What does בֹּקֶר (bōqer) mean in the Bible?
H1242 names morning, the break and early portion of the day. Genesis 1:5 joins evening and morning in the first created day.
Hebrew · H1242
בֹּקֶר
Properly, dawn (as the break of day); generally, morning
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.
בֹּקֶרH1242
Pronunciationbōqer
What does בֹּקֶר (bōqer) mean in the Bible?
H1242 names morning, the break and early portion of the day. Genesis 1:5 joins evening and morning in the first created day.
Reader summary
Full entry for בֹּקֶר (H1242) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H1242?
The BSB source-word alignment has 214 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include in the morning (48), morning (46), . . . (19), the next morning (17), Every morning (14).
Where does בֹּקֶר (bōqer) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (36), Genesis (19), 1 Samuel (18), Psalms (18).
What This Word Actually Means
H1242 names morning, the break and early portion of the day. Genesis 1:5 joins evening and morning in the first created day. Exodus 16:21 describes Israel gathering manna every morning before the sun's heat melts it, placing daily provision inside a repeated practice of reception and restraint. Lamentations 3:23 confesses that the Lord's compassions are new every morning from within a poem of affliction, not from a life without grief.
Psalm 30:5 contrasts a night of weeping with morning joy while the psalm remembers deliverance from a particular crisis. The noun can mark time, renewed activity, worship, judgment, relief, or poetic hope. Morning does not automatically symbolize blessing, and its hopeful uses are not promises that every sorrow ends overnight. H1242 helps teachers speak about daily dependence and renewed mercy without reducing faith to a cheerful routine.
Morning may bring joy, another measure of provision, difficult work, continued mourning, or the first safe moment to seek help. Its pastoral force comes from God's faithfulness within real days, not from denying chronic pain or blaming those whose mornings remain hard.
Passage contextgrammaticalCanonical parallelPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
H1242 marks the created arrival of morning and the start of daily work, worship, travel, provision, decision, judgment, and renewed hope. Scripture uses the same ordinary time word in both joyful and painful settings, so context governs any figurative meaning.
- Gen.1.5
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Evening and morning complete the first day under God's ordering, grounding later morning imagery in the ordinary rhythm of created time.
- Exod.16.21
Every morning each one gathered as much as was needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.
Israel gathers manna each morning according to need before it melts, linking daily provision with obedient timing, sufficiency, and dependence in the wilderness.
- Lam.3.23
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
The confession of mercies new every morning arises inside sustained affliction and lament, so hope is voiced from suffering rather than used to erase it.
- Ps.30.5
For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
The psalm contrasts overnight weeping with morning joy as testimony to God's restoring favor in a particular deliverance, not a timetable imposed on every grief.
Passage contextBook context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itin the morning48×Genesis 40:6, Genesis 41:8, Genesis 49:27, Exodus 7:15
morning46×Genesis 1:5, Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13, Genesis 1:19
. . .19×Exodus 14:27, Exodus 16:21, Exodus 30:7, Leviticus 6:12
the next morning17×Genesis 22:3, Genesis 24:54, Genesis 26:31, Genesis 28:18
