מַר
bitter
‘bitter’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
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).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4751 appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Ecclesiastes
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.
מר (mar) is a Hebrew word most often rendered “bitter.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 27:34. It turns up in 36 verses across 18 books, a moderately common footprint. Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. It clusters with מרר, ממרר and מר under a shared root. 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 H4751 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 →
- 36
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 36 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #922
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 922 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 36 occurrences in the concordance →
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 36 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 18 verses · 50%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 7 verses · 19%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 4 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Bitter 12×, Bitterness 6×, Bitterly 3×
- American Standard Version†: Bitterness 10×, Bitter 9×, Become bitter 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Bitter 11×, Bitterness 6×, Bitterly 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Bitter 12×, Bitterness 10×, Bitter of 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4751 across 38† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 H4751 across 38† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4751 across 39† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 renderings that appear 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 H4751 across 41† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 4 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.
מר I and subst. bitter, bitterness
- 1. lit., of water Ex 15:23 (J); food Pr 27:7 (opp. מָתוֹק); wormwood (לַעֲנָה) Pr 5:4 (in sim. of end of harlot, cf. Ec 7:26 infr.); as subst. pl., of physical pain, result of curse לְמָרִים Nu 5:24, 27, whence מֵי הַמָּרִים v 18 (cf. Di) v 19, 23, 24; of harmful result of ruthless fighting 2 S 2:26; of wickdness Je 2:19; 4:18;=injurious, hurtful Is 5:20(×2) (opp. מָתוֹק). e.g. Exodus 15:23
- 2. fig.,
- a. of cry (צְעָקָה, זְעָקָה) Gn 27:34 (J), Est 4:1; מִסְפֵּד מָ֑ר Ez 27:31 (del. Co); דָּבָר מָ֑ר ψ 64:4; as adv. (cry, weep) bitterly Ez 27:30 (מָרָה), Zp 1:14 Is 33:7 (both מַר). e.g. Genesis 27:34
- b. of feeling, temper, especially c. נֶפֶשׁ: אֲנָשִׁים מָרֵי נֶפֶשׁ Ju 18:25 men fierce (GFM acrid) of temper, so 2 S 17:8 (like a bear robbed of whelps); הַגּוֹי הַמַּר Hb 1:6 the fierce nation; מַר־נֶפֶשׁ=discontented 1 S 22:2; מָרֵי נֶפֶשׁ=the bitterly wretched Jb 3:20 Pr 31:6, so מָרַת נ׳ 1 S 1:10; cf. יוֹם מָ֑ר Am 8:10; as subst. abstr. מַר־נֶפֶשׁ bitterness of soul Is 38:15 Ez 27:31 (del. Co), Jb 7:11; 10:1=נפשׁ מָרָה 21:25; cf. מָרָא Ru 1:20 (name given to Naomi by herself); מַר־הַמָּוֶת 1 S 15:32 the bitterness of death; מַר־מִמָּוֶת Ec 7:26 (metaph. of harlot); in Ez 3:14 I went bitterly, del. מַר Co—Is 38:17 v. מרר. e.g. Judges 18:25
מר II [m.] drop, only גּוֹיִם כְּמַר מִדְּלִי Is 40
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
III. adj. and subst. bitter, bitterness;—abs. מ׳ Pr 27:7 +, הַמַּר Hb 1:6, מָ֑ר ψ 64:4 +; cstr. מַר 1 S 22:2 +; f. מָרָה Gn 27:34 +, מָרָא Ru 1:20; cstr. מָרַת 1 S 1:10; mpl. מָרִים Ex 15:23 +; cstr. מָרֵי Ju 18:25 Pr 31:6;—bitter:
IV. n.[m.] drop, only גּוֹיִם כְּמַר מִדְּלִי Is 40:15 nations are like a drop hanging from a bucket.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from מרר (mârar) (H4843) — to be bitter.
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.
