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דבר

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Etymology and origin of the Biblical Hebrew word דבר

דבר1 word, thing

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Hebrew Bible

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: dāḇār, construct dəḇar, plural dəḇārîm[1][2]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: dēbår, plural dēbā̊rəm[3]

Forms

דָּבָר (dāḇār) noun, masculine, plural דְּבָרִים[1][4] Construct דְּבַר, with suffix דְּבָרוֹ, plural דְּבָרִים, construct plural דִּבְרֵי;[2] BDB counts 875 singular and 564 plural forms.[2] Greek transcriptions of the plural survive in Origen's Hexapla (δαβρη) and in Epiphanius (δεβαρειμ).[5]

Etymology

The noun is formed on the root of the verb דִּבֵּר (dibbēr, “to speak”).[5][4] HALOT puts both under its second root דבר, “to speak”, kept apart from a root דבר meaning “to turn the back, drive away”.[6][7] The noun has close cognates in Phoenician dbr (“thing, matter; word, promise”)[8] and perhaps in Ugaritic dbr (“matter, thing”), which DULAT marks as uncertain.[9] Sabaean dbr (“work, labour”) is compared by DULAT.[9]

Where the root itself comes from is unclear.[10] Klein thinks it was imitative, meaning first “to buzz, hum”, and the base of דְּבוֹרָה (dəḇôrâ, “bee”);[11] HALOT notes the same idea with a question mark.[6] Gesenius–Buhl reports the older explanation that speaking was “making words follow one another”, from a root meaning “to be behind”, which Arabic keeps.[12][10] BDB weighed such a single root and called the original meaning doubtful.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is common in every part of the Hebrew Bible: 1,441 times in MACULA's count, 1,430 in HALOT's.[1][5] The Iron Age letters use it too: in a Lachish letter of the sixth century BC the writer complains that dbry h[śrm] lʾ ṭbm, “the words of the officials are not good”.[13][14] The noun appears 13 times in Davies's corpus of Hebrew inscriptions, most of them at Lachish and Arad.[15] None of the occurrences is in the archaic poems of Sáenz-Badillos's list.[1][16]

Semantic evolution

HALOT orders the senses as “word”, “matter, affair”, “thing, something” and “word of God”.[5] A word could be a single word, a saying, a piece of advice (the advice of Balaam, Numbers 31:16) or a royal order in Esther;[5][2] dəḇārîm ʾăḥāḏîm in Genesis 11:1 is “the same words”, one language.[5][2] From “the matter of Uriah” (1 Kings 15:5) it widened to any “thing”: yēš dāḇār “there is a thing” (Qohelet 1:10), dāḇār raʿ “an evil thing”.[5] The Ten Commandments are ʿăśeret haddəḇārîm, “the ten words” (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13), and the prophets introduce God's message as dəḇar YHWH, “the word of the LORD”.[2][5] In the books of Kings diḇrê are a king's acts, recorded in the sēp̄er diḇrê hayyāmîm, “the book of the events of the days”, the annals.[2] With ʿal it forms the conjunction ʿal-dəḇar “because of”.[2]

The Septuagint renders it mostly by Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) and ῥῆμα (rhêma), and by πρᾶγμα (prâgma) where it means a thing or affair.[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls have it 1,058 times.[17] In Rabbinic Hebrew the act of speaking is דִּבּוּר (dibbûr), already in the Isaiah Scroll from Qumran.[5] Modern Hebrew דבר (davár) keeps “thing” and “word”.[4]

Timeline

  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – about 600 of its occurrences are in Genesis to Kings, beginning in the canon with dəḇārîm ʾăḥāḏîm of Genesis 11:1.[1]
  • Late Biblical Hebrew – about 200 occurrences in Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel and Qohelet, among them the royal orders of Esther.[1][5]
  • 6th century BC – dbry h[śrm] “the words of the officials” in a Lachish letter.[13][14]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) and ῥῆμα (rhêma).[18][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 1,058 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[19][17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a word, a saying or speech; the words or contents of a letter.[5][2]
  2. advice, a command; a royal order.[5]
  3. a matter or affair, a case or business.[5]
  4. a thing, something; in negation, nothing.[5]
  5. the word of God, a prophetic message: dəḇar YHWH.[5][2]
  6. (plural) acts, events, as recorded in annals: diḇrê hayyāmîm.[2]
  7. ʿal-dəḇar because of, for the sake of.[2]

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew דבר (davár)[4]

דבר2 to speak

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Hebrew Bible (Song of Deborah, Song of Moses, Balaam oracles)

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: dibbēr, imperfect yəḏabbēr[1][10]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: dabbər, imperfect yēdabbər[3]

