קֶ֫בֶר
grave
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.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
2 verses where H6913 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Genesis. 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.
Genesis
- Genesis 23:6 קְבָרֵ֔י/נוּ קִבְר֛/וֹ n c mp cs + sfx pers 1cp n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms "Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. In the choice of our tombs bury your dead. None of us will withhold from you his tomb, but that you may bury your dead."
- Genesis 50:5 בְּ/קִבְרִ֗/י prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 1cs 'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"
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.
קבר — transliterated qeber — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “grave.” Its English rendering has broadened — “grave” classically, “tomb” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 62 verses — moderately common. It first appears in Genesis 23:4. Related forms include קבר, קבורה and קברות התאוה. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6913 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 →
- 62
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 62 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #587
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 587 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 62 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Chronicles 8 verses 13%
- Genesis 7 verses 11%
- Ezekiel 7 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 62 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 33 verses · 53%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 19 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 10 verses · 16%
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: Grave 14×, Graves 13×, Sepulchre 12×
- American Standard Version: Grave 15×, Graves 11×, Sepulchre 11×
- Berean Standard Bible: Tomb 17×, Grave 15×, Graves 12×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Grave 18×, Graves 14×, Grave of 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6913 across 67 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 H6913 across 67 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 H6913 across 66 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6913 across 69 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.
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.
- grave, sepulchre, tomb
Word origin
n.m. 1 K 13:31 grave, sepulchre;—abs. ק׳ Gn 23:4 +, קָ֑בֶר 1 K 14:13 +; cstr. קֶבֶר Ju 8:32 +; sf. קִבְרִי Gn 50:5, etc.; pl. קְבָרִים Ex 14:11 +, cstr. קִבְרֵי Je 26:23 +, sf. קִבְרֵיהֶם 8:1; also קְבָרוֹת Jb 21:32, cstr. קִבְרוֹת Ne 2:3 +, sf. קִבְרֹתָיו Ez 32:22; 2 Ch 16:14, etc.;—grave, Ex 14:11; Nu 11:34; Ju 8:32; 2 S 2:32; 1 K 13:22 +; אֲחֻזַּת ק׳ Gn 23:4, 9, 20; 49:30; 50:13; hewn out (חָצַב) Is 22:16(×2); מִבֶּטֶן לַקֶּבֶר אוּבָ֑ל Jb 10:19; fig. וַתְּהִי־לִ׳ אִמִּי ק׳ Je 20:17; שֹׁכְבֵי ק׳ ψ 88:6 the slain lying in grave; הַיּשְׁבִים בַּקְבָרִים Is 65:4 they who sit in the tombs (occult rite, prob. in necromancy, etc., cf. Che and RSSem. i. 180 ff.; 2nd ed. 197 ff.); קֶבֶר בְּנֵי הָעָם 2 K 23:6 i.e. burial-place of common people, so קִבְרֵי בְּנֵי הָעָם Je 26:23; pl. intens. Jb 17:1, also of stately (royal) sepulchre 2 K 22:20 = 2 Ch 34:28, Ne 3:16; 2 Ch 16:14; cf. 35:24; Jb 21:32; conceived as in lower world Ez 32:22, 23, 25, 26; ‖ אֲבַדּוֹן ψ 88:12; ψ 49:12 read קְבָרִים for קִרְבָּם Vrss and most; ק׳ פָּתוּחַ sim. of quiver Je 5:16; fig. ק׳ פ׳ גְּרֹנָם ψ 5:10; of exile Ez 37:12(×2), 13(×2)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from קבר (qâbar) (H6912) — to bury.
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.
קָבַר
- (b. h.) [to cave out; to arch,] to bury. Snh. 52ᵃ הנראה מי קוֹבֵר את מי (Ms. M. הא נראה) we shall see, which will cover which (which will die first). Sot. 14ᵃ הקב"ה ק׳ … קְבוֹר מתים the Lord buried the dead, … thou, too, bury the dead (consider attending to the dead a religious duty). Nidd. 24ᵇ קובר מתים הייתי I used to be a grave-digger. B. Bath. 15ᵇ לא … לִקְבּוֹר וכ׳ he had no place where to bury Sarah; Ex. R. s. 6. Treat. S’maḥ. ch. XII קָבְרֵנִי תחלה וכ׳ first bury me in the valley, and then collect my bones. Ib. קִבְרוּ אותי תחת וכ׳ bury me at the feet of my father. Sabb. 114ᵃ אל תִּקְבְּרוּנִי לא וכ׳ bury me neither in white clothes nor in black &c.; a. fr.—Part. pass. קָבוּר; f. קְבוּרָה. Keth. 111ᵃ כל הק׳ בא"י כאילו ק׳ וכ׳ he that is buried in Palestine is as though buried under the altar. Ber. 18ᵇ שאני ק׳ במחצלת וכ׳ for I am buried in a reed mat. Gitt. 56ᵇ (ref. to Koh. VIII, 10) קְבוּרִים ממש וכ׳ it really means buried things, for even hidden things were discovered by them, v. קָבַץ; a. fr. e.g. Ecclesiastes 8:10
- to be buried. Snh. 47ᵃ לא נספד ולא נ׳ if a body has been neither lamented over (v. סָפַד) nor buried. Ib.ᵇ לא יִקָּבֵר בו וכ׳ he must never be buried in that place; a. fr.