מַר IV
- (pl. forms מָרֵא, מָרֵי, מָארֵי) (Arab. marua, cmp. מָרָא, to be strong; cmp. גָּבַר a. גֶּבֶר) man, lord, master; somebody; (as a title) Mar. Tosef. Shek. II, 15 מפני שמר על הכל because he was ruler &c., v. אֲמַרְכּוֹל; Hor. 13ᵃ אמר כולא (prob. to be read מרא כולא).—Lev. R. s. 31 מָרִי נח my lord Noah. Y. Peah VIII, end, 21ᵇ לא יכעוס מָרִי עלי let my lord not be angry &c.; a. e.—Targ. Gen. XXXVII, 19. Targ. Prov. XXIII, 2; a. fr.—Snh. 109ᵇ אי מר רבה … ואי מר וכ׳ if the one (Moses) is teacher (leader), thou art a pupil (subordinate), and if the other (Korah) is &c. Ḥull. 105ᵃ, a. fr. מר אמר חדא ומר אמר וכ׳ one said one thing, another another thing, but they do not differ. Yoma 20ᵇ ומר אמר לי Ms. M. (ed. ואת אמרת) and you, Sir, say to me &c. Ib. מר ניהו רב נינח מר (Rashi מר הוא) the man (you speak of) is a teacher; sit down, Sir. B. Kam. 60ᵇ מר אמר ליה לימא מר וכ׳ one said to him, tell us, Sir &c.—Ber. 2ᵃ, a. fr. אמר מר it has been said (introducing a discussion on a subject previously touched upon). Y. Snh. I, 18ᶜ bot., a. e. אכן מָרָהּ דשמעתא וכ׳ in such a case the author of the rule would not have maintained it. Y. Ter. VIII, 45ᶜ הא מרי שמועתא והא מ׳ עובדא here is a master of traditions and a master of practice. Gen. R. s. 58 (expl. תושב, Gen. XXIII, 4) מארי ביתא (= בעל הבית) owner of a house, citizen, opp. דיירא. Succ. 32ᵇ, a. fr. שרי ליה מָרֵיה ל־ the Lord forgive him (he is mistaken).—Ned. 50ᵃ יעביד מָרָנָא עליה let our lord do with this (be contented for the present). Y. Ab. Zar. V, 44ᵈ [read:] אין את מָרָהּ דנפשך (cmp. Prov. XXIII, 2) if thou art master over thy desire; אי נפשך מָרָתָךְ if thy desire is master over thee; Deut. R. s. 2 אנא מָרֵי דנפשי אנא I am master over my desire; a. fr.—Pl. מָרֵי = בַּעֲלִים (used as sing. a. pl.; v. supra). Targ. Is. III, 12; a. fr.—מָרָוָותָא, מָרָוָתָא (pl. of מָרוּתָא). Targ. Prov. V, 13 (h. text מוֹרָי).—Gitt. 40ᵃ כלו מ׳ בתראי the owners at second hand (of the settlement of slaves) died out; אהדרו אבני מ׳ קדמאי apply (for emancipation) to the heirs of the original owners. B. Bath. 3ᵇ קטלינהו לכולהו מָרָוָתֵיה (Var. לכולהו בני מרותיה) he (Herod) killed all of his master’s family. B. Kam. 103ᵃ מ׳ דכיתנא Ms. M. (ed. מָרָוָותֵיה) the owner of the flax; a. fr.—Mar Samuel, Mar Ukban &c., v. respect. pr. nouns.—Fem. מָרְתָא, מָרְתָה e.g. Genesis 23:4
- 1. mistress, constr. מָרַת. Targ. I Kings XVII, 17. Targ. Is. XXIV, 2; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 52, v. בַּעֲלָה. Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵈ מ׳ דביתא the hostess. Y. Peah VIII, 21ᵇ top [read:] הב ליה יתיר דנפשיה מָרָתֵיה give him (the poor man) more, for his appetite is his master (he is used to good living). Y. Ab. Zar. l. c., v. supra; a. fr.
- 2. pr. n. f. Martha. Gitt. 56ᵃ; a. fr. מ׳ בת ביתוס, v. בַּיְתוֹס.—M. Kat. 26ᵇ bot. אבא בר מ׳ (Ms. M. מָרַת); Yeb. 120ᵃ; Sabb. 121ᵇ; Yoma 84ᵃ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 60); a. e.
- 3. pr. n. m. (?). Snh. 5ᵃ bot. B. Bath. 52ᵃ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 8). Pes. 103ᵃ top מ׳ אמר (Ms. M. 1 רב ברונא; Ms. M. 2 מרונא, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note).
מֹר
- myrrh, מוֹר.
מַר I
- = אֲמַר, to speak, say. Y. Sabb. I, 3ᵇ top חזר ומר again he said. Y. B. Bath. X, 17ᶜ bot. מְדְּמַר הונא (not מרמר) from what H. said (we learn). Y. Snh. III, 21ᵇ bot. מאן דמר he who said. Ib. X, 27ᵈ bot., v. דַּתְּ.—Y. Ter. VIII, 46ᵃ חמון מה אתון מָרִין observe what you say. Y. Ber. II, 5ᶜ top אית דמָרִין (not דמריי) some say; a. fr.
