StrongerBible

qever

קֶבֶר

HebrewH6913grave, tomb, ...

Appears 67 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 23:4Gen 23:6 (2×)Gen 23:9Gen 23:20Gen 49:30Gen 50:5Gen 50:13Exo 14:11Num 19:16Num 19:18Jdg 8:32Jdg 16:312Sa 2:322Sa 3:322Sa 4:122Sa 17:232Sa 19:37(38)2Sa 21:141Ki 13:221Ki 13:301Ki 13:311Ki 14:132Ki 13:212Ki 22:202Ki 23:62Ki 23:16 (2×)2Ki 23:172Ch 16:142Ch 21:202Ch 24:252Ch 28:272Ch 32:332Ch 34:42Ch 34:282Ch 35:24Neh 2:3Neh 2:5Neh 3:16Job 3:22Job 5:26Job 10:19Job 17:1Job 21:32Psa 5:9(10)Psa 88:5(6)Psa 88:11(12)Isa 14:19Isa 22:16 (2×)Isa 53:9Isa 65:4
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyKEH-vernoun

What qever means

a grave: the place where a dead body is laid to rest

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary word for the place a body goes when someone dies. It covers any form that place might take in the ancient world: a hole dug in the ground, a natural cave, or a chamber cut into rock. The same word names the single resting spot of one person, the shared plot where a whole family is gathered, and, in poetry, the grave imagined as the silent destination of all the dead.

The senses below are not different words but the one idea seen from different distances. Up close it is a particular tomb that a particular person owns, buys, or is laid in. Stepped back, it is the family burial ground where the generations are gathered together, which is why kings are so often said to be buried (or denied burial) with their fathers. Widened all the way out, it becomes a picture of death itself, the place that swallows everyone and from which, in a few hopeful texts, God promises to bring his people back up.

The word carries weight far beyond real estate. In Israel a proper grave among one's own people was a mark of honor and belonging, and being left unburied was a horror and a curse. So the choice of word often signals not just where a body lies but whether a person died in peace and was received by their kin or was shamed even in death.

Nuances

1aa single grave or tomb: the particular spot, pit, cave, or rock-cut chamber where one person's body is laid
Gen 23:4Gen 23:6 (2×)Gen 23:9Gen 23:20Gen 49:30Gen 50:5Gen 50:13Exo 14:11Num 19:16Num 19:181Ki 13:221Ki 13:30
1ban ancestral or royal burial place: the family ground or shared tombs where the generations, or the kings, are gathered together
Jdg 8:32Jdg 16:312Sa 2:322Sa 3:322Sa 4:122Sa 17:232Sa 19:37(38)2Sa 21:142Ki 22:202Ch 16:142Ch 21:202Ch 24:25
1cthe grave as a picture of death and the place of the dead, including God's promise to open the graves and bring his people up
Psa 5:9(10)Psa 88:5(6)Psa 88:11(12)Isa 14:19Jer 5:16Ezk 32:22Ezk 32:23Ezk 32:25Ezk 32:26Ezk 37:12 (2×)Ezk 37:13 (2×)

What scholars say about qever

Standard lexicography treats this word as a single concrete noun for a burial place, derived from the common verb meaning to bury, with no division into separate roots. BDB and HALOT list it under one entry glossed grave, sepulchre, tomb, covering the individual grave, the ancestral or royal burial site, and the poetic grave that stands for death. The theological dictionaries note that proper burial in the family grave was bound up with Israelite ideas of honor, kinship, and rest with one's ancestors, while denial of burial was among the gravest of curses, and they distinguish the physical grave from the wider realm of the dead, Sheol, with which poetry sometimes overlaps it.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. קֶבֶרlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. קֶבֶרlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. קֶבֶרlexicon
  • G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.), TDOT, entry on קברtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of קֶבֶר

m s absolute

קָבֶר, קֶבֶר, קֶּבֶר, קָּבֶר

Gen 23:9, Gen 23:20, Gen 49:30, Num 19:16, 1Ki 14:13, Job 3:22, Job 5:26, Isa 22:16

m s construct

קֶבֶר, קֶּבֶר

Jdg 8:32, Jdg 16:31, 2Sa 2:32, 2Sa 3:32, 2Sa 4:12, 2Sa 17:23, 2Sa 19:37, 2Sa 21:14

m p absolute

קְּבָרִים, קְבָרִים

2Ki 23:16, 2Ki 23:16, 2Ch 34:4, Isa 65:4, Exo 14:11, Job 17:1

f p construct

קִבְרוֹת

2Ch 21:20, 2Ch 24:25, 2Ch 35:24, Neh 2:3, Neh 2:5

f p construct

קִבְרוֹתֵיכֶם, קִּבְרוֹתֵיכֶם

Ezk 37:12, Ezk 37:13, Ezk 37:12, Ezk 37:13

m p construct

קִבְרֵי

2Ch 28:27, 2Ch 32:33, Neh 3:16, Jer 26:23

m s construct

קִבְרוֹ

Gen 23:6, 1Ki 13:30, Isa 22:16, Isa 53:9

f p construct

קִבְרוֹתֶיהָ, קִבְרֹתֶהָ, קִבְרֹתֶיהָ

Ezk 32:26, Ezk 32:25, Ezk 32:23

f p construct

קִבְרֹתֶיךָ

2Ki 22:20, 2Ch 34:28

f p construct

קִבְרֹתָיו

2Ch 16:14, Ezk 32:22

m s construct

קִבְרִי

Gen 50:5, Jer 20:17

m s construct

קִבְרֶךָ, קִּבְרְךָ

Nam 1:14, Isa 14:19

f p absolute

קְבָרוֹת

Job 21:32

m p construct

קְבָרֵינוּ

Gen 23:6

m p construct

קִּבְרֵיהֶם

Jer 8:1