נָבָל
foolish
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.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H5036 appears in the Book of Jeremiah — 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.
Jeremiah
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.
נבל — transliterated nâbâl — is a Hebrew adjective carrying the sense “foolish.” Its earliest occurrence is Deuteronomy 32:6. Spanning 18 verses in 8 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Psalms (28% of all occurrences). It shares a root with נבל, נבל and נבלה. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5036 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 →
- 18
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 18 distinct verses.
- 8 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 8 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,612
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,612 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 18 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Psalms 5 verses 28%
- Proverbs 3 verses 17%
- Deuteronomy 2 verses 11%
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 18 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 56%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 33%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 11%
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 2 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†: Fool 6×, Foolish 5×, Fools 2×
- American Standard Version†: Fool 8×, Foolish 5×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Fool 10×, Foolish 2×, Fools 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Fool 9×, Foolish 5×, Worthless one 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5036 across 18† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 H5036 across 18† 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5036 across 18† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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 H5036 across 20† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- foolish, senseless, fool
Word origin
I. adj. foolish, senseless, especially of the man who has no perception of ethical and religious claims, and with collat. idea of ignoble, disgraceful;—abs. נ׳ 2 S 3:33 + 14 times; mpl. נְבָלִים 13:13 Ez 13:3 (𝔊 Co מִלִּבָּם); fpl. נְבָלוֹת Jb 2:10;—senseless, especially of religious and moral insensibility: עַם נ׳ Dt 32:6 (of Isr., unappreciative of J.’s benefits; opp. חָכָם), so of heathen nation ψ 74:18 (blaspheming name of י׳), גּוֹי נ׳ Dt 32:21 (‖ לֹא עָם); הַנְּבִאִים הַנּ׳ Ez 13:3 (si vera l., v. supr.); elsewhere as subst. (impious and presumptuous) fool, Is 32:5 (opp. נָדִיב noble-minded), characterized as at once irreligious and churlish, v 6; denying God ψ 14:1 = 53:2; insulting God 74:22, and God’s servant 39:9; Pr 17:7 arrogant speech becometh not the (impious and presumptuous) fool (whose faults it only makes the more conspicuous), much less do lying lips him that is noble (נדיב), v 21 (‖ כְּסִיל), 30:22 ונבל כי ישׂבע לחם (one of the things under which the earth trembles), בְּנֵי נָבָל Jb 30:8 i.e. ignoble men (‖ בְּנֵי בְלִי־שֵׁם); as one who might be expected to have a contumelious end, הַכְּמוֹת נ׳ ימות אבנר 2 S 3:33 was Abner (destined) to die, as a נ׳ dieth? of the man who amasses riches unjustly ובאחריתו יהיה נבל Je 17:11 i.e. will prove himself to be a נ׳; as acting immorally (with collat. idea of disgracefully) 2 S 13:13 ואתה תהיה כְּאַחַד הַנְּבָלִים בישׂראל (cf. נְבָלָה); f. only in כְּדַבֵּר אַחַת הַנְּבָלוֹת Jb 2:10 (of Job’s wife). Cf. Dr Dt 22:21, 32:6, 15, 21; Psalt. 457.
II. n.pr.m. (on popular etymol. see 1 S 25:25 infr.);—a churlish man of Carmel, whose widow David married 1 S 25:3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 19, 25(×2) (כִּשְׁמוֹ כֶּן־ה֔וּא נָבָל שְׁמוֹ וּנְבָלָה עִמּוֹ), v 26 + 10 times 1 S + 2 S 2:2; 3:3. 𝔊 Ναβαλ.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נבל (nâbêl) (H5034) — to be foolish.
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.
נָבֵל
- to fade, shrivel, decay. Y. R. Hash. I, 56ᵈ bot. הֶעָלֶה נוֹבֵל, v. בּוּל III. Erub. 54ᵃ הללו נוֹבְלִין, v. הָלָה. Gen. R. s. 53 (ref. to Is. XL, 7) יבש חצירו … ונ׳ ציצו וכ׳ Abimelech’s grass is dried up and his flower has faded, but &c.; a. e.—V. נוֹבֶלֶת. e.g. Isaiah 40:7
- 1. to cause fading; to ruin, deface; to disgrace. Y. Shebi. I, beg. 33ᵃ מיכן ואילך הוא מְנַבֵּל פירותיו after that time (by ploughing an orchard field after the Feast of Weeks) he causes deterioration of his fruits. Ib. IV, 35ᵇ bot.; Y. Maas. Sh. V, beg. 55ᵈ אילן שהוא מנבל פירותיו a tree which fails to mature its fruits; (Ḥull. 77ᵇ; Sabb. 67ᵃ שמַשִּׁיר, v. נָשַׁר). Y. Sabb. IX, 11ᵈ; Y. Ab. Zar. III, 43ᵃ bot. צאהו נַבְּלֵיהוּ treat him (the idol) like excrements, make him abominable (change his name cacophemistically). Cant. R. to V, 16 מנבל את עצמו בטיט he begrimes himself by working in clay. Ib. אל תְּנַבְּלוּ וכ׳ do not degrade yourselves by any evil thing (ref. to Lev. XI, 43; XIX, 28); Num. R. s. 10, beg. Ib. (ed. Amst. p. 240ᵇ) המְנַבֶּלֶת עצמה who neglects her appearance, opp. מקשטת. Ber. 63ᵇ (ref. to Prov. XXX, 32 נָבַלְתָּ) כל המנבל עצמו על וכ׳ he who lowers himself (exposes his ignorance) for the sake of learning, shall finally be raised; Midr. Prov. to ch. XXX אם נִבֵּל וכ׳; Gen. R. s. 81 אם נִבַּלְתָּ עצמך; Ab. d’R. N. ch. XI אם מנבל אדם עצמו וכ׳ if a man makes himself look offensive (through privations) &c.—Midr. Prov. l. c. (ref. to Prov. l. c.) זו יון שגזרו לנַבֵּל נשותיהן וכ׳ (not לבטל) that means the Greeks who decreed to disgrace Israel’s women; a. fr.—נ׳ פיו to make one’s mouth turpid, to talk obscenely. Sabb. 33ᵃ; Keth. 8ᵇ; a. e. e.g. Leviticus 11:43
- 2. (denom. of נְבֵלָה) to make an animal ritually forbidden by unskillful slaughtering. Tosef. B. Kam. X, 10 המוסר … ונִיבְּלָהּ if one entrusts his animal to a slaughterer, and he makes it unfit, v. infra.
