remembrance: the memory, name, and renown that keep a person or thing present after they are gone
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
At its heart this word names not a private recollection but a public, lasting one: the trace a person or a people leaves behind, the name and reputation that go on being spoken after they are gone. To carry a good remembrance is to be honored long after death (Proverbs 10:7); to have it blotted out, as with Amalek, is treated as a fate worse than dying, because it wipes out the name and the family line together.
When the word is used of God it takes on a fuller shade. His remembrance is his memorial-name, the name by which worshippers call on him and celebrate him from one generation to the next (Exodus 3:15). Here it stands close beside the ordinary word for name, and often runs parallel to it.
Both uses share one idea: to be remembered is to remain, in some real sense, present and alive. That is why losing one's remembrance is spoken of as final erasure, and why the enduring remembrance of God is a ground for praise.
Nuances
1athe surviving memory or renown of a person or people: the name and reputation that outlast them, or that are wiped out
focused on whether memory survives or is cut off: the memorial can be wiped out, destroyed, or it can endure. The word names the trace a person leaves in the minds of others, which death or defeat may extinguishExo 17:14Ecc 9:5
used for the act of giving thanks or calling to mind what God has done: the memorial of God's holy acts is something Israel praises and proclaimsPsa 30:4Psa 111:4
Both
both describe the lasting identity of a person or of God that outlasts a single moment: the name as the recognized title and the memorial as the remembered trace are two sides of the same enduring presenceExo 3:15Psa 135:13
both can perish together: when a person is truly destroyed, both their name and their memorial vanish from the earthJob 18:17
both are objects of longing and praise when applied to God: Israel yearns for, sings of, and gives thanks to both the divine name and the divine memorialIsa 26:8Psa 135:13
used for the act of naming, giving a person, place, or creature its identifying label, a function the memorial word never carriesGen 2:19Gen 3:20
carries the sense of fame, renown, or great reputation (a name that is made great or spreads abroad), which goes beyond memory and into active standing and honorGen 6:4Gen 12:2
זִכָּרוֹןa concrete memorial or reminder, a token, record, or observance set up to trigger memory; remembrance is the surviving memory or renown itself, not the object that prompts it
Names the surviving memory or renown of a person or of God: the name and reputation that lives on through the generations.Exo 3:15Pro 10:7Psa 112:6
What is at stake is whether that memory endures or is wiped out; to destroy an enemy utterly is to blot their remembrance off the earth.Deu 25:19Psa 9:6Psa 34:16
Belongs to praise and worship: God's remembrance is invoked and celebrated as something worshippers call to mind across the ages.Psa 30:4Psa 97:12Isa 26:8
Both
Both turn on whether a memory survives; Exodus 17:14 sets them side by side, commanding a written memorial of the very victory by which God will blot out the remembrance of Amalek.Exo 17:14
Both can be swallowed by the passing of time; each is used to say that people and things eventually pass out of all remembrance.Ecc 9:5Ecc 1:11
Names a concrete thing set up to trigger memory: engraved stones, a written record, an offering, a feast day.Jos 4:7Exo 28:12Mal 3:16
Repeatedly functions before the LORD: a physical token placed in God's presence so that Israel is brought to mind before him.Exo 28:29Exo 30:16Num 10:10
Can be an appointed observance whose whole purpose is to keep a past event from ever being forgotten.Exo 12:14Lev 23:24Est 6:1
Names the memory a person or a people leaves behind, the trace of them that can outlast them or vanish completely.Job 18:17Pro 10:7Ecc 9:5
Can be wiped out as a punishment, so that erasing the memory of a people is the same as finishing them off for good.Exo 17:14Deu 25:19Psa 9:6Psa 109:15
Used of God himself, of the name by which he is called on and kept in mind by one generation after another.Exo 3:15Psa 135:13Hos 12:5
