Word Study for H5594 (סָפַד) | Strong's Concordance

Roota primitive root

Meaningproperly, to tear the hair and beat the breasts (as Orientals do in grief); generally to lament; by implication, to wail

KJV usagelament, mourn(-er), wail.

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In depth

Word Study

A plain-language study of çâphad — the range of meaning it carries, how Scripture actually uses it, and where it points. Written for readers who don’t know the original language.

Core Meaning & Semantic Range

The Hebrew word çâphad, represented by H5594, is a primitive root signifying an outward expression of grief. Its base definition is to lament, mourn, or wail, and it properly involves actions like tearing the hair and beating the breasts as expressions of deep sorrow. It appears 30 times across 29 unique verses, illustrating its role in describing both personal and communal grief.

The Hebrew verb H5594 çâphad goes beyond a mere internal feeling of sadness, instead denoting a public, deliberate, and often ritualized performance of grief. This active lamentation serves not only as an outlet for personal sorrow but also as a communal declaration of loss and respect, distinguishing itself from a passive state of sadness. It underscores the biblical understanding of grief as an embodied experience, meant to be observed and participated in by the community, thereby affirming the significance of the deceased or the gravity of the situation calling for repentance.

Biblical Occurrences & Contextual Analysis

In the biblical narrative, çâphad is used to depict the formal act of mourning for the dead. It is seen in moments of profound personal loss, such as when Abraham came to mourn for Sarah Genesis 23:2. It also describes communal grieving for major figures, as when all the Israelites gathered and lamented the prophet Samuel upon his death 1 Samuel 25:1. Conversely, the absence of lamentation is presented as a severe judgment, with prophets declaring that the slain will not be lamented or buried (Jeremiah 16:4, Jeremiah 25:33). The word is also used in prophetic calls for national repentance, commanding priests and people to lament in sackcloth in response to sin and impending disaster (Joel 1:13, Jeremiah 4:8).

Beyond individual and national mourning for death and sin, çâphad also highlights the societal expectation of appropriate lamentation, marking significant transitions in life and death. Ecclesiastes 3:4 presents "a time to mourn, and a time to dance," positioning çâphad as a natural and necessary component of the human experience, while Ecclesiastes 12:5 speaks of "the mourners go about the streets," indicating a recognized social role for those who facilitate these public expressions. Conversely, the divine prohibition against lamenting, as commanded to Ezekiel concerning his wife, reveals God's absolute sovereignty, transforming the absence of çâphad into a stark, prophetic sign of judgment for Israel, where the people will "not mourn nor weep" for their own impending destruction, but "pine away for your iniquities" (Ezekiel 24:16, Ezekiel 24:23). This demonstrates that the presence or absence of this specific form of mourning could be divinely orchestrated for revelatory purposes.

Related Words & Concepts

Several related words provide a fuller picture of the biblical concept of mourning:

H1058 bâkâh (to weep): This word for weeping often appears alongside çâphad, distinguishing the inward emotion of sorrow from the outward act of lamentation. The two actions are performed together in mourning for Sarah Genesis 23:2 and for Saul and Jonathan 2 Samuel 1:12.
H2296 châgar (to gird): This verb is frequently associated with the physical preparations for mourning. Prophets command the people to gird themselves with sackcloth as they lament (Jeremiah 49:3, Joel 1:13), showing that mourning was an embodied practice.
H8242 saq (sackcloth): This coarse cloth was the primary garment of mourning. David instructed his people to gird themselves with sackcloth and mourn for Abner 2 Samuel 3:31, connecting the act of lamenting with a visible symbol of grief.
H3213 yâlal (to howl): An intense and audible expression of grief, this word is often paired with lamenting in prophetic warnings. The command to lament and howl signifies a call for an overwhelming and public display of sorrow and repentance (Jeremiah 4:8, Micah 1:8).
H5595 çâphâh (to sweep away, consume): This verb describes utter destruction and removal, often without proper burial or remembrance. The absence of çâphad (lamentation) is frequently a sign that the dead will be H5595 from the land, linking the act of mourning to the preservation of dignity even in death, in contrast to complete eradication.

Theological Significance

The theological weight of çâphad is evident in its connection to judgment, repentance, and prophecy.

