kever · tomb

What it means

kever (קֶבֶר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “tomb”.

Grave.

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. A dug-out place, cave or chamber, where a dead person is laid.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Tomb, grave: the place, often a cave or a hollow in the rock, where the dead were laid. It is the noun of קָבַר (bury, H6912).

• A possession for a grave: the cave of Machpelah Genesis 23:4Genesis 23:9
• The family tomb Genesis 50:51 Kings 13:30Nehemiah 2:3
• Weeping at the tomb 2 Samuel 3:32
• Figurative: “an open grave {is} their throat” Psalms 5:9
• YHWH opens the graves Ezekiel 37:12

Historical and cultural background

Abraham, “a resident alien and a guest”, bought from the sons of Heth the cave of Machpelah as “a possession for a grave” (Genesis 23:4, 9); there Jacob asked to be buried (Genesis 49:30; 50:13). Josiah took the bones “from the tombs” and burned them on the altar at Bethel to make it unclean (2 Kings 23:16).

How we translate it

“Grave” 22 times, “graves” 15, “tomb” 14, “tombs” 14; “burial place” 2 (Genesis 49:30). In Genesis 23 the phrase is “a possession for a grave” (Genesis 23:4, 9).

How it is translated

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

• grave ×22
• graves ×15
• tomb ×14
• tombs ×14
• burial place ×2

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×8
• Exodus×1
• Numbers×2
• Judges×2
• 2 Samuel×6
• 1 Kings×4
• 2 Kings×6
• 2 Chronicles×8
• Nehemiah×3
• Job×5
• Psalms×3
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×4
• Ezekiel×9
• Nahum×1

• Genesis 23:4

  “I am a resident alien and a guest among you. Give me a possession for a grave among you, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

• Genesis 23:6

  “Hear us, my lord: you are a chief of Elohim among us. In the choicest of our graves bury your dead. No one of us will withhold his grave from you for burying your dead.”

• Genesis 23:9

  that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him, which is at the end of his field. For the full amount of silver let him give it to me among you as a possession for a grave.”

• Genesis 23:20

  The field and the cave that was in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a grave by the sons of Heth.

• Genesis 49:30

  in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

• Genesis 50:5

  ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Look, I am about to die; in my tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore please let me go up and bury my father, and I will return.’”

• Genesis 50:13

  his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a possession for a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.

• Exodus 14:11

  They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the wilderness? What is this you have done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?

• Numbers 19:16

  And everyone who touches, in the open field, one slain by the sword or a dead body or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

• Numbers 19:18

  And a clean man shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the vessels and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave.

• Judges 8:32

  Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

• Judges 16:31

  Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

• 2 Samuel 2:32

  They carried Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men went all night, and day dawned for them at Hebron.

• 2 Samuel 3:32

  They buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the tomb of Abner, and all the people wept.

• 2 Samuel 4:12

  David commanded the young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and their feet and hanged them beside the pool in Hebron. But the head of Ish-bosheth they took and buried in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.

• 2 Samuel 17:23

  When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled the donkey and got up and went to his house, to his city. He gave orders to his house and hanged himself and died, and he was buried in the tomb of his father.

• 2 Samuel 19:37

  Please let your servant return, and let me die in my own city, near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, your servant Chimham; let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what seems good in your eyes.”

• 2 Samuel 21:14

  They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they did all that the king commanded. And after that Elohim heeded the plea for the land.

• 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 13:30

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

• 1 Kings 13:31

  And it happened after he had buried him, that he said to his sons, saying, “When I die, bury me in the tomb in which the man of Elohim is buried; beside his bones lay my bones.

• 1 Kings 14:13

  All Israel will lament for him and bury him, for this one alone of Jeroboam’s house will come to a tomb, because in him something good toward YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, has been found in the house of Jeroboam.

• 2 Kings 13:21

  And it happened, as they were burying a man, that, look, they saw the band; and they threw the man into the tomb of Elisha. And the man went down and touched the bones of Elisha, and he came to life and stood up on his feet.

• 2 Kings 22:20

  Therefore, look, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tombs in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil that I am bringing upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

• 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 23:16

  Josiah turned and saw the tombs that were there on the mountain; and he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar and made it unclean, according to the word of YHWH that the man of Elohim cried out, who had cried out these things.

• 2 Kings 23:17

  He said, “What is that marker that I see?” The men of the city said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of Elohim who came from Judah and cried out these things that you have done on the altar of Bethel.”

• 2 Chronicles 16:14

  They buried him in his tombs that he had dug for himself in the city of David, and they laid him on the bed that they had filled with spices and perfumes of various kinds blended as a perfumer’s work; and they made for him a very great burning.

• 2 Chronicles 21:20

  He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed with no one desiring him; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

• 2 Chronicles 24:25

  When they had gone from him —for they left him with many ailments —his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

• 2 Chronicles 28:27

  Ahaz lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

• 2 Chronicles 32:33

  Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

• 2 Chronicles 34:4

  They tore down before him the altars of the Baals, and the incense altars that were high above them he cut down; and the Asherahs, the carved images, and the molten images he broke and ground to dust, and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

• 2 Chronicles 34:28

  Look, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tombs in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil that I am bringing upon this place and upon its inhabitants.’” And they brought back to the king word.

• 2 Chronicles 35:24

  So his servants took him out of the chariot and put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

• Nehemiah 2:3

  And I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the house of the tombs of my fathers, lies in ruins, and its gates have been consumed by fire?”

• Nehemiah 2:5

  and I said to the king, “If to the king it seems good, and if your servant is pleasing before you, that you send me to Judah, to the city of the tombs of my fathers, so that I may build it.”

• Nehemiah 3:16

  After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, repaired as far as opposite the tombs of David, and as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the house of the mighty men.

• Job 3:22

  to those who rejoice to the point of exultation, who are glad when they find the grave,

• Job 5:26

  You will come in full maturity to the grave, as a stack of sheaves goes up in its season.

And 27 more times.