Weeping names the expression of tears, with the particular event revealing whether they accompany grief, reunion, distress or another experience. Genesis 45:2 describes Joseph's loud weeping as he makes himself known to the brothers who sold him.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for בְּכִי (H1065) · Open the biblical lexicon
Weeping names the expression of tears, with the particular event revealing whether they accompany grief, reunion, distress or another experience. Genesis 45:2 describes Joseph's loud weeping as he makes himself known to the brothers who sold him.
The BSB source-word alignment has 30 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include weeping (6), . . . (5), of weeping (3), With weeping (3), a weeping (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 45:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (8), Jeremiah (8), Psalms (3), Job (2).
Weeping names the expression of tears, with the particular event revealing whether they accompany grief, reunion, distress or another experience. Genesis 45:2 describes Joseph's loud weeping as he makes himself known to the brothers who sold him. Psalm 30:5 contrasts a night of weeping with morning joy within the worshiper's thanksgiving for deliverance. Jeremiah 31:15 gives Rachel a voice in profound grief for her children amid a passage that also announces restoration.
The noun does not identify tears as a failure of faith, and neither loudness nor duration measures a person's devotion. A poetic contrast between night and morning is not a deadline imposed on mourners. These witnesses invite readers to hear what has happened and whose pain is being expressed before drawing comfort or exhortation. Tears can remain present where trust, hope and honest recognition of loss belong together.
Reunion, thanksgiving and prophetic lament place tears in different settings. The selected accounts give weeping a real voice without reducing all emotional responses to the same spiritual condition.
But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.
Joseph's weeping becomes audible beyond the private meeting as he reveals himself to his brothers; the reunion includes the remembered wrong of being sold.
For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Night and morning express the contrast between weeping and renewed joy within thanksgiving; the imagery supplies hope rather than a timetable for every sufferer.
This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Rachel's grief for absent children is voiced without minimizing its depth; the neighboring restoration promise addresses the passage's particular loss and future.
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.
Hebrew word. Weeping as sustained, sorrowful overflow—physical tears expressing deep emotional or spiritual distress.
Weeping as sustained, sorrowful overflow—physical tears expressing deep emotional or spiritual distress.
a weeping; by analogy, a dripping BDB: weeping Usage: overflowing, × sore, (continual) weeping, wept.
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 2 selected witnesses from 28 lexical occurrence verses.
בְּכִי is built from this root:
Jeremiah 31:15 does not hurry past Rachel's refusal of comfort. Her weeping gives the loss of children an audible place within the restoration passage. Matthew 2 later quotes that lament amid the killing of children around Bethlehem, making it especially important not to use the verse as a command to minimize grief. Psalm 30 can speak joy after weeping because its speaker is giving thanks for received deliverance, but that testimony is not a stopwatch for someone else's pain.
Joseph's loud tears add the complexity of reunion after betrayal. Faithful teaching hears those different occasions and offers patient presence rather than ranking emotional responses. Christian hope can rest in Christ's resurrection while allowing tears to express loss, memory and longing that have not yet reached their final resolution.
Jer.31.15
The noun names weeping as an experience or expression; the event and surrounding narrative supply its cause. Joseph's tears must not be defined entirely by a grief setting elsewhere, nor can a poetic contrast determine a clinical duration.
Matthew 2:17-18 explicitly cites Jeremiah's Rachel lament within another devastating loss of children. John 11 depicts Jesus weeping with those facing death. The citation and thematic comparison give grief a place within the canon without promising immediate restoration of every present loss or reducing resurrection hope to required cheerfulness.