דְּבִיר
holy of holies
‘holy of holies’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
13 distinct verses where H1687 appears in the Absolute state, across 2 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
1 Kings 10 verses
- 1 Kings 6:5 וְ/לַ/דְּבִ֑יר conj + prep det + n c ms Against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.
- 1 Kings 6:16 לִ/דְבִ֔יר prep + n c ms He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls [of the ceiling]: he built [them] for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.
- 1 Kings 6:19 וּ/דְבִ֧יר conj + n c ms He prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.
- 1 Kings 6:20 הַ/דְּבִ֡יר ptcl def.art + n c ms Within the oracle was [a space of] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height of it; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.
- 1 Kings 6:21 הַ/דְּבִ֔יר ptcl def.art + n c ms So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.
- 1 Kings 6:22 לַ/דְּבִ֖יר prep det + n c ms The whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.
- 1 Kings 6:23 בַּ/דְּבִ֔יר prep det + n c ms In the oracle he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten cubits high.
- 1 Kings 6:31 הַ/דְּבִ֔יר ptcl def.art + n c ms For the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive-wood: the lintel [and] door-posts were a fifth part [of the wall].
- 1 Kings 7:49 הַ/דְּבִ֖יר ptcl def.art + n c ms and the lampstands, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;
- 1 Kings 8:8 הַ/דְּבִ֔יר ptcl def.art + n c ms The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day.
2 Chronicles 3 verses
- 2 Chronicles 3:16 בַּ/דְּבִ֔יר prep det + n c ms He made chains in the oracle, and put [them] on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.
- 2 Chronicles 4:20 הַ/דְּבִ֖יר ptcl def.art + n c ms and the lampstands with their lamps, to burn according to the ordinance before the oracle, of pure gold;
- 2 Chronicles 5:9 הַ/דְּבִ֔יר ptcl def.art + n c ms The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there it is to this day.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew noun דביר centers on the idea of “holy of holies.” The word gravitates to 1 Kings (69%), then 2 Chronicles and Psalms. It turns up in 16 verses across 3 books, an uncommon footprint. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. Older and newer Bibles part ways — “oracle” in the King James Version, “inner sanctuary” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1687 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 16
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 16 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,752
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,752 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 16 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Kings 11 verses 69%
- 2 Chronicles 4 verses 25%
- Psalms 1 verse 6%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 16 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 11 verses · 69%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 31%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Oracle 14×
- American Standard Version: Oracle 15×
- Berean Standard Bible: Inner sanctuary 13×, Sanctuary 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Inner sanctuary 12×, Inner sanctuary of 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1687 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1687 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1687 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1687 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 5 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. n.pr.m. king of Eglon Jos 10:3. e.g. Joshua 10:3
- 2. n.pr.loc.
- a. דְּבִ֫רָה c. ָהloc., N. border Judah Jos 15:7 (westward Hup ψ 28:2). e.g. Joshua 15:7
- b. לִדְבִר town of the Gadites Jos 13:26, perhaps Lôdebâr 2 S 9:4 vid. לֹא דְבָר Di MV. e.g. Joshua 13:26
- c. דְּבִיר Ju 1:11(×2) 1 Ch 6:43, דְּבִרָה Jos 10:38, 39, elsewhere דְּבִר Jos 15:15 +, a royal city of Canaanites anciently called קִרְיַת סֵפֶר Jos 15:15 Ju 1:11, קִרְיַת סַנָּה Jos 15:49; on the mountains of Judah, in region of Hebron Jos 11:21; 15:49, assigned to the Aaronite priests Jos 21:15 as a city of refuge 1 Ch 6:43; mod. Dhoherîye, 5 hours SW. from Hebron, according to Kn, so Surveyiii. 402; other conject. in Di Jos 10:39 RiHWB 265. e.g. Judges 1:11
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. (cf. Arabic دُبُرٌ back, دَبْرٌ part behind) hindmost chamber, innermost room of the temple of Solomon = קדשׁ הקדשׁים holy of holies, most holy place, the place of the ark and the cherubic images, the throne-room of Yahweh 1 K 6:5, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31; 7:49 (= 2 Ch 4:20) 8:6, 8 (= 2 Ch 5:7, 9) 2 Ch 3:16 ψ 28:2. Prob. read דְּבִיר 2 K 10:25 also, for MT עִיר; so Klo after 𝔊L. (It is translated oracle in AV RV after Aq Sym χρηματιστήριον, 𝔙 oraculum, on the incorrect theory that it was derived from דִּבֶּר speak.)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from דבר (dâbar) (H1696) — to speak.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
דְּבִיר
- (b. h.)
- 1. the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Y. Ber. IV, 8ᶜ top.
- 2. the Book, a word in use among the Persian Jews. Ab. Zar. 24ᵇ (ref. to Jud. I, 11). e.g. Judges 1:11
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 9 distinct written forms H1687 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַ/דְּבִ֔יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:21 | 4 |
| דְּבִ֥יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct | 1 Kings 8:6 | 3 |
| בַּ/דְּבִ֔יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:23 | 2 |
| הַ/דְּבִ֖יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 7:49 | 2 |
| הַ/דְּבִ֡יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:20 | 1 |
| וְ/לַ/דְּבִ֑יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:5 | 1 |
| וּ/דְבִ֧יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:19 | 1 |
| לִ/דְבִ֔יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:16 | 1 |
| לַ/דְּבִ֖יר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 6:22 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1687, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- דבורה dᵉbôwrâh H1682 bee
- דבר dâbâr H1697 word
- דבר deber H1698 pestilence
- דבר dôber H1699 pasture
- דברה dôbᵉrâh H1702 raft
- דברה dabbârâh H1703 word
- מדבר midbâr H4057 wilderness
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 16 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 16 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