- 1. to be defaced, degraded, disgraced. Y. Yeb. XII, end, 13ᵃ מי גרם לך להִתְנַבֵּל וכ׳ what was the cause of thy disgrace (exposure of thy ignorance) in the Law?; Gen. R. l. c. Y. Keth. IV, 28ᵈ top. יִתְנַבְּלוּ הן וכ׳ they and their offspring shall be disgraced; a. e.
- 2. to become ritually forbidden (נְבֵלָה) by unskillful slaughtering. Ḥull. VI, 2 השוחט ונִתְנַבְּלָה בידו if one cuts an animal and it becomes unfit under his hand; ib. V, 3; Tosef. ib. V (VI), 3; a. e.
נְבֵל
- , to be soiled. Y. Kil. IX, 32ᵃ bot. דלא יִנְבְּלוּן מאנוי that his garments may not be soiled.
- to disgrace, make vile. Targ. Am. VI, 8. Targ. Nah. III, 6; a. e.
נָבָל I
- (b. h.) pr. n. m. Nabal the Carmelite. Gen. R. s. 85. Koh. R. to VII, 1, end; a. fr.
נָבָל II
- (נבל) Nabal (Filth), name of the genius of poverty. Pes. 111ᵇ, v. אִיסְרָא II.
נֶבֶל
- 1. leather bottle. Lev. R. s. 5 (ref. to Am. VI, 5) שהיו פורטים … אלא בנ׳ they opened their mouths with words of levity, saying, David recited his songs only with the bottle (wine). e.g. Amos 6:5
- 2. a hollow musical instrument, lyre (with a leather body). Y. Succ. V, 55ᶜ bot. היא נ׳ היא כנור וכ׳ nebel and kinnor (cithern) are the same, with the only difference of more strings (for the former). Ib. למה נקרא נ̇ב̇ל̇ שהוא מ̇ל̇ב̇ין וכ׳, v. לָבַן II; ע"י עור שאינו עבוד וכ׳ on account of the untanned skin and the larger number of strings it shames &c. Arakh. II, 6 לא היו אומרים בנ׳ וכ׳ they (the Levite boys) sang without accompaniment of nebel or kinnor; ib. 13ᵇ למימרא דנ׳ לחוד וכ׳ does this intimate that nebel and kinnor are not the same?; a. e.
- 3. a leather wind-instrument, a sort of bellows. Ib. (ref. to Ps. XXXIII, 2 sq.) לעוה"ב איידי דנפישי נימין דידיה נפיש קליה כי נ׳ קרי ליה נ׳ because the kinnor of the future will have numerous strings (ten strings), and its sound will be loud like that of the nebel, it is called nebel.—Pl. נְבָלִים. Ib. II, 3. Kel. XV, 6 נִבְלֵי השרה the instruments for secular music; נ׳ בני לוי those of the Levites (in the Temple). Ib. XXIV, 14, v. מִטְפַּחַת. e.g. Psalms 33:2
נֵבֶל
- 1. lyre, nebel. Targ. Is. V, 12. Targ. O. Gen. IV, 21; a. e.—Pl. נִבְלִין, נִבְלַיָּא, נִי׳. Targ. I Sam. X, 5. Targ. Is. XXII, 24; a. e.
- 2. (from its shape, cmp. Sm. Dict. Ant. s. v. Tela, Amer. ed. 1858, p. 955, explaining pecten and jugum) the upright loom. Y. Kil. IX, 32ᵃ top דלא מוקמה נ׳ דעמר וכ׳ not to put up a loom for wool in front of a loom for linen, on account of the fringes (which may become mixed).
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 12 distinct written forms H5036 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| נָ֝בָ֗ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 39:8 | 3 |
| נָבָ֖ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Deuteronomy 32:6 | 3 |
| נָבָ֣ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 14:1 | 2 |
| נָבָֽל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 17:11 | 2 |
| הַ/נְּבָלִ֑ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 13:3 | 1 |
| הַ/נְּבָלִ֖ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | 2 Samuel 13:13 | 1 |
| הַ/נְּבָלוֹת֙ | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Job 2:10 | 1 |
| וְ֝/נָבָ֗ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 30:22 | 1 |
| לְ/נָבָ֖ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 32:5 | 1 |
| לְ/נָבָ֣ל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:7 | 1 |
| נָ֭בָל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 30:8 | 1 |
| נָבָל֙ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 32:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5036, 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
Derived from this word
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 8 — not the complete family. 2 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 16 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 18 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
- Deuteronomy 32:6
- 2 Samuel 3:33
- Job 2:10
- Psalms 14:1
- Proverbs 17:7
- Isaiah 32:5
- Jeremiah 17:11
- Ezekiel 13:3
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.
