אֵ֫בֶל
e.vel (H0060)
mourning
AI Word Study
# Analysis of Hebrew *Ēbel* (Mourning) The Hebrew word *ēbel* denotes mourning—the emotional and behavioral response to loss, particularly death. With 24 occurrences across the biblical text, this term represents a significant concept in Hebrew culture and religious practice. The word itself is straightforward in definition but functioned as a central marker of how individuals and communities expressed grief within ancient Israelite society. The frequency and distribution of *ēbel* across the biblical corpus suggests it was a standard vocabulary item for discussing grief practices and emotional states following bereavement. Unlike terms that might specify particular mourning rituals, *ēbel* appears to function as a general descriptor for the mourning condition itself—the state of sorrow and the accompanying social recognition of loss. This suggests the word carried both internal (emotional) and external (social/visible) dimensions, though the lexicon data provided does not detail specific rituals or practices associated with it. The presence of this term in 24 biblical passages indicates that mourning was a sufficiently common and culturally significant experience to warrant consistent vocabulary. The word's consistent use across different biblical contexts suggests it was understood uniformly as a recognizable human and social reality requiring acknowledgment and expression within Israelite religious and community life.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended.
When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.
Joab sent to Tekoa, and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
The victory that day was turned into mourning among all the people; for the people heard it said that day, “The king grieves for his son.”
In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Your sun will not go down any more, nor will your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will end.
to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come on us.
Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Sigh, but not aloud. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your headdress on you, and put your sandals on your feet. Don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat mourner’s bread.”
Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.