Lexical Definition

‎בֹּר‎ bôr (bore) lye ^H:N-M
the same as ‎בֹּר‎

[idiom] never so, purely.

• vegetable lye (from its cleansing)
• used as a soap forwashing, or a flux formetals

1) lye, potash, alkali used in smelting metal

Brown-Driver-Briggs

I. ‎בֹּר‎ noun masculine lye, potash, alkali used in smelting metals Isa 1:25 **read probably ‎כַּכֻּר‎ as in a furnace (Isa 48:10); there seems no evidence that 'lye' (i.e. water mixed with the burnt ashes of plants containing potash, used formerly for washing) was ever used in refining gold or silver: compare J. Napier^{Anc. Workers in Metal {1856}, 15, 20, 25} WAM in Smith^{DB ii. 368; Amer. Rev. Ed. (1871, vol, iii), 1939}. (see ‎בֹּרִית‎).

Brown-Driver-Briggs References