A Sign of Judgment and Curse: The withdrawal of the act of lamentation is a recurring sign of God's judgment. In times of divine punishment, the dead will not be lamented, indicating a complete societal breakdown and a profound loss of human dignity (Jeremiah 16:6, Jeremiah 25:33).
An Act of Repentance: The command to lament is a call to national repentance. In Joel, the priests are urged to lament because the offerings have been cut off from the house of God, linking the act of mourning directly to the spiritual state of the nation Joel 1:13.
A Prophetic Marker: The act of mourning points to a future, climactic moment of repentance for Israel. The land itself will mourn when the people look upon the one they have pierced, with a bitterness like that for a firstborn son (Zechariah 12:10, Zechariah 12:12).
God's Sovereignty Over Grief: The divine command to withhold çâphad demonstrates God's ultimate authority over human emotion and ritual. In Ezekiel's personal tragedy, he is forbidden to "mourn nor weep" for his deceased wife, serving as a sign to Israel that they too will experience profound loss without the customary public lamentation, a direct consequence of their iniquities (Ezekiel 24:16, Ezekiel 24:23). This portrays çâphad not merely as a human response, but as an act that can be divinely controlled or prohibited to convey a deeper theological message of judgment or divine purpose.

Summary

H5594 çâphad encapsulates a fundamental aspect of biblical life: the active, public, and often ritualized expression of profound grief and lament. Far from a passive emotion, it involves deliberate actions that communicate sorrow to the community, whether for the deceased, in response to national tragedy, or as a call to repentance. This performative dimension of mourning is evident in its association with physical acts like tearing hair and beating breasts, and symbolic garments like sackcloth, establishing çâphad as a visible and communal practice.

The word's usage spans a wide range of contexts, from individual grief, as seen when Abraham mourned for Sarah, to collective lamentation for significant figures like Samuel, or even the general societal recognition of "a time to mourn" in Ecclesiastes. Crucially, the biblical narrative also highlights the theological implications of çâphad through its presence and deliberate absence. While often a commanded act of respect or repentance, its prohibition, as in the case of Ezekiel, powerfully underscores God's sovereignty over human expressions of grief, turning the very act of not lamenting into a prophetic sign of divine judgment.

Thus, çâphad functions as a multifaceted term that delineates a spectrum of human and divinely ordained responses to loss and sin. It distinguishes the outward, public demonstration of sorrow from inward weeping (H1058), and contrasts sharply with the utter consumption of the unmourned (H5595). Ultimately, çâphad portrays mourning as a significant spiritual and social act, deeply woven into the fabric of Israelite life and theological understanding, serving as a barometer of both human dignity and divine favor or judgment.

Translation

How the KJV Renders It

Strong’s lists the renderings but not their weight. These are counted from the King James text of the tagged verses — the bar under each is how often the translators actually reached for it. Select one to filter the occurrences below.

Morphology

Grammatical Forms

In the Hebrew Old Testament, this word appears as a verb and a noun across 32 occurrences, inflected in 16 grammatical forms — each row is one form, and the bar is how often it is that form. Select any form to read what each part of its name means, and to filter the occurrence list to it. The King James text tags 30 English words with this number, so the two totals can differ a little. These are this word’s own inflections, not words built from it — for those, see Related Words.

יִּסְפְּדוּ
יִסְפְּדוּ
סְפֹּד
סִפְדוּ
יִסָּפְדוּ
סָפְדוּ
סֹפְדִים
תִּסְפֹּד
סָפְדָה
סְפֹדְנָה
אֶסְפְּדָה
תִסְפְּדוּ
תִסְפֹּד
סָפוֹד
מִסְפֵּד
מִסְפַּד

Related Words

1 entry in Strong’s name this word as its origin. These are its derivatives — a different relationship from the inflected forms above, which are this same word bent by grammar.

Other entries the study above points to — each one is drawn from a reference it makes. Follow the trail to see how the words connect.

Context

Theographic Context

The people, places, and span of history the verses containing this word touch on — drawn from the theographic tagging of Scripture. Select any name to isolate its verses in the occurrence list.

Distribution

Biblical Distribution

Appears in 29 verses across 11 of the 39 books. Most frequent in Jeremiah (8 verses); never once in the other 28.

Genesis

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

Ecclesiastes

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Ezekiel

Joel

Micah

Zechariah

Concordance

Every Occurrence

Every verse where the word is tagged in the King James text. Filter by book, by the English word the translators chose, by grammatical form, or search within the verses.

Sources. Definition and numbering: James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890). Morphology: STEPBible / Tyndale House (CC BY). Verse tagging: the King James text keyed to Strong’s numbers. Every count on this page is computed from the tagged corpus, not estimated.