StrongerBible

kavod

כָּבוֹד

HebrewH3519“glory, honor, ...”

Appears 200 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 31:1Gen 45:13Gen 49:6Exo 16:7Exo 16:10Exo 24:16Exo 24:17Exo 28:2Exo 28:40Exo 29:43Exo 33:18Exo 33:22Exo 40:34Exo 40:35Lev 9:6Lev 9:23Num 14:10Num 14:21Num 14:22Num 16:19Num 16:42(17:7)Num 24:11Deu 5:24Jos 7:191Sa 2:81Sa 4:211Sa 4:221Sa 6:51Ki 3:131Ch 16:241Ch 16:281Ch 17:181Ch 29:12Neh 9:5Job 19:9Job 29:20Psa 3:3(4)Psa 4:2(3)Psa 7:5(6)Psa 16:9Psa 21:5(6)Psa 26:8Psa 49:17(18)Psa 57:5(6)Psa 57:8(9)Psa 57:11(12)Psa 62:7(8)Psa 63:2(3)Psa 72:19 (2×)Psa 96:3
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradekah-VOHDnoun

What kavod means

weight that makes someone or something count: the visible greatness of God, the honor and standing of a person, or the wealth and splendor that command respect.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The picture underneath this word is weight. The related verb means to be heavy, and this noun is the heaviness that makes something matter:

  • a presence so substantial it cannot be ignored
  • a reputation that carries weight
  • a fortune so great it draws every eye

Scholars agree this is not really one idea with several offshoots but a cluster of senses held together by that single metaphor of weight, which is why English has to reach for different words to carry it.

The word ranges across three poles:

  • At its most concrete it is sheer abundance and wealth, the substance that makes a man weighty among his neighbors.
  • From there it becomes the honor and standing a person holds, the respect that is the opposite of shame.
  • At its height it is the glory of God himself: his greatness made visible, usually as blazing fire and a heavy cloud that fills a place and stops people in their tracks.

That divine glory has a story of its own across the Bible.

  • It settles on Sinai and fills the tabernacle and the temple.
  • In Ezekiel it becomes mobile, riding a wheeled throne and abandoning a doomed temple only to return to a restored one.
  • In Isaiah it is finally seen not by Israel alone but by all the nations together.

A separate and quieter use surfaces in some poems, where "my glory" is not outward splendor at all but the speaker's own honored inner self.

Nuances

1athe glory of God: his greatness made visible, often as blazing light or a heavy cloud that fills a place and overwhelms those who see it.
Exo 16:7Exo 16:10Exo 24:16Exo 24:17Exo 29:43Exo 33:18Exo 33:22Exo 40:34Exo 40:35Lev 9:6Lev 9:23Num 14:10
1bhonor and high standing: the respect a person holds or is given, the dignity that is the opposite of shame and disgrace.
Gen 45:13Exo 28:2Exo 28:40Num 24:111Sa 2:81Ki 3:131Ch 17:182Ch 26:182Ch 32:33Est 1:4Psa 4:2(3)Psa 8:5
1cgiving glory or honor: the act of acknowledging the weight that belongs to God, or to a person, by praise and homage.
Jos 7:191Sa 6:51Ch 16:241Ch 16:281Ch 16:29Neh 9:5Psa 29:1Psa 29:2Psa 66:2Psa 79:9Psa 96:3Psa 96:7
1dwealth and splendor: great riches, abundance, and the outward magnificence that goes with them.
Gen 31:11Ch 29:121Ch 29:282Ch 1:112Ch 1:122Ch 17:52Ch 18:12Ch 32:27Est 5:11Psa 49:17(18)Ecc 6:2Isa 8:7
1ethe inner self: a person's own honored core, the soul as the weighty seat of feeling and worth, in the phrase "my glory."
CertaintyContested
Gen 49:6Psa 7:5(6)Psa 16:9Psa 30:12Psa 57:8(9)Psa 108:1(2)
Gen 49:6

Whether "my glory" in these poems should be read as the honored inner self or repointed to read "my liver," the seat of feeling in ancient Hebrew thought.

