עָפָר
dust
also: dry earth, powder, ashes, earth fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-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.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
2 verses where H6083 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Numbers. 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.
Numbers
- Numbers 19:17 מֵ/עֲפַ֖ר prep + n c ms cs For the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin-offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:
- Numbers 23:10 עֲפַ֣ר n c ms cs Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!
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.
עפר — transliterated ʻâphâr — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “dust.” Alongside “dust” the lexicon also lists “dry earth”, “powder”, and “ashes” — part of its full sense range. With 103 verses in 25 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Job (25% of all occurrences). Debuting at Genesis 2:7, it then recurs through the corpus. See the sense tree, 103-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6083 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 →
- 103
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 103 distinct verses.
- 25 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #396
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 396 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 103 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 103 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 48 verses · 47%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 36 verses · 35%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 19 verses · 18%
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: Dust 73×, Earth 6×, Ashes 2×
- American Standard Version: Dust 69×, Earth 6×, Ashes 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Dust 68×, Soil 6×, Like dust 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Dust 67×, Dust of 13×, And 7×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6083 across 110 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6083 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 26 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 H6083 across 110 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6083 across 116 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.
16 senses and sub-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 16 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. lit.:
- a. dry, loose earth, thrown (in malice) 2 S 16:13 (‖ אֲבָנִים); וַיַּעֲלוּ ע׳ עַל־רֹאשׁ Jos 7:6 (JE; sign of grief), so Ez 27:30; La 2:10, and (c. זָרַק) Jb 2:12; loose earth (on surface of ground) 1 K 18:38; Am 2:7; Is 34:7, 9; Lv 17:13 (H) Ez 24:7 (in fig.), Nu 5:17; Jb 14:19; 38:38; 39:14; Gn 26:15 (R), made into siege works Hb 1:10; of sand-storm Dt 28:24 (+ אָבָק); as serpent’s food, token of punishment and humiliation, Gn 3:14 (J) Is 65:25 (cf. Mi 7:17 2 e infr.); ז̇חֲלֵי ע׳ Dt 32:24 (poem; cf. 2 e). e.g. 2 Samuel 16:13
- b. specif. as material of human body Gn 2:7; 3:19 (J), Ec 3:20, cf. Jb 4:19; 8:19 ψ 103:14, to which it returns (שׁוּב אֶל־) Gn 3:19; Jb 10:9 ψ 104:29 Ec 3:20; so (c. עַל) Jb 34:15; Ec 12:7. e.g. Genesis 2:7
- c. = surface of ground Ex 8:12, 13(×2) (P; ע׳ הָאָרֶץ), Jb 19:25; Is 25:12; 26:5 (both ‖ אֶרֶץ), surface of (whole) earth Jb 41:25, מְחִלוֹת ע׳ Is 2:19 (for hiding), so ע׳ alone v 10, cf. חֹרֵי ע׳ Jb 30:6; = soil, Jb 5:6; 7:5; 14:8. e.g. Exodus 8:12
- d. powder of anything pulverized Dt 9:21(×2) (cf. דָּ֑ק ‖ Ex 32:20), 2 K 23:6(×2), 12, 15, so in sim. 2 S 22:43 = ψ 18:43, hence = ashes v 4; Nu 19:17. e.g. Deuteronomy 9:21
- e. debris, of ruined city 1 K 20:10; Ez 26:4, 12; Ne 3:34; 4:4 ψ 102:15. The foll. are late: e.g. 1 Kings 20:10
- f. earth of the grave: לֶע׳ אֶשְׁכַּב Jb 7:21, so (c. עַל) 20:11; 21:26, cf. 17:16; יוֹרְדֵי ע׳ ψ 22:30, שֹׁכְנֵי ע׳ Is 26:19, יְשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת־ע׳ Dn 12:2; עֲפַר־מָוֶת ψ 22:16; ע׳ in fig. ψ 30:10. e.g. Job 7:21
