אָבַל
ʼâbal · H56 · Hebrew · 39 occurrences
Meanings
-
to mourn
To experience grief and show this by one's actions; caused by bereavement, loss, or other difficult circumstances
Examples1 Samuel 16:1 Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have chosen a king for Myself among his sons.”
2 Samuel 14:2 So Joab sent a messenger to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please follow mourning rites, and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for many days.
Ezekiel 31:15 ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.
-
to mourn, to wither, to languish
Process by which plants and their products become devoid of moisture, and therefore lose color and bend over as if in mourning, which may ultimately result in death if circumstances do not change; associated with drought and destruction, often as punishment from God
ExamplesJeremiah 12:4 How long is the land to mourn, And the vegetation of the countryside to dry up? Due to the wickedness of those who live in it, Animals and birds have been snatched away, Because people have said, “He will not see our final end.”
How it’s used In 5 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Who or what does itSubject
38 occurrences in 24 groups
- Not stated: he, she or it 6
- אֶרֶץland, earth, ground 4
- עַםpeople 3
- Not stated (participle) 3
- Other words · 20 groups that occur once or twice (23) 23
What it acts on, or what is saidObject
1 occurrences in 2 groups
- חוֹמָהwall 1
- חֵילouter wall 1
With prepositionsPrepositional phrases
16 occurrences in 13 groups
- Other words · 13 groups that occur once or twice (17) 17
With adverbsAdverbs
3 occurrences in 2 groups
- אַלnot, do not 2
- מְאֹדvery 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- אֲדֹנָיLord 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 4 words
- סָפַד çâphad · H5594 · to mourn
- Both words are verbs of mourning and lamenting with overlapping core senses (both rendered "lament, mourn"), and could substitute in many contexts.
- כָּאַב kâʼab · H3510 · to be in pain, to hurt, to wound
- Both words denote emotional responses to distress or loss within the field of grief, each describing a manifestation of sorrow.
- בָּכָה bâkâh · H1058 · to cry, to weep, to lament
- Both words share overlapping senses of mourning and lamenting, and describe synonymous actions of expressing grief.
- קָדַר qâdar · H6937 · to grow dark, to become dark, to be darkened
- The target lexeme, a primary verb of mourning, and קָדַר (whose core sense of darkness or blackness extends to mourning contexts, likely via the cultural practice of donning dark clothing or sackcloth) are near-synonyms when קָדַר is used in its mourning sense.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Grieve002001002013
- אָבַל describes mourning for the dead, as Jacob mourning for his son over many days.
- Dry002001001021
- The word can also describe land or vegetation withering or drying up, a parallel sense of languishing.
Word family 3 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H56. abal I. אָבַל39 verb mourn (Assyrian [abâlu] see Dlw) — Qal Perfect אָבַל Isa 24:7…
I. אָבַל39 verb mourn (Assyrian [abâlu] see Dlw) —
Qal Perfect אָבַל Isa 24:7 Isa 24:2t. etc. Imperfect3feminine singular תֶּאֱבַל Hos 4:3 Hos 4:3t. — mourn, lament (poetic & higher style); absolute, human subject Joe 1:9; Amo 8:8; Amo 9:5; Isa 19:8 (|| אנה) compare Job 14:22 (subject נַפְשׁוֺ); followed by על Hos 10:5; more often figurative, inanimate subject, gates 1 Samuel 3:26; land 1Sa 24:4; 1Sam 33:9; Hos 4:3; Joe 1:10; Jer 4:28 (followed by על) Jer 12:4; Jer 23:10; compare Jer 12:11 (followed by על), יְהוּדָה Jer 14:2; pastures Amo 1:2.
Hithpa`el — Perfect הִתְאַבֵּל 1Sa 15:35; Imperfect יִתְאַבָּ֑ל Eze 7:12, Eze 7:27; וַיִּתְאַבֵּל Gen 37:34 Gen 37:3t. etc.; Imperative feminine singular הִתְאַבְּלִי 2Sa 14:2; Participle מִתְאַבֵּל 1Sa 16:1-2t. etc.; — mourn (mostly prose) especially for dead, followed by על Gen 37:34; 2Sa 13:37; 2Sa 14:2; 2Sa 19:2 || בכה2Ch 35:24, compare also Isa 66:10 (over Jerusalem); absolute 1Ch 7:22; compare 2Sa 14:2 play the mourner (where indicated by dress); over un-worthy Saul followed by אֶל 1Sa 15:35; 1Sa 16:1; over sin followed by על Ezr 10:6 compare (absolute) Neh 8:9; judgment of ׳י Exo 33:4 absolute (indicated by dress), Num 14:39; Eze 7:27 (strike out B Co); followed by כִּי 1Sa 6:19; calamity Neh 1:4; Eze 7:12 compare Dan 10:2.
Hiph`il Perfect הֶאֱבַלְתִּי Eze 31:15; Imperfect וַיַּאֲבֶלֿ Lam 2:8; — cause to mourn; Eze 31:15 absolute ᵑ0, but A B Co object תהום followed by על, caused the deep to mourn over; Lam 2:8 object wall etc.; (both these figurative, compare Qal).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 2 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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