Grow With Me
Grow With Me

עָפָר

afar · dust

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H6083 · appears 110 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

afar (עָפָר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “dust”.

Loose dry earth; also the plaster that covers walls. It recalls what the human being is made of: "you are dust, and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:19).

How to say it

a·far

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. Dry, loose earth, fine as dust; God formed man from it.
  2. Wet earth, or what is left of what was torn down and broken up.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Dust, loose dry earth; also the clay with which walls are plastered, and rubble. An image of what is lowly, of what is countless and of what the human being is.

How we translate it

“Dust” 104 times, “clay” 3, “rubble” 2, “dirt” 1. This edition sets עָפָר = “clay” in the laws of houses (Leviticus 14) and “dust” in the rite of the water of purification (Numbers 19:17).

How it is translated

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

  • dust ×104
  • clay ×3
  • rubble ×2
  • dirt ×1

Related words

Comes from

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

  • Genesis 2:7

    And YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

  • Genesis 3:14

    And YHWH Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you from among all the livestock and from among every animal of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life.

  • Genesis 3:19

    By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

  • Genesis 13:16

    I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

  • Genesis 18:27

    Abraham answered and said, “Look, I have ventured to speak to Adonai, though I am dust and ashes.

  • Genesis 26:15

    All the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped up and filled with dust.

  • Genesis 28:14

    Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the ground will be blessed in you and in your offspring.

  • Exodus 8:16

    YHWH said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.’”

  • Exodus 8:17

    They did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on people and on animals; all the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

  • Leviticus 14:41

    And the house he shall have scraped inside all around, and they shall pour out the clay that they scrape off to outside the city, to an unclean place.

  • Leviticus 14:42

    They shall take other stones and put them in place of the stones, and he shall take other clay and plaster the house.

  • Leviticus 14:45

    He shall tear down the house, its stones and its timbers and all the clay of the house, and carry them out to outside the city, to an unclean place.

  • Leviticus 17:13

    And any man of the sons of Israel or of the resident aliens who reside among them, who hunts game, an animal or a bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust.

  • Numbers 5:17

    And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and from the dust that is on the floor of the dwelling the priest shall take and put it into the water.

  • Numbers 19:17

    And for the unclean person they shall take some of the dust of the burning of the sin offering, and one shall put living water on it in a vessel.

  • Numbers 23:10

    Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”

  • Deuteronomy 9:21

    And your sin that you had made, the calf, I took and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

  • Deuteronomy 28:24

    YHWH will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from the heavens it will come down on you until you are destroyed.

  • Deuteronomy 32:24

    Wasted by hunger, and devoured by burning fever and bitter plague; and the teeth of beasts I will send against them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.

  • Joshua 7:6

    Joshua tore his cloaks and fell on his face to the ground before the ark of YHWH until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

  • 1 Samuel 2:8

    He raises the poor from the dust; from the ash heap he lifts the needy, to make them sit with nobles, and he makes them inherit a throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are YHWH’s, and on them he has set the world.

  • 2 Samuel 16:13

    David and his men went along the road, and Shimei was going along the side of the hill opposite him, cursing as he went, and he threw stones opposite him and threw dust.

  • 2 Samuel 22:43

    I ground them like the dust of the earth; like the mud of the streets I crushed them, I stamped them down.

  • 1 Kings 16:2

    “Because I raised you up from the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel sin, provoking me to anger with their sins,

  • 1 Kings 18:38

    Then the fire of YHWH fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and the water that was in the trench it licked up.

  • 1 Kings 20:10

    Ben-hadad sent to him and said, “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add, if the dust of Samaria is enough for handfuls for all the people who follow me.”

  • 2 Kings 13:7

    For he had not left Jehoahaz any people except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Aram had made them perish and made them like the dust at threshing.

  • 2 Kings 23:4

    The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out from the temple of YHWH all the utensils made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their dust to Bethel.

  • 2 Kings 23:6

    He brought out the Asherah from the house of YHWH, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the grave of the sons of the people.

  • 2 Kings 23:12

    The altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of YHWH, the king tore down and broke them from there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.

  • 2 Kings 23:15

    Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat made, who made Israel sin, even that altar and the high place he tore down; and he burned the high place, ground it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

  • 2 Chronicles 1:9

    Now, YHWH Elohim, let your word to David my father be firm, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

  • Nehemiah 4:2

    And he spoke before his brothers and the troops of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they leave them alone? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubble, when they are burned?”

  • Nehemiah 4:10

    And Judah said, “The strength of the carrier has faltered, and the rubble is much, and we will not be able to build on the wall.”

  • Job 2:12

    They lifted up their eyes from a distance and did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept; each tore his robe, and they scattered dust over their heads toward the heavens.

  • Job 4:19

    how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust; they crush them before the moth.

  • Job 5:6

    For wickedness does not come out of the dust, nor does suffering sprout from the ground,

  • Job 7:5

    My flesh is clothed with worms and a crust of dust; my skin hardens and festers.

  • Job 7:21

    And why do you not pardon my transgression and let my iniquity pass away? For now in the dust I will lie down; and you will seek me, and I will be no more.”

  • Job 8:19

    Look, this is the joy of his way; and from the dust others will sprout.

And 70 more times.