Word study
Burial
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “burial”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “burial” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קֶבֶר qebergrave, sepulchretranslated this way 6 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s H6913Noun · Translated: tomb 19, grave 15, graves 13, tombs 8Full study and all 61 verses →
Genesis 23:4 “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
Jeremiah 26:23 They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people.
- קְבוּרָה qebûrâhgrave, burialtranslated this way 3 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H6900Noun · Translated: tomb 5, grave 3, burial 2, with them 1Full study and all 12 verses →
2 Chronicles 26:23 And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings, for the people said, “He was a leper.” And his son Jotham reigned in his place.
Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 1 time of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb · Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
- קָבַר qâbarburytranslated this way 1 time of its 130 uses · Strong’s H6912Verb · Translated: buried 92, bury 27, burying 5Full study and all 122 verses →
Ecclesiastes 8:10 Then too, I saw the burial of the wicked who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they had done so. This too is futile.
- קָבַץ qâbatsgather, collecttranslated this way 1 time of its 126 uses · Strong’s H6908Verb · Translated: gather 42, gathered 25, assembled 10, assemble 9Full study and all 121 verses →
Ezekiel 29:5 I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish of your streams. You will fall on the open field and will not be taken away or gathered for burial. I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐνταφιάζω entaphiázōI embalm, prepare for burialtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1779Verb · Translated: burial 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 26:12 By pouring this perfume on Me, she has prepared My body for burial.
John 19:40 So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.
- ἐνταφιασμός entaphiasmósembalming, preparation of a body for burialtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1780Noun · Translated: burial 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Mark 14:8 She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial.
John 12:7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.
- ταφή taphḗa burialtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5027Noun · Translated: burial place 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Matthew 27:7 After conferring together, they used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about burial: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.