Lives in speech rather than at the altar: it is something people pour out in praise, long for, and sing about.Psa 30:4Psa 145:7Isa 26:8
Both
Both build on the ordinary idea of remembering, and in both the remembering does real work: something is put in place so that someone is not overlooked.Lev 2:2Psa 111:4
In both, a small token stands for the whole: a handful of grain stands for the entire gift, and a name stands for the whole person behind it.Lev 2:9Exo 3:15
Both can reach across generations: the bread is set out week after week as a standing reminder, and a name is kept alive in praise from age to age.Lev 24:7Psa 102:12
Names a physical part of an offering: the handful of flour, oil, and incense that the priest burns on the altar so the gift rises as smoke.Lev 2:2Lev 2:9Lev 6:15
Belongs entirely to worship at the sanctuary, and always to one particular rite: the grain gift, the flour brought by someone too poor for an animal, the bread set out before God, and the offering in the case of a suspected wife.Lev 2:16Lev 5:12Lev 24:7Num 5:26
The one doing the remembering is God, and the one remembered is the worshipper: the portion is burned so that the person who brought the gift is noticed and received.Lev 2:2Num 5:26
zekher in the other biblical languages
μνημόσυνονGreek“memorial”the Greek word for a memorial or remembrance the Greek Old Testament often uses for this word; leans toward a deed or offering that keeps someone in mind
names the lingering memory or fame of a person that survives across generations, and which can be deliberately wiped out as the harshest of judgments.Deu 25:19Exo 17:14Psa 9:6Job 18:17
used of God's own enduring name, the title by which he is invoked and remembered forever.Exo 3:15Psa 135:13Hos 12:5
weighs whether remembrance persists after death: gone from the grave, yet secured for the righteous.Psa 6:5Pro 10:7Ecc 9:5
Both
both name a memorial: the thing that keeps someone remembered and their name or deed alive.Exo 3:15Mat 26:13
both mark remembrance that is proclaimed and endures publicly across time rather than fading.Psa 102:12Mrk 14:9
attaches to a concrete deed that becomes the memorial itself: the woman's anointing of Jesus is retold everywhere as her lasting memorial.Mat 26:13Mrk 14:9
carries the cultic sense of an offering that rises up before God and brings the worshipper to his notice.Act 10:4
μνείαGreek“remembrance”the Greek for remembrance or mention, especially calling someone to mind in prayer; the act of remembering rather than the enduring public renown
Names a lasting memorial attached to a name, the token by which the LORD is known and called on through every generation.Exo 3:15Psa 135:13Hos 12:5
Names a reputation that endures or is wiped out: the memory of the righteous kept alive, the memory of enemies and the wicked blotted from the earth.Exo 17:14Deu 25:19Pro 10:7Psa 112:6
Names the memory that fades once a person is dead, the remembrance lost in the grave.Psa 6:5Ecc 9:5Job 18:17
Both
Both are the noun for remembrance itself, the keeping of a name or person present to mind rather than letting it be forgotten.Psa 102:12Eph 1:16
Names the act of holding a person in mind before God, the mention Paul makes of people in his prayers.Rom 1:9Php 1:31Th 1:2Phm 1:4
Carries a warm, mutual recollection between believers, the glad memory friends keep of one another while apart.1Th 3:62Ti 1:3
What scholars say about zekher
The noun derives from the root zkr, to remember, and the standard lexica (BDB, HALOT) group its uses under remembrance or memory and memorial, with a distinct nuance when the referent is Yahweh. In Exodus 3:15 and in several Psalms, zeker stands in parallel with shem, name, and Schottroff and Childs argue that here it denotes the cultic name by which God is invoked and proclaimed rather than a merely passive recollection; the remembrance is enacted in worship. Applied to persons, zeker regularly denotes the surviving name and posterity, so that its extinction (Amalek in Exodus 17:14 and Deuteronomy 25:19, the wicked in Psalm 34:16 and Proverbs 10:7) amounts to comprehensive erasure. The Hosea occurrence (English 14:7, Hebrew 14:8; zikro) is a recognized crux, read either as Israel's restored renown or, with wordplay on the surrounding botanical imagery, as fragrance.