KILN (oven, ovens). The Heb. word כִּבְשָׁן, H3901, tr. “kiln” in the RSV, refers to a furnace or oven for burning lime, smelting ore, or firing pottery. It was made of limestones arranged in the form of a dome, with an opening at the top for the escape of smoke, and another at the bottom for supplying fuel. The dense smoke it produced is referred to fig. in the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:28) and in the description of Mount Sinai when God met with Moses there (Exod 19:18). The word תַּנּוּר, H9486, “a stove” or “fire-pot for baking,” usually tr. “oven,” refers to a special kind of oven for baking bread. It was made by digging a hole in the earth about two ft. in diameter and inserting in it a cylinder made of pottery. A fire was made at the bottom, and when it was hot enough a layer of dough was spread against the sides of the cylinder for baking. The word is used in a literal sense in Exodus 8:3; Leviticus 2:4; 7:9; 11:35; 26:26; and fig. in Psalm 21:9; Lamentations 5:10; Hosea 7:4, 6, 7; Malachi 4:1. One of the towers of the walls of Jerusalem was called the “Tower of the Ovens” (Neh 3:11; 12:38).

In the NT the word “oven” is the tr. of κλίβανος, G3106, meaning an oven made of pottery. This was a large jar for baking bread. It was heated by placing fuel (often dried grass) within (Matt 6:30), and when the ashes were removed through a hole at the bottom, thin layers of dough were placed both on the inside and the outside, and thus baked.