Definition

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

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• lament
• mourn(-er)
• wail

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.