Part of Speech: Verb
Strong's Number: H6912
Original Word: qabar
Usage Notes: "to bury." This verb is found in most Semitic languages including Ugaritic, Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Phoenician, and post-biblical Aramaic. Biblical Hebrew attests in about 130 times and in all periods.
This root is used almost exclusively of human beings. (The only exception is Jer 22:19; See below.) This verb generally represents the act of placing a dead body into a grave or tomb. In its first biblical appearance, qabar bears this meaning. God told Abraham, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age" (Gen 15:15).
A proper burial was a sign of special kindness and divine blessing. As such, it was an obligation of the responsible survivors. Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah so that he might bury his dead. David thanked the men of Jabesh-gilead for their daring reclamation of the bodies of Saul and Jonathan (1Sam 31:11-13), and for properly "burying" them. He said, "Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have showed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him" (2Sam 2:5). Later, David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan and buried them in their family tomb (2Sam 21:14); here the verb means both "bury" and "rebury." A proper burial was not only a kindness; it was a necessity. If the land were to be clean before God, all bodies had to be "buried" before nightfall: "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance" (Deut 21:23). Thus, if a body was not buried, divine approval was withdrawn.
Not to be "buried" was a sign of divine disapproval, both on the surviving kinsmen and on the nation. Ahijah the prophet told Jeroboam's wife, "And all Israel shall mourn for him [Jeroboam's son], and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave" (1Kings 14:13). As for the rest of his family, they would be eaten by dogs and birds of prey (v. 11; cf. Jer 8:2). Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoiakim would "be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (Jer 22:19).
Bodies may be "buried" in caves (Gen 25:9), sepulchers (Judg 8:32), and graves (Gen 50:5). In a few places, qabar is used elliptically of the entire act of dying. So in Job 27:15 we read: "Those that remain of him [his survivors] shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep."
Usage Number: 2
Part of Speech: Noun
Strong's Number: H6913
Original Word: qeber
Usage Notes: "grave; tomb; sepulcher." Qeber occurs 67 times, and in its first biblical appearance (Gen 23:4) the word refers to a "tomb-grave" or "sepulcher." The word carries the meaning of "grave" in Jer 5:16, and in Psa 88:11, qeber is used of a "grave" that is the equivalent of the underworld. In Judg 8:32, the word signifies a "family sepulcher." Jeremiah 26:23 uses the word for a "burial place," specifically an open pit.
