Word study
Mourner
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: mourners, mourner. 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 “mourner” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אָבֵל âbêlmourningtranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H57Adjective · Translated: mourners 3, mourn 2, mourning 1, grief 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Job 29:25 I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.’’
Isaiah 57:18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
- אֱנוֹשׁ ĕnôshman, mankindtranslated this way 2 times of its 470 uses · Strong’s H582Noun · Translated: men 368, man 25, people 5, husbands 4Full study and all 447 verses →
Ezekiel 24:17 Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”
Ezekiel 24:22 Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.
- אָבַל âbalmourntranslated this way 1 time of its 39 uses · Strong’s H56Verb · Translated: mourn 11, mourns 8, mourned 7, mourning 4Full study and all 38 verses →
2 Samuel 14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
- קָדַר qâdarbe darktranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6937Verb · Translated: grow dark 3, sorrow 2, mourn 2, darken 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Job 5:11 He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety.
- סָפַד sâphadwail, lamenttranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H5594Verb · Translated: mourn 15, mourned 8, lament 3, lamented 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Ecclesiastes 12:5 when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels — for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
- אָוֶן âventrouble, sorrow, wickednesstranslated this way 1 time of its 68 uses · Strong’s H205Noun · Translated: iniquity 27, evil 6, wicked 6, disaster 3Full study and all 68 verses →
Hosea 9:4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
- יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 1 time of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb · Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38Full study and all 863 verses →
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.
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.