- g. mortar (i.e. dried mud) for plastering houses Lv 14:41, 42, 45 (P). e.g. Leviticus 14:41
- h. (iron-) ore Jb 28:2; עַפְרֹת זָהָב v 6 golddust (but v. סַפִּיר). e.g. Job 28:2
- i. material of earth Is 40:12, cf. ראֹשׁ עַפְרֹת תֵּבֵל Pr 8:26 the first of the earth- particles of the world. e.g. Isaiah 40:12
- 2. fig.:
- a. of abundance Gn 13:16(×2); 28:14 (all J) 2 Ch 1:9; Jb 27:16 ψ 78:27 (‖ חוֹל יַמִּים), cf. עֲפַר יַעֲקֹב Nu 23:10 (JE); with added idea of commonness, worthlessness Zp 1:17; Zc 9:3. e.g. Genesis 13:16
- b. of worthlessness (alone) Jb 22:24. e.g. Job 22:24
- c. sim. of the scattered, dispersed 2 K 13:7; כֶּע׳ Is 41:2 (so van d. H. Ginsb; Baer כֵּע׳; on meaning v. Du Che, reading תְּשִׂימֵם for יִתֵּן). e.g. 2 Kings 13:7
- d. of self-abasement Gn 18:27 (+ אֵפֶר), וְנִחַמְתִּי עַל־ע׳ וָאֵפֶר Jb 42:6, יִתֵּן בֶּע׳ פִּיהוּ La 3:29. e.g. Genesis 18:27
- e. of humiliation (sitting or lying in dust) Is 29:4; 47:1; Mi 1:10; Jb 16:15; 40:13 ψ 7:6; 44:26; 119:25, sim. Jb 30:19; licking dust ψ 72:9 Is 49:23; Mi 7:17, cf. TelAm. tikalu ipra (of enemies, v. WklAltor. Forsch. iii. 291; also of serpent 1 a supr.); of י׳ raising from the dust 1 S 2:8 = ψ 113:7, 1 K 16:2; of lifting oneself Is 52:2. e.g. Isaiah 29:4
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
n.m. Lv 14:42 dry earth, dust;—abs. ע׳ Gn 2:7 +, cstr. עֲפַר Gn 13:16 +; sf. עֲפָרֵךְ Ez 26:12, עֲפָרוֹ Dt 9:21, etc.; pl. cstr. עַפְרֹת Jb 28:6; Pr 8:26;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עפר (ʻâphar) (H6080) — to dust.
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.
עֹפֶר
- , pl. עֳפָרִים, v. עוֹפֶר.
עָפַר
- , Pi. עִיפֵּר (b. h.; to cast dust, cover with mud.
- to be soiled. Lam. R. introd. (R. Abbahu 6) והם ישנים … ומִתְעַפְּרִים בעפר they sleep on the bare earth and become soiled with dust; ib. to III, 13.
עָפָר
- עפר to be thick, dust, mud, sand, mortar. Gen. R. s. 14 (ref. to Gen. II, 7) ע׳ זכר אדמה נקבה היוצר מביא ע׳ זכר וכ׳ ‘afar represents the male element, ădamah, the female; the potter takes male dust (coarse sand) and female earth (soft clay), in order that the vessels be strong. Sot. II, 2 נוטל ע׳ מתחתיה he (the priest) takes earth from under it (the marble slab). Ib. 16ᵃ מצינו אפר שקרוי ע׳ we find that ashes are likewise called ‘afar; Ḥull. 88ᵇ; Gen. R. s. 49ᵇ. Ib. עֲפַר סוטה the dust used in preparing the Water of Jealousy; עֲ׳ כיסוי the earth or ashes used for covering up the blood at slaughtering (Lev. XVII, 13); Num. R. s. 9. Ib. זכתה … ואנכי ע׳ ואפר לא זכתה תחזור לעַפְרָהּ if she is worthy (innocent), let a son descend from her like Abraham, of whom it is written, ‘And I am dust and ashes’ (Gen. XVIII, 27); if she is unworthy, let her return to her native dust. Ib. עֲ׳ זהב העגל the gold dust of the calf. Y. B. Mets. VIII, end, 11ᵈ ע׳ שחור black potter’s earth; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 94 עַפְרוֹ של יצחק (ed. Wil. אֶפְרוֹ), v. אֵפֶר.—Pl. עֲפָרוֹת, constr. עַפְרוֹת. Num. R. l. c. (ref. to ומן העפר, Num. V, 17) [read:] זהו ע׳ הזהב אשר טחן this refers to the gold dust which he (Moses) made by grinding (Deut. IX, 21). Gen. R. s. 26 שהיו בקיאים בע׳ וכ׳ they were experts on the qualities of soil like serpents; a. e. e.g. Genesis 2:7
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 64 distinct written forms H6083 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 4 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6083, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 93 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 103 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 2:7
- Exodus 8:16
- Leviticus 14:41
- Numbers 5:17
- Deuteronomy 9:21
- Joshua 7:6
- 1 Samuel 2:8
- 2 Samuel 16:13
- 1 Kings 16:2
- 2 Kings 13:7
- 2 Chronicles 1:9
- Job 2:12
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.
