StrongerBible

qevurah

קְבֻרָה

HebrewH6900grave, burial, ...

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 35:20 (2×)Gen 47:30Deu 34:61Sa 10:22Ki 9:282Ki 21:262Ki 23:302Ch 26:23Ecc 6:3Isa 14:20Jer 22:19Ezk 32:23Ezk 32:24
Root family
Word studykeh-voo-RAHnoun

What qevurah means

the burying of a dead body, and the grave or ground where the body is laid

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word is built straight off the verb "to bury" (קָבַר), and it keeps both halves of that idea inside one word: the burying itself, and the place where the burying is done. So a writer can say a king was laid "in his burial" and mean his tomb, or say a man had "no burial" and mean the act was never performed for him. English has to pick between "grave" and "burial" in every verse. Hebrew does not have to pick.

Most often it names one person's resting place, doing much the same work as the commoner word for a grave (קֶבֶר), and the person's name is what identifies the spot: the pillar over Rachel's grave, the grave of Moses that nobody can find, a king's own grave in the city of David. A few passages widen it to ground the dead share, which is why Jacob asks to be carried out of Egypt and laid in the burial place his fathers already hold, and why Ezekiel pictures whole armies ranged around a national burial ground far down in the pit.

The remaining use is the heaviest. In the world of these texts a body left out in the open was the last and worst disgrace, and this word carries that weight three times over:

  • the man who lives a hundred years, fathers a hundred children, and still gets no burial
  • the king of Babylon who will not be joined with his own royal line in the tomb
  • the king of Judah who will be dragged out and dumped past the city gates the way a dead donkey is

Read "burial" in those verses as a funeral service and the sentence goes soft. The question being asked is whether the body gets into the ground at all.

Nuances

1aa particular person's grave: the individual tomb or spot where one body is laid, usually named by whose it is
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 35:20 (2×)Deu 34:61Sa 10:22Ki 9:282Ki 21:262Ki 23:30
1ba burial place that a family, a royal line, or a whole nation shares, where the dead are gathered together
Gen 47:30Ezk 32:23Ezk 32:24
1cburial itself: the act of putting a body in the ground, and the decent end that being buried stands for
TranslatabilityDirect
2Ch 26:23Ecc 6:3Isa 14:20Jer 22:19

What scholars say about qevurah

The standard lexicons treat קְבוּרָה as a feminine verbal noun from the root קבר and give it two senses, the act of burial and the burial place, dividing the fourteen occurrences along those lines: the place sense in Genesis 35:20 (twice), Genesis 47:30, Deuteronomy 34:6, 1 Samuel 10:2, the three Kings notices of a royal interment, and Ezekiel 32:23-24; the act sense in Ecclesiastes 6:3, Isaiah 14:20, and Jeremiah 22:19. The phrase שְׂדֵה הַקְּבוּרָה in 2 Chronicles 26:23 sits on the boundary, since the field may be construed either as ground designated for burying or as the burial ground itself, and lexicons group it accordingly. Treatments of Israelite burial custom (TDOT, s.v. קבר) stress that denial of interment functioned as an extreme sanction, which is the force of the word in Jeremiah's donkey burial oracle against Jehoiakim and in the taunt over the fallen king in Isaiah 14; Qoheleth's use in 6:3 turns the same convention into a limiting case, a long and fertile life voided by the loss of a grave. Ezekiel 32:22-32 extends the vocabulary to collective burial grounds assigned to the fallen nations in the netherworld, where קְבֻרָתָהּ names a whole host's resting place rather than an individual tomb.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. קְבוּרָהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. קְבוּרָהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. קְבוּרָהlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. קבר (qābar, qeber)theological-dictionary
  • William L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), on Jeremiah 22:18-19commentary
  • Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2 (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), on Ezekiel 32:17-32commentary
  • Choon-Leong Seow, Ecclesiastes (Anchor Bible 18C; New York: Doubleday, 1997), on Ecclesiastes 6:3commentary

All attested forms of קְבֻרָה

f s construct

קְבֻרָתוֹ

Deu 34:6, 2Ki 9:28, 2Ki 21:26, 2Ki 23:30

f s absolute

קְבוּרָה, קְּבוּרָה

Ecc 6:3, Isa 14:20, 2Ch 26:23

f s construct

קְבֻרַת, קְבוּרַת

Gen 35:20, 1Sa 10:2, Jer 22:19

f s construct

קְבֻרָתָהּ

Gen 35:20, Ezk 32:23, Ezk 32:24

f s construct

קְבֻרָתָם

Gen 47:30