Every morning14×Exodus 16:21, Exodus 30:7, Leviticus 6:12, 1 Chronicles 9:27
and in the morning7×Exodus 16:7, Exodus 16:12, Exodus 16:13, Deuteronomy 16:7
the morning7×Exodus 12:10, Exodus 29:34, 1 Samuel 3:15, 2 Kings 16:15
Early the next morning5×Genesis 19:27, Genesis 20:8, Genesis 31:55, Numbers 14:40
-3×Exodus 34:2, Judges 19:25, 1 Kings 3:21
after morning3×Exodus 36:3, 2 Samuel 13:4, Isaiah 28:19
By morning3×Exodus 10:13, Isaiah 50:4, Zephaniah 3:5
Early in the morning3×Genesis 21:14, 1 Samuel 15:12, 2 Chronicles 20:20
for the morning3×Psalms 130:6, Zephaniah 3:3
until morning3×Exodus 34:25, Deuteronomy 16:4, 2 Samuel 2:27
When morning3×Genesis 29:25, Exodus 19:16, Psalms 46:5
as in the morning2×Exodus 29:41, Numbers 28:8
At daybreak2×Genesis 44:3, Psalms 5:3
like the morning2×Job 11:17, Hosea 13:3
of the morning2×2 Samuel 23:4, Psalms 90:5
[both] the morning1×Ezra 3:3
{Early} the next morning1×Exodus 24:4
and during the morning1×1 Samuel 11:11
and mornings1×Daniel 8:14
and on that morning1×Isaiah 17:11
and the mornings1×Daniel 8:26
And the next morning1×Ezekiel 24:18
At morning1×Exodus 14:24
At morning’s1×Micah 2:1
dawn1×2 Samuel 23:4
for the regular morning1×2 Chronicles 31:3
from dawn1×Job 4:20
from morning1×1 Kings 18:26
from that morning1×2 Samuel 24:15
into dawn1×Amos 5:8
is like a morning1×Hosea 6:4
it were morning1×Deuteronomy 28:67
of it in the morning1×Leviticus 6:20
So in the morning1×Numbers 22:21
the morning’s1×Leviticus 9:17
Tomorrow morning1×Numbers 16:5
while the morning1×Job 38:7
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 1:5בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:8בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:13בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:19בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:23בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:31בֹ֖קֶרtomorningNoun - masculine singularGenesis 19:27בַּבֹּ֑קֶרtoEarly the next morningPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 20:8בַּבֹּ֗קֶרtoEarly the next morningPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 21:14בַּבֹּ֡קֶרtoEarly in the morningPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 22:3בַּבֹּ֗קֶרtothe next morningPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 1:5
Aligned rows214
Books represented29
Genesis19Exodus36Leviticus9Numbers12Deuteronomy4Joshua5Judges10Ruth41 Samuel182 Samuel91 Kings42 Kings71 Chronicles52 Chronicles5Ezra1Esther2Job7Psalms18Proverbs2Ecclesiastes2Isaiah11Jeremiah2Lamentations1Ezekiel10Daniel2Hosea3Amos2Micah1Zephaniah3
Source forms
בַּבֹּ֔קֶר18xbab·bō·qerExodus 9:13, Exodus 16:21, Exodus 24:4, Leviticus 6:20
בַבֹּ֔קֶר14xḇab·bō·qerGenesis 24:54, Genesis 26:31, Genesis 29:25, Numbers 14:40
בַּבֹּ֣קֶר10xbab·bō·qerExodus 16:21, Exodus 30:7, Leviticus 6:12, 2 Samuel 13:4
בַּבֹּ֑קֶר9xbab·bō·qerGenesis 19:27, Genesis 40:6, Leviticus 6:12, Joshua 6:12
בַּבֹּ֗קֶר9xbab·bō·qerGenesis 20:8, Genesis 22:3, Genesis 28:18, Genesis 31:55
בֹ֖קֶר8xḇō·qerGenesis 1:5, Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13, Genesis 1:19
הַבֹּ֔קֶר8xhab·bō·qerExodus 14:24, Exodus 16:24, Leviticus 6:9, Numbers 28:23
בַבֹּ֙קֶר֙7xḇab·bō·qerGenesis 41:8, Exodus 34:2, Exodus 34:4, Judges 9:33
Parsing patterns
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular105xGenesis 19:27, Genesis 20:8, Genesis 21:14, Genesis 22:3
Noun - masculine singular40xGenesis 1:5, Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13, Genesis 1:19
Article | Noun - masculine singular33xGenesis 44:3, Exodus 10:13, Exodus 14:24, Exodus 16:23
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine singular15xExodus 34:2, Exodus 34:25, Deuteronomy 16:4, 1 Chronicles 9:27
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular6xExodus 16:12, Exodus 16:13, Esther 2:14