Forms

דִּבֶּר (dibbēr) verb, piel[1][6] Almost always piel (about 1,100 times): perfect דִּבֶּר, imperfect יְדַבֵּר, imperative דַּבֵּר, participle מְדַבֵּר.[6] The qal is found about 40 times, nearly all as the participle דֹּבֵר; there are also a niphal נִדְבְּרוּ “they spoke with one another”, a pual and a hithpael.[6][20]

Etymology

The verb “to speak” is the second root דבר of HALOT, with cognates in Ugaritic dbr (“to say, declare”), a D-stem verb as in Hebrew,[21] and in Phoenician dbr (“to say”), used in the royal inscription of Eshmunazor of Sidon.[22][6] DULAT also compares an Eblaite form in a bilingual word list.[21] The verb is not found with this sense outside Northwest Semitic: in Aramaic and Arabic the root means “to lead, drive” and “to follow behind”.[10][12][7]

The origin of the sense is disputed.[11][12][7] Klein takes the base as imitative, “to buzz, hum”, the source also of the word for the bee, דְּבוֹרָה (dəḇôrâ);[11] Gesenius–Buhl reports the explanation “to let words follow one another” from the root of Arabic دَبَرَ (dabara, “to follow behind”), and BDB tried to derive all the Hebrew uses from a sense “to go away”.[12][10] HALOT keeps a separate root for “to turn the back, drive away”, the root of דֶּבֶר (deḇer, “plague”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in three of the archaic poems that Sáenz-Badillos lists.[16][1] Deborah is told ʿûrî ʿûrî dabbərî-šîr, “awake, awake, utter a song” (Judges 5:12), one of HALOT's uses of the verb with an object.[6][1] Moses begins his song with haʾăzînû haššāmayim waʾăḏabbērâ, “give ear, heavens, and I will speak” (Deuteronomy 32:1), and Balaam asks whether God wəḏibber wəlōʾ yəqîmennâ, “has spoken and will not fulfil it” (Numbers 23:19).[1] The archaic poems are not dated records; the verb is also read by HALOT in a Lachish letter of the sixth century BC.[6][23][14]

Semantic evolution

HALOT distinguishes it from ʾāmar “to say”: dibbēr is the act of speaking, and the words spoken usually follow lēʾmōr “saying”.[6] It is used without an object, “to speak to” or “with” someone (wayəḏabbēr ʾĕlōhîm ʾel-nōaḥ, Genesis 8:15), “to speak something” (lies, truth, a proverb), “to speak about”, “to speak against” and, with lə, “to promise”.[6][1] About 620 of its 1,135 occurrences are in Genesis to Kings.[1] The Septuagint renders it mostly by Ancient Greek λαλέω (laléō), less often by εἶπον (eîpon).[1]

The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 912 times.[17] Modern Hebrew דִּבֵּר (dibér) is the ordinary verb for “to speak”.[4]

Timeline

  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – dabbərî-šîr “utter a song” in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:12), waʾăḏabbērâ in the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1).[16][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – about 620 occurrences in Genesis to Kings, beginning in the canon with Genesis 8:15.[1]
  • 6th century BC – read in a Lachish letter.[6][23][14]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek λαλέω (laléō).[18][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 912 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[19][17]

Meanings

Verb

  1. piel to speak, talk; to speak to or with someone.[6][10]
  2. piel to say or utter something: lies, the truth, a song, a proverb.[6]
  3. piel to speak about or against someone; to threaten.[6]
  4. piel with lə: to promise.[6]
  5. qal (mostly participle) speaking, one who speaks.[6]
  6. niphal to speak with one another.[6]

Word family

  • דִּבְרָה (diḇrâ)

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew דִּבֵּר (dibér)[4]

דבר3 plague, pestilence

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Hebrew Bible (Habakkuk 3)
Inherited from
Proto-Semitic *da/ib(a)r-
Ultimate origin
Proto-Semitic *da/ib(a)r-

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: deḇer, pausal dāḇer[1][24]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: dā̊bår[3]

Forms

דֶּבֶר (deḇer) noun, masculine, plural דְּבָרִים[1][4] Pausal דָּבֶר (Habakkuk 3:5); no plural except, if it is the same word, דְּבָרֶיךָ in Hosea 13:14.[24][25]

Etymology

The plague is inherited from Proto-Semitic *da/ib(a)r- (“pestilence, plague”), a noun reconstructed by Militarev and Kogan from Akkadian dibiru (“a calamity”), Ugaritic dbr, which may mean “plague” or “death”, a Jewish Aramaic word for pestilence and an Arabic word for “cough”.[26][25] HALOT and BDB compare an Arabic noun for death, and HALOT the Akkadian word too.[25][24] The Akkadian comparison is contested: the CAD treats the Akkadian word as a logogram of unknown reading with no connection to the Hebrew word, which Militarev and Kogan find strange.[26]

