Word study

Funeral

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “funeral”. 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 “funeral” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פֶּגֶר pegercorpse, carcasstranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H6297Noun  ·  Translated: bodies 7, corpses 7, carcasses 2, funeral offerings 2

    Ezekiel 43:7 and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name — neither they nor their kings — by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths.

    Ezekiel 43:9 Now let them remove far from Me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will dwell among them forever.

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • מִטָּה miṭṭâhcouch, bedtranslated this way 1 time of its 27 uses · Strong’s H4296Noun  ·  Translated: bed 21, couch 2, funeral bier 1, couches 1

    2 Samuel 3:31 Then David ordered Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David himself walked behind the funeral bier.

    Full study and all 27 verses →
  • מְדוּרָה medûrâhpiletranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4071Noun  ·  Translated: funeral pyre 1, pile the kindling 1

    Isaiah 30:33 For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • מַרְזֵחַ marzêachcrytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4798Noun  ·  Translated: funeral meal 1

    Jeremiah 16:5 Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the LORD.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.

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.