  • majorityIt is the word for glory or honor used by extension for the noblest part of the person, the self, with no change to the text needed.; Moshe Weinfeld, "כָּבוֹד," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 7:22-38; Claus Westermann, "כבד," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT) 2:590-602
  • minorityThe vowels should be adjusted to read "my liver," the inner organ that Hebrew, like other Semitic languages, treated as a seat of strong feeling, supported by the parallel words and by ancient Near Eastern usage.; E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (1964), 365; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I-III, Anchor Bible 16-17A (1965-1970)

Disputed

What kind of reality the glory of God is in the priestly tabernacle texts: God's own body, or a real but distinct manifestation of his honored presence.

  • minorityThe glory is God's own luminous body, normally shielded by cloud; when it descends into the tabernacle God is no longer simultaneously in heaven.; Benjamin D. Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2009), 58-75
  • contestedThe glory is real and concrete but deliberately presented as God's glory and not God himself, a way of affirming his presence while toning down direct bodily language.; Baruch J. Schwartz, "The Priestly Account of the Theophany and Lawgiving at Sinai," in Texts, Temples, and Traditions (Eisenbrauns, 1996), 103-134; Israel Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Fortress, 1995), esp. 130
  • contestedThe glory is a specifically liturgical body, larger than human, fiery and enthroned, or YHWH's radiant royal clothing analogous to the awe-inspiring divine radiance of Mesopotamian gods.; Mark S. Smith, "The Three Bodies of God in the Hebrew Bible," Journal of Biblical Literature 134 (2015): 471-488

What scholars say about kavod

The standard lexicons (BDB, HALOT, DCH) derive this noun from the verb meaning to be heavy and group its uses around weight, wealth, honor, majesty, and the glory of God. Recent scholarship resists treating it as one basic meaning with offshoots: Claus Westermann's TLOT entry rejects the idea of a single original meaning from which the rest evolved, presenting the senses instead as a network held together by the metaphor of weight. The cognate evidence sharpens this, because the same Semitic root gives both "heavy/honored" and the word for "liver," and scholars disagree on which came first (Edward Lipinski and Leonid Kogan argue the liver-noun is primary, while the lexicons and Westermann treat "heavy" as primary, and Mark Smith and Dennis Pardee judge the direction unrecoverable). This is the background to the "my glory / my liver" crux in Genesis 49:6 and several Psalms, where the word parallels the soul or heart.

The theological center of gravity is the glory of the LORD. Moshe Weinfeld's TDOT article traces it from the fire-and-cloud presence of Sinai and the tabernacle to the visible, almost bodily glory of Ezekiel's visions, and C. John Collins (NIDOTTE) and the TWOT entry survey the same range from human honor to God's manifest presence. The sharpest modern debates are theological rather than lexical. Benjamin Sommer argues the priestly glory is literally God's body; Baruch Schwartz and Israel Knohl read it as a real but deliberately distinct manifestation. Gerhard von Rad, Tryggve Mettinger, and Weinfeld set the priestly glory-theology against Deuteronomy's name-theology, a contrast later scholars (Ian Wilson, Sandra Richter) regard as overdrawn. In Ezekiel the glory becomes mobile, riding a throne-chariot and abandoning the temple before returning to a restored one (Moshe Greenberg, Walther Zimmerli, Daniel Block, John Kutsko), while Isaiah develops it from Zion's throne (Isaiah 6) to a revelation seen by all flesh (Isaiah 40) and finally rising upon Zion herself (Isaiah 60). When the Greek translators chose doxa, a word for opinion or reputation, to render it, they poured the whole Hebrew complex of radiance and presence into a Greek term, reshaping it for later Jewish and Christian use (Johannes Behm, Carey Newman).

Where scholars disagree about kavod

Whether the root behind this word started from "heavy" or from "liver," since the same Semitic root gives both "be heavy / honored" and the anatomical word for the liver.

