעַל and means to burn/blaze.
I couldn't tell which of the two was used in the above sentence. However, having finally found and consulted the conjugation tables for both (http://foundationstone.com.au/), I now realize that it has to be בִּעֵר since תְבַעֲרוּ is a masculine plural for binyan פִּעֵל . If it was בָּעַר the form would have to be תִבְעֲרוּ

לבער means to set fire, covering all aspects of burn/blaze/kindle etc.

Unfortunately, here I have to disagree with you. For me not being able to light a fire on Shabbat is quite different from not being allowed to have a fire burning on Shabbat. At least in my observance of it.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Ali Smith]

בָּעַר (from qal) means "to burn (transitive or intransitive)" while בֵּעֵר means "to burn (transitive), destroy". The latter is from pi'el, of course, but the vowel on the first letter is a צירי‎ rather than a חיריק‎ because the following letter is a guttural (the four gutturals are א ר ע ה and ח) and therefore cannot take a דגש‎.

 

[Drink]

You are wrong about the vowel. Generally pi'el with ע ח ה still get a chiriq.

One important thing to remember is the gutturals don't all behave exactly the same.