מַר II
- 1. bitter. Pes. 39ᵃ כל ירק מר וכ׳ every bitter herb contains a gum (won by impissation). Lev. R. s. 31 מר מזה מתחת ידו וכ׳ rather something bitterer than this out of the hand of the Lord, than sweets out of thine; Yalk. Gen. 59; Gen. R. s. 33 (corr. acc.); a. fr.—Y. Snh. X, 27ᵈ מר לי woe is me. Keth. 69ᵇ (play on וס̇ר מ̇ר̇ז̇ח סרוחים, Am. VI, 7) מ̇ר̇ וז̇ח̇ נעשה שר לסרוחים he who is bitter (of soul) and distracted (through bereavement) is made the chief of those banqueting (i.e. the mourner must sit at the head at the comforting meal); M. Kat. 28ᵇ (not מרזח, Ms. M. מרוזח); Yalk. Am. 545. e.g. Amos 6:7
- 2. corrosive substance; trnsf. care, worry. Sabb. 30ᵇ; Pes. 117ᵃ (play on מוֹר, Cant. V, 13) a student before his teacher, ואין שפתותיו נוטפות מר whose lips to not drip from care; (Cant. R. l. c. ששפתיו נוטפות מור).—3) mar, name of a bitter herb, ferula. Pes. l. c. מר ירואר, expl. מר זה הוא י׳ mar is y’roar, v. יְרוֹאָר; [for. Var. lect. v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note].—Fem. מָרָה, q. v. e.g. Song of Solomon 5:13
מַר III
- (or מָר) m. (מוּר) exchange; במֹר ד־ instead of; as. Ḥull. 94ᵃ ויהבה ניהליה במר דשחוטה and he gave her (the ritually forbidden hen) to him (the gentile) pretending that it was ritually cut. B. Kam. 113ᵇ, v. פְּלִיזָא. Bekh. 30ᵃ מזבין ליה במר דכנתא sold it for fat of the ileum (which is permitted; Ar. מרכנתא, suggesting מַדְכַנְתָּא, q. v.).
מָר
- 1. (= מארא, v. אָרָה) hoe, rake. Erub. 77ᵇ דבעי מ׳ וחצינא it requires hoe or pick-axe (to get it out). Meg. 28ᵃ, v. דְּרֵי II. Taan. 23ᵇ top ציבי ומ׳ the wood (he had collected) and the rake. B. Mets. 82ᵇ מ׳ ופסל וקרדום (Ms. מר, Ar. מר פסל) hoe and mattock and axe; Ber. 57ᵇ מר פסל וקרדום. Keth. 64ᵃ בעינא … ומָרָה לקבורה I want a staff to lean on and a hoe to make my grave, i.e. a son to support me in old age and to provide for my burial; Yeb. 65ᵇ. Taan. 21ᵇ, v. זְבִילָא; a. e.—
- *2. (= מארא, denom. of אוּרָא; cmp. Arab. marvu silices &c.) flint for striking a light. Zeb. 116ᵇ אפיקו נורא ממ׳ חדתא (Ms. M. ממַגָּאנָא, Yalk. Lev. 579 ממַגָּנָה, v. מַנְגָּנָא; Ms. K. ממָאנָא; En Yaăk. ממָנָא) produce fire with a flint-stone which has not been used before.
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 28 distinct written forms H4751 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4751, 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
- ממרר mamrôr H4472 bitterness
- מר mar H4752 drop
- מר môr H4753 myrrh
- מרה môrâh H4786 bitterness
- מרירות mᵉrîyrûwth H4814 bitterness
- מרירי mᵉrîyrîy H4815 bitter
- מרר mᵉrôr H4844 bitter herb
- מררה mᵉrêrâh H4845 gall
- מררה mᵉrôrâh H4846 poison
- תמרור tamrûwr H8563 bitterness
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- מררי Mᵉrârîy H4847 Merari
- מרא Mârâʼ H4755 Mara
- מרה Mârâh H4785 Marah
- מרות Mârôwth H4796 Maroth
- מרתים Mᵉrâthayim H4850 Merathaim
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 17 — not the complete family. 5 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 35 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 36 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
- Genesis 27:34
- Exodus 15:23
- Numbers 5:18
- Judges 18:25
- 1 Samuel 1:10
- 2 Samuel 2:26
- Esther 4:1
- Job 3:20
- Psalms 64:3
- Proverbs 5:4
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
- Isaiah 5:20
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.
