סָפַד
to wail
also: lament, mourn 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
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
- 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.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H5594 appears in the Book of Genesis — 2 distinct verses. 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.
Genesis
- Genesis 23:2 לִ/סְפֹּ֥ד prep + Qal inf.cs Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
- Genesis 50:10 וַ/יִּ֨סְפְּדוּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
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.
“to wail” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb ספד (çâphad). Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 23:2. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 30 verses — moderately common. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Jeremiah. The verb spans 2 stems, from Qal to Niphal. See the sense tree, 30-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5594 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 →
- 30
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 30 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,086
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,086 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 30 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 30 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 26 verses · 87%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 7%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 7%
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: Mourn 4×, Lament 3×, They mourned 3×
- American Standard Version: Mourn 4×, Lament 3×, Him 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Mourn 11×, Mourned 3×, Be mourned 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Mourn 8×, Lament 4×, And 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5594 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H5594 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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 H5594 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H5594 across 39 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
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 2 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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. וְסָֽפְדָה consec. Zc 12:12, 3 pl. וְסָֽפְדוּ consec. 1 K 14:13 Zc 12:10; Impf. 3 fs. וַתִּסְפֹּד 2 S 11:26, 2 ms. תִּסְפֹּד Ez 24:16, 1 s. cohort. אֶסְפְּדָה Mi 1:8, 3 mpl. יִסְפְּדוּ Je 6:16 +, etc.; Imv. mpl. סִפְדוּ 2 S 3:31 + 2 times; fpl. סְפֹּ֫דְנָה Je 49:3; Inf. abs. סָפוֹד Zc 7:5; cstr. סְפוֹד Ec 3:4, לִסְפֹּד Gn 23:2 1 K 13:29, לִסְפּוֹד Je 16:5; Pt. act. pl. סֹפְדִים Is 32:12, סוֹ׳ Ec 12:5;—wail, lament (with loud cries, etc., v. Mi 1:8, and cf. Dr Am 5:16), especially for dead, c. לְ, 1 S 25:1; 28:3 1 K 14:13, 18 Gn 23:2 (P) Je 16:6; 22:18(×2); 34:5, cf. וְאַל־תֵּלֵךְ לִסְפּוֹד וְאַל־תָּנֹד לָהֶם 16:5; c. עַל־ over 2 S 1:12; 11:26; 1 K 13:30, cf. Zc 12:10 (see v 12 infr.); c. לִפְנֵי i.e. marching before (bier) 2 S 3:31 (v. Dr); c. acc. cogn. Gn 50:10 (J); abs. 1 K 13:29 Ez 24:16 cf. v 23 Ec 3:4 (opp. רקד; cf. ψ 30:12), and pt. as subst. Ec 12:5 wailers; also, with idea of guilt on part of those wailing, Zc 12:12 (cf. v 10 supr.); over calamity, judgment, c. עַל־ Mi 1:8, abs. Je 4:8 (both + הֵילִיל), 49:3 and (with fasting) Zc 7:5 Jo 1:13.—עַל־שָׁדַיִם סֹפְדִים עַל־שְׂדֵי־חֶמֶד וגו׳ Is 32:12 is dub.; Thes Ew De Che al. upon the breasts smiting (?) for the fields, etc., but read prob. שָׂדִים (־וֹת, יִם—ַ) GesComm. (q.v.) Buhl Lex 13 Skinner al.: over the fields wailing, over the delightful fields, etc. e.g. Zechariah 12:12
Niphal
- Impf. 3 mpl. לֹא יִסָּֽפְדוּ Je 16:4 they shall not be bewailed, so 25:33. e.g. Jeremiah 16:4
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
vb. wail, lament (NH id.; 𝔗 סְפַד, ChrPal Aramaic ܣܦܕ id., SchwallyIdiot. 64; Assyrian [sapâdu], sipdu, sipittu, mourning DlHWB 507; cf. Amhar. ሰደፌ dirge PräZMGxxxv(1881), 762);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
סָפַד
- (b. h.) [to strike, beat; cmp. Lat. plango,] to lament, mourn. Gitt. 57ᵃ סִיפְדוּ לזה mourn for this man. Snh. 47ᵃ, a. e. אל תִּסְפְּדוּנִי וכ׳ do not hold services for me in the towns; a. fr.
- to arrange funeral or memorial services for; to lament, eulogise. M. Kat. I, 5 ולא יַסְפִּידֶנּוּ קידם וכ׳ and must not engage a safdan (eulogist) for him thirty days before a festival. Meg. 28ᵇ אין מַסְפִּידִין בהן וכ׳ no funeral services for an individual must be held in them (the synagogues); ומספידין … רבים but you may use them for funeral services in cases of public mourning (for a distinguished person). Treat. S’maḥ. III, 4 מספידין לעניים וכ׳ mourning services are held for children of poor men at the age of three, for those of rich men at the age of four years. M. Kat. 21ᵇ והִסְפִּידוּם הספד גדול and they arranged a great lamentation over them (the sons of R. ‘Aḳiba); a. fr.
- to be mourned for, be eulogised. Snh. 47ᵃ מת לא נ׳ וכ׳ a dead not mourned for and not buried. Yeb. 78ᵇ שלא נ׳ כהלכה no appropriate lamentations were held over his remains; a. e.
סְפַד
- Targ. Gen. XXIII, 2; a. fr.—Yeb. 116ᵇ סִפְדִי בעליך observe mourning for thy husband. M. Kat. 28ᵇ דִּיסְ׳ וִסְפְּדוּנֵוה for him who has mourned for others, others will mourn; Keth. 72ᵃ דִּסְ׳; Tosef. ib. VII, 6 סְפוֹד דיִסְפְּדוּנָךְ mourn, in order that people may mourn for thee; Y. ib. VII, 31ᵇ bot. (corr. acc.). Meg. Taan. ch. I; Sabb. 21ᵇ, a. fr. דלא למִסְפֵּד when no lamentations may be held; a. fr.
- 1. as preced. Hif. Targ. Lam. I, 18.—M. Kat. 25ᵇ ההוא יומא לא אתו לאַסְפּוּדֵיה that day (when he died), they did not come to mourn for him. Meg. 28ᵇ אַכְפְּדָהּ לכלתיה וכ׳ held funeral services for his daughter-in-law in the synagogue; a. fr.
- 2. to beat the hip in mourning. Koh. R. to XII, 7 הוה מַסְפִּיד בחדא ידא וכ׳ made the motion of mourning with one hand and of praising (Nebuchadnezzar) with the other; Yalk. Ez. 364 הוון … ומַסְפִּידִין וכ׳.
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 H5594 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’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 H5594, 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.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 27 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 30 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 23:2
- 1 Samuel 25:1
- 2 Samuel 1:12
- 1 Kings 13:29
- Ecclesiastes 3:4
- Isaiah 32:12
- Jeremiah 4:8
- Ezekiel 24:16
- Joel 1:13
- Micah 1:8
- Zechariah 7:5
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.
