Properly, weight , but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness
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The Hebrew noun כָּבוֹד (kāḇôḏ) can denote glory, honor, splendor, importance, or abundance. It belongs to a word family associated with heaviness or weight, but that association must not be forced into every occurrence as though the biblical writer were describing physical mass.
Reader summary
Full entry for כָּבוֹד (H3519) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun כָּבוֹד (kāḇôḏ) can denote glory, honor, splendor, importance, or abundance. It belongs to a word family associated with heaviness or weight, but that association must not be forced into every occurrence as though the biblical writer were describing physical mass.
The BSB source-word alignment has 200 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the glory (29), and the glory (16), glory (13), and honor (12), My glory (11).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (51), Isaiah (38), Ezekiel (19), Proverbs (16).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
The Hebrew noun כָּבוֹד (kāḇôḏ) can denote glory, honor, splendor, importance, or abundance. It belongs to a word family associated with heaviness or weight, but that association must not be forced into every occurrence as though the biblical writer were describing physical mass. Context identifies what is honored, splendid, impressive, abundant, or visibly manifested. Genesis 45:13, for example, uses the word for Joseph’s splendor or honored standing in Egypt, not for a cloud of divine presence.
Several major passages use kāḇôḏ for the glory of the Lord. In Exodus 40:34 the cloud covers the Tent of Meeting and the Lord’s glory fills the tabernacle. First Kings 8:11 presents a related temple scene in which the priests cannot stand to minister because the Lord’s glory fills the house. Ezekiel 43:5 announces the glory filling the temple within the prophet’s restoration vision. These texts join divine glory to God’s holy presence and sovereign self-disclosure, but they do not authorize readers to identify every unusual sensation, atmosphere, or spectacle as the glory of God.
The Psalms broaden the witness. Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare God’s glory through the work of His hands; creation testifies to its Maker without becoming divine. Psalm 24:8 calls the Lord the King of Glory and connects that title to His strength and victory. Human honor and divine glory can share the same Hebrew lexeme, yet the referent and scale are not interchangeable. God’s glory is not merely an intensified form of human celebrity.
Christian teaching may connect these Old Testament uses with the New Testament language of glory, especially where God’s glory is revealed in Christ and where believers hope to behold or share in glory by grace. Such connections should follow the argument of each passage. Kāḇôḏ is not a technique for producing a worship atmosphere, a promise of public prominence, or a word that makes material prosperity the measure of God’s favor.
H3519 names human splendor or honor in some settings and the Lord’s glory in creation, tabernacle, temple, kingship, and prophetic restoration. The referent and literary scene determine whether the emphasis is status, honor, splendor, or divine manifestation.
Tell my father about all my splendor in Egypt and everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
Joseph uses H3519 for his visible standing and splendor in Egypt within the family reconciliation account.
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Cloud and filling language locate the Lord’s glory in the completed tabernacle scene.
So that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
The temple dedication portrays the Lord’s filling glory interrupting ordinary priestly service in the house.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Creation functions as testimony to God’s glory because the skies are the work of His hands.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
The psalm answers its own question by identifying the King of Glory as the victorious Lord.
Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
Ezekiel’s restoration vision depicts the Lord’s glory filling the temple after the prophet is brought inside.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Glory as weighty presence—God's overwhelming splendor and honor manifest through tangible abundance and substance
Glory as weighty presence—God's overwhelming splendor and honor manifest through tangible abundance and substance
properly, weight, but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness BDB: abundance Usage: glorious(-ly), glory, honour(-able).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 200 lexical occurrence verses.
Honor represents a lasting reward rooted in character and reputation.Hosea 4:4-10
The fading of glory illustrates the impermanence of national prestige.Hosea 9:10-17
Kedar’s fading glory illustrates the transience of human prestige.Isaiah 17:1-3
What Shebna seeks as glory becomes the context of his shame.Isaiah 21:13-17
Centers the promise on visible manifestation of God’s presence.Isaiah 22:15-19
Defines the ultimate purpose of redemption.Isaiah 40:1-11
Affirms the exclusive honor belonging to God.Isaiah 43:1-7
Priestly honor exchanged for disgrace.Isaiah 48:9-11
Departure signifies loss of covenant vitality.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Kāḇôḏ gathers several related ideas without reducing them to one concrete picture. Joseph can speak of his splendor in Egypt, the heavens can declare the glory of their Maker, and the Lord’s glory can fill the tabernacle or temple. The lexical family’s association with weight may help explain ideas of importance or substance, but the context supplies the active sense.
This matters pastorally because modern religious language often calls a successful platform, an intense meeting, or an impressive building “glorious. ” Scripture directs attention elsewhere: creation bears witness to God, sacred-space scenes display His holy initiative, the King of Glory is the mighty Lord, and Ezekiel’s restored temple receives glory that comes from God.
Human honor remains derivative and accountable. Christian proclamation can then show God’s glory revealed in Christ and promised to His people by grace, while refusing to make fame, prosperity, spectacle, or a sensation the proof that God is present.
Exod.40.34
Kāḇôḏ is a masculine noun whose semantic range includes glory, honor, splendor, importance, and abundance. Its relation to a heaviness word family can illuminate historical development, but syntax, possessor, referent, and scene determine the contextual sense.
The New Testament speaks of God’s glory revealed in the face and work of Jesus Christ, of the Son sharing divine glory, and of believers’ future glorification by grace. Those themes extend the canon’s witness, but H3519 does not map mechanically onto every Greek glory term or every later theological use.