Midvash

עָפָרʻâphâr

dry earth, dust

Pronunciation: aw-fawr' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H6083

Meanings

1.

a. dry, loose earth (2 Samuel 16:13; Joshua 7:6; Ezekiel 27:30)

b. specifically as material of human body (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 3:20)

c. = surface of ground (Exodus 8:12; Exodus 8:13; Job 19:25)

d. powder, of anything pulverized (Deuteronomy 9:21; Exodus 32:20; 2 Kings 23:6)

e. debris, of ruined city (1 Kings 20:10; Ezekiel 26:4; Ezekiel 26:12)

f. earth of the grave (Job 7:21; Job 20:11; Job 21:26)

g. mortar, (i.e. dried mud) for plastering houses (Leviticus 14:41; Leviticus 14:42; Leviticus 14:45)

h. (iron-) ore (Job 28:2; Job 28:6)

i. material of earth (Isaiah 40:12; Proverbs 8:26)

2.

a. of abundance (Genesis 13:16; Genesis 28:14; 2 Chronicles 1:9)

b. of worthlessness (Job 22:24)

c. simile of the scattered, dispersed (2 Kings 13:7; Isaiah 41:2)

d. of self-abasement (Genesis 18:27; Job 42:6; Lamentations 3:29)

e. of humiliation (sitting or lying in dust) (Isaiah 47:1; Isaiah 29:4; Job 16:15)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 110 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
  • Genesis 3:14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.
  • Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
  • Genesis 13:16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!
  • Genesis 18:27 Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes.
  • Genesis 26:15 So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac’s wells with dirt. These were the wells that had been dug by the servants of his father, Abraham.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).