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Ezekiel 5:2 (NASB)

[2]One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

Yet in Genesis

Genesis 1:3 (NASB)

[3]Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

Why is אור referred to as fire in Ezekiel but in Genesis referred to as light

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אוּר ('uwr - Strong's H217) appears in Ezekiel 5:2. It is a noun and appears only six times in the Hebrew Bible, 5 times in Isaiah (4 times given as fire, and 1 time given as light), and 1 time in Ezekiel 5:2 as fire. אוּר comes from אוֹר ('owr - Strong's H215), which is a verb that means "to be light, or to become light, or to shine"

Besides being a verb, אוֹר also appears as a noun ('owr - Strong's H216). It is this form that is found in Genesis 1:3, and this form which appears approximately 123 times in the Hebrew Bible -- 114 of them given as "light" or "lights".

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  • Note that statistics for אוֹר in particular are somewhat tricky, as a few occurrences are morphologically ambiguous and can be either the noun or the Qal infinitive (i.e., verb).
    – Dɑvïd
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 12:34

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