nevela · carcass, dead body

What it means

nevela (נְבֵלָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “carcass, dead body”.

A carcass, the dead body of a person or of an animal (often in the singular for many). Once, figuratively, of idols.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. What remains of the body of one who died, human or beast.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Carcass, corpse: the dead body of a person or of an animal. In the purity laws, touching or eating a carcass makes one unclean.

• Not touching or eating the carcass: uncleanness Leviticus 11:8Leviticus 11:39Deuteronomy 14:21
• The body of the hanged man must not remain overnight Deuteronomy 21:23Joshua 8:29
• The corpse of the prophet from Judah 1 Kings 13:241 Kings 13:29
• Corpses as food for the birds: the curse Deuteronomy 28:26Jeremiah 7:33
• “My corpse, they will rise” Isaiah 26:19

Historical and cultural background

The one hanged on a tree had to be buried that same day: “his corpse shall not remain all night on the tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23); so Joshua does with the king of Ai (Joshua 8:29). An Israelite could not eat an animal that died by itself, but he could give it to the resident alien (Deuteronomy 14:21).

How we translate it

“Corpse” 16 times and “corpses” 7 for persons; “carcass” 10 and “carcasses” 12 for animals. When the law speaks of an animal that died by itself, it reads “{an animal} that died” (3: Leviticus 17:15). It is a different word from נְבָלָה, written similarly, which means ‘disgrace’.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• corpse ×16
• carcasses ×12
• carcass ×10
• corpses ×7
• animal that died ×3

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Leviticus×19
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×1
• 1 Kings×10
• 2 Kings×1
• Psalms×1
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×8
• Ezekiel×2

• Leviticus 5:2

  Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of an unclean swarming thing, and it is hidden from him, he has become unclean and guilty.

• Leviticus 7:24

  The fat of a carcass and the fat of an animal torn by beasts may be used for any other work, but you shall certainly not eat it.

• Leviticus 11:8

  Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:11

  They shall be a detestable thing for you; of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall hold detestable.

• Leviticus 11:24

  And by these you will become unclean; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:25

  And whoever carries any of their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:27

  And all that walk on their paws, among all the animals that walk on all fours, they shall be unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:28

  And whoever carries their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening; they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:35

  And anything on which any of their carcasses falls will be unclean; an oven or a stove shall be broken down; they are unclean, and they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:36

  But a spring or a cistern holding a collection of water shall be clean, but whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean.

• Leviticus 11:37

  And if any of their carcasses falls on any seed for sowing that is to be sown, it is clean.

• Leviticus 11:38

  But if water is put on the seed and any of their carcasses falls on it, it shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:39

  And if one of the beasts that you may have for food dies, whoever touches its carcass will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:40

  And whoever eats of its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening; and whoever carries its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 17:15

  And any person who eats an animal that died or one torn by beasts, whether native or resident alien, shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean.

• Leviticus 22:8

  An animal that died or one torn by beasts he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it. I am YHWH.

• Deuteronomy 14:8

  And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.

• Deuteronomy 14:21

  You shall not eat any carcass; to the resident alien who is within your gates you may give it, and he may eat it, or sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to YHWH your Elohim. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

• Deuteronomy 21:23

  his corpse shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on that day, for one who is hanged is a curse of Elohim; and you shall not make unclean your ground that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.

• Deuteronomy 28:26

  And your carcass will be food for all the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

• Joshua 8:29

  And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the time of evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua gave command, and they took down his corpse from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which is there to this day.

• 1 Kings 13:22

  but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place of which he said to you, “Do not eat bread and do not drink water,” your corpse will not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

• 1 Kings 13:24

  He went away, and a lion found him on the way and put him to death. And his corpse was thrown on the way, and the donkey was standing beside it, and the lion was standing beside the corpse.

• 1 Kings 13:25

  And there men were passing by, and they saw the corpse thrown on the way, and the lion standing beside the corpse; and they came and spoke of it in the city where the old prophet lived.

• 1 Kings 13:28

  He went and found his corpse thrown on the way, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse and had not mauled the donkey.

• 1 Kings 13:29

  The prophet picked up the corpse of the man of Elohim and laid him on the donkey and brought him back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to lament and to bury him.

• 1 Kings 13:30

  He laid his corpse in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, “Alas, my brother!”

• 2 Kings 9:37

  and the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they will not say, “This is Jezebel.”’”

• Psalms 79:2

  They have given the corpses of your servants as food to the birds of the sky, the flesh of your faithful ones to the animals of the earth.

• Isaiah 5:25

  Therefore the anger of YHWH burned against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned back, and his hand is still stretched out.

• Isaiah 26:19

  Your dead will live; my corpse, they will rise. Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is a dew of lights, and the earth will cause to fall the shades.

• Jeremiah 7:33

  And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth, with no one to frighten them away.

• Jeremiah 9:22

  Speak: “Thus declares YHWH: ‘The corpses of human beings will fall like dung on the face of the field, and like a sheaf behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.’”

• Jeremiah 16:4

  Of deaths from diseases they will die; they will not be mourned or buried; as dung on the face of the ground they will be; and by the sword and by famine they will be finished off; and their corpses will be food for the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the earth.

• Jeremiah 16:18

  And I will repay first double their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and with their abominations they have filled my inheritance.”

• Jeremiah 19:7

  And I will empty the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give their corpses as food for the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the earth.

• Jeremiah 26:23

  And they brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword and threw his corpse into the graves of the children of the people.

• Jeremiah 34:20

  and I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their corpses will be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth.

• Jeremiah 36:30

  Therefore thus says YHWH concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will not have one to sit on the throne of David, and his corpse will be thrown out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.

• Ezekiel 4:14

  And I said, “Ah, Adonai YHWH! Look, my soul has not been defiled; a carcass or what was torn by beasts I have not eaten from my youth until now, and no repulsive meat has come into my mouth.”

And 8 more times.