HALOT derives the noun from its root I דבר “to turn the back, drive away”, kin to Arabic دَبَرَ (dabara, “to go away, perish”) and Akkadian duppuru (“to go away; to drive away”).[25][7][27] BDB takes the same view, explaining the plague as a “departure”, a death.[24][10] Gesenius–Buhl calls the origin uncertain and reports Socin's comparison with words for a boil or swelling.[28]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its oldest-looking use is in the archaic Psalm of Habakkuk, where Pestilence goes before God: ləp̄ānāyw yēleḵ dāḇer wəyēṣēʾ rešep̄ ləraḡlāyw, “before him went Pestilence, and Resheph went out at his feet” (Habakkuk 3:5).[1][25][16] HALOT notes the pairing with rešep̄.[25] The poem is archaic by its language, not a dated record.[16]

Semantic evolution

In HALOT's reading it is the bubonic plague, sent by God as a punishment: on Egypt (Exodus 9:15), in the curses of Leviticus 26:25 and Deuteronomy 28:21, and in the story of David's census (2 Samuel 24:13).[25][24] Jeremiah and Ezekiel join it in a fixed series with the sword and famine (ḥereḇ, rāʿāḇ, deḇer), which accounts for most of its 30 occurrences in the prophets.[25][1] In Exodus 9:3 and Psalm 78:50 it is a cattle plague.[24] The Septuagint usually translates it by Ancient Greek θάνατος (thánatos), “death”.[1] Rabbinic Hebrew uses it for an epidemic,[25] and Modern Hebrew דבר (déver) keeps the sense.[4]

Timeline

  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – dāḇer as a personified attendant of God in Habakkuk 3:5.[16][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – the plague on Egypt (Exodus 9:15) and the plague of 2 Samuel 24.[25][1]
  • Prophets – the series sword, famine and pestilence in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.[25]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek θάνατος (thánatos).[18][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 20 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[19][17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a plague, pestilence, an epidemic sent as a punishment.[25][24]
  2. a cattle plague, murrain.[24]
  3. (personified) Pestilence, an attendant of God.[25][1]

Word family

  • דְּבִיר (dəḇîr)
  • מִדְבָּר (miḏbār)
  • דֹּבְרוֹת (dōḇərôṯ)

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew דבר (déver)[4]
  • דְּבוֹרָה (dəḇôrâ)

Usage notes

HALOT separates the verb of Psalm 18:48 (= 47:4) wayyaḏbēr ʿammîm taḥtāy, “he subdued peoples under me”, and of 2 Chronicles 22:10, where Athaliah “destroyed” the royal family, from the verb “to speak”, as its root I דבר “to turn the back, drive away”, the root of deḇer;[7][1] MACULA counts it six times.[7][1] Tawil compares Akkadian duppuru “to drive away” in the same sense.[29] Two rarer nouns share the spelling: dōḇer “pasture” in Micah 2:12 and Isaiah 5:17, kin to Aramaic and Syriac dabrā “field”,[30][31] and dibbēr “word (of God)” in Jeremiah 5:13, which HALOT usually reads as haddāḇār.[32] HALOT also has a noun deḇer “sting, thorn” in Hosea 13:14 and Psalm 91:3, traditionally taken as the plague.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. דָּבָר
  3. ^ a b c Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דָּבָר
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דבר II
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דבר I
  8. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. dbr
  9. ^ a b del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. dbr I
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. דָּבַר
  11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. דבר I
  12. ^ a b c d Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. דבר
  13. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.006.5
  14. ^ a b c d Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 79
  15. ^ Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  16. ^ a b c d e f Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
  17. ^ a b c d e Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
  18. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  19. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
  20. ^ Clines, David J. A., ed. (1993–2011), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press / Sheffield Phoenix Press, p. 2:388
  21. ^ a b del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. d-b-r II
  22. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. d-b-r
  23. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.002.6
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. דֶּבֶר
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דֶּבֶר I
  26. ^ a b Militarev, Alexander; Kogan, Leonid (2000), Semitic Etymological Dictionary, vol. 1: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag (AOAT 278/1), p. no. 45
  27. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. duppuru
  28. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. דֶּבֶר
  29. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 71
  30. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. דֹּבֶר
  31. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. דבר II
  32. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דִּבֵּר
  33. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. דֶּבֶר II

Derived terms

Related etymologies

  • אבן · also from Proto-Semitic
  • כשר · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גן · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גוי · also from Proto-Semitic
  • יובל · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גמל · also from Proto-Semitic
  • שק · also from Proto-Semitic
  • אתון · also from Proto-Semitic
Cite this entry

“דבר.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/hbo/%D7%93%D7%91%D7%A8. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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