- to bury (one after the other). Ib. 113ᵃ היה מְקַבֵּר והולך וכ׳ he successively buried (his children) beginning with Abiham &c.
קְבַר
- 1. same, to bury. Targ. Gen. XXIII, 4. Targ. Ps. LXXIX, 3; a. fr.—Part. pass. קְבִיר; f. קְבִירָא &c. Targ. O. Deut. XXXIII, 21 (Y. קָבוּר, Hebr. form). Targ. Ruth I, 17. Targ. Job XXVII, 15; a. fr.—Snh. 46ᵇ לא בעינא דלִיקְבְּרוּהָ וכ׳ I do not want them to bury this man (I want not to be buried when I am dead). Ib. מדקַבְרֵיה וכ׳ because the Lord buried Moses. Sabb. 151ᵇ וקביר, v. חֲפִיר; a. fr.—Ab. Zar. 38ᵃ וק׳ ביה ישראל וכ׳ after an Israelite had hidden a pumpkin in it (the oven).
- 2. (of tide) to overflow, inundate. Gen. R. s. 13; Koh. R. to I, 7 דמרבי וקָבֵר which grows and floods, v. קַבְרִיאֵל.
- as preced. Pi. Targ. Num. XXXIII, 4; a. e.
- to be buried. Targ. Gen. XV, 15. Targ. Jer. VIII, 2; a. fr.—Snh. l. c. מדאִיקְּבוּר צדיקי since righteous men are buried (it would seem that burial is not for the sake of purging the dead from sin). Ib. הנך נמי לִיקַּבְּרוּ וכ׳ they (the other members of the house of Jeroboam) ought also to have been buried for the sake of atonement. Ib. 104ᵃ קברה ולא אִיקְבְּרָא וכ׳ he buried it (Joiakim’s skull), and it would not remain under ground, buried it again &c.; a. e.
קֶבֶר
- preced.) grave. Snh. 47ᵇ ק׳ חדש a fresh grave (that has been dug but not used). Ib. ק׳ בנין a grave on which something has been built, i.e. an arched grave (not flat). Ib. שלשה קברות הן ק׳ הנמצא there are three kinds of graves (with reference to law): a grave that has been discovered (a fresh grave in which somebody was buried without the consent of the owner of the ground); ק׳ הידוע a known grave (in which one was buried with the owner’s consent); ק׳ המזיק את הרבים a grave which interferes with public comfort (made in a thoroughfare). Y. Naz. IX, 57ᵈ top., v. תְּהוֹם. Ohol. XVII, 1 החורש את הק׳ if one passes the plough over a grave. Koh. R. to VII, 8 וכיון שקברוהו … את קִבְרוֹ when they had buried him (Elisha-Aḥer), a fire came to burn his grave; a. v. fr.—Pl. קְבָרִים, קְבָרוֹת. Taan. 25ᵇ תקנתם ק׳ וכ׳ have you prepared graves for yourselves (are you ready to die)? Ib. 22ᵇ שלא יהא בתיהם קִבְרֵיהֶם that their houses may not become their graves (that their dwellings may not fall down from excessive rains); Y. Yoma V, 42ᶜ top שלא יעשו … קִבְרֵיהֶן. Ḥag. 22ᵇ נשתטח על קִבְרֵי וכ׳ he prostrated himself over the graves of &c. Yeb. 47ᵇ שני ק׳ נמסרו וכ׳ the court has charge of two burial places (for culprits). Snh. VI, 5 ולא היו קוברין אותו בקִבְרוֹת אבותיו they did not bury him (the culprit) in the burial place of their ancestors; a. fr.—בֵּית הקברות (abbr. בה"ק) cemetery; pl. בָּתֵּי ק׳. Ber. 18ᵇ הלך ולן בב"הק he went and spent the night in the cemetery. Snh. l. c. (46ᵇ) שני בתי ק׳ וכ׳ two burial grounds were at the disposal of the courts, one for those put to death by the sword, and one &c.; a. fr.—Trnsf. uterus (containing an embryo). Nidd. 21ᵃ באיפשר לפתיחת הק׳ וכ׳ they differ as to whether the uterus can open (to pass the embryo) without discharging blood. Sabb. 129ᵃ חיה כל זמן שהק׳ פתוח וכ׳ for a woman in confinement you must violate the Sabbath laws as long as the uterus is open, whether she says that she needs it or that she needs it not. Ib. מאימתי פתיחת הק׳ when does the opening of the womb begin (in regard to Sabbath laws)?; עד מתי … הק׳ how long is it considered open? Ohol. VII, 4 אין לנפלים פ׳ הק׳ וכ׳ in the case of abortions the laws of levitical cleanness connected with the opening of the womb do not apply, unless &c., v. פִּיקָא I; Tosef. ib. VIII, 8; a. fr.
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 51 distinct written forms H6913 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 H6913, 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
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 → 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 58 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 62 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 23:4
- Exodus 14:11
- Numbers 19:16
- Judges 8:32
- 2 Samuel 2:32
- 1 Kings 13:22
- 2 Kings 13:21
- 2 Chronicles 16:14
- Job 3:22
- Psalms 5:9
- Isaiah 14:19
- Jeremiah 5:16
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.