  • majority"Heavy" is primary; the liver is named as the heaviest inner organ, and honor extends from the idea of social weight.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. כָּבוֹד; Claus Westermann, "כבד," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT) 2:590-602
  • minorityThe noun for "liver" is primary across the Semitic languages, and "heavy" and then "honored" are derived from it.; Edward Lipinski, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar, 2nd ed. (Peeters, 2001); Leonid Kogan, Genealogical Classification of Semitic (De Gruyter, 2015)
  • contestedThe direction cannot be recovered; the concrete noun and the stative verb already coexisted in the earliest reconstructable Semitic.; Dennis Pardee, The Ugaritic Texts and the Origins of West-Semitic Literary Composition (Oxford, 2012)
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. כָּבֵד / כָּבוֹדlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. כָּבוֹדlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. כָּבוֹדlexicon
  • Moshe Weinfeld, "כָּבוֹד," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 7:22-38dictionary
  • Claus Westermann, "כבד," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT) 2:590-602dictionary
  • C. John Collins, "כבד," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE) 2:577-587dictionary
  • John N. Oswalt, "כָּבֵד," in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) 426dictionary
  • Benjamin D. Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2009)monograph
  • Baruch J. Schwartz, "The Priestly Account of the Theophany and Lawgiving at Sinai," in Texts, Temples, and Traditions (Eisenbrauns, 1996), 103-134article
  • Israel Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Fortress, 1995)monograph
  • Gerhard von Rad, "Deuteronomy's 'Name' Theology and the Priestly Document's 'Kabod' Theology," in Studies in Deuteronomy (SCM, 1953)article
  • Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth: Studies in the Shem and Kabod Theologies, ConBOT 18 (Lund, 1982)monograph
  • Moshe Greenberg, Ezekiel 1-20, Anchor Bible 22 (Doubleday, 1983), 51-59commentary
  • Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24, NICOT (Eerdmans, 1997)commentary
  • John F. Kutsko, Between Heaven and Earth: Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel (Eisenbrauns, 2000)monograph
  • Thomas Wagner, Gottes Herrlichkeit: Bedeutung und Verwendung des Begriffs kabod im Alten Testament, VTSup 151 (Brill, 2012)monograph
  • Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I-III, Anchor Bible 16-17A (1965-1970)commentary
  • E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), 365commentary
  • Johannes Behm, "δόξα," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 2:232-255dictionary
  • Carey C. Newman, Paul's Glory-Christology: Tradition and Rhetoric, NovTSup 69 (Brill, 1992)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of כָּבוֹד

m s absolute

כָּבוֹד, כָּבֹד

Exo 28:2, Exo 28:40, Num 24:11, Jos 7:19, 1Sa 2:8, 1Sa 4:21, 1Sa 4:22, 1Sa 6:5

m s construct

כְּבוֹד, כְּבֹד

Exo 16:7, Exo 16:10, Exo 24:16, Exo 24:17, Exo 40:34, Exo 40:35, Lev 9:6, Lev 9:23

c s construct

כְּבוֹדִי, כְּבֹדִי

Gen 45:13, Job 19:9, Job 29:20, Psa 3:3, Psa 4:2, Psa 7:5, Psa 16:9, Psa 57:8

m s construct

כְּבוֹדוֹ, כְּבֹדוֹ

1Ch 16:24, Psa 21:5, Psa 49:17, Psa 72:19, Psa 72:19, Psa 96:3, Psa 97:6, Psa 102:16

m s construct

כְּבוֹדֶךָ, כְּבֹדֶךָ

Neh 9:5, Psa 26:8, Psa 57:5, Psa 57:11, Psa 63:2, Psa 102:15, Psa 108:5, Isa 22:18

m s construct

כְּבוֹדָם, כְּבֹדָם

Psa 106:20, Isa 61:6, Hos 4:7, Hos 9:11, Pro 25:27

m s construct

כְּבוֹדֵךְ

Isa 62:2

m s construct

כְּבוֹדְכֶם

Isa 10:3

m s construct

כְּבוֹדָהּ

Isa 66:11