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pich: The translation of the noun לּפר, koÌ„pher, and the verb כּפר, kaÌ„phar, in and of the noun זפת, zepheth, in ; . In the words are the ordinary forms for “covering,†“cover,†so that the translation “pitch†is largely guesswork, aided by the Septuagint, which reads ἀÌσφαλτος, aÌsphaltos, “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 -15 - the streams and land of Edom are to become burning bitumen, like the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah. In zepheth is combined with hÌ£eÌ„maÌ„r, which also means bitumen (; see SLIME), and the distinction between the words (different consistencies of the same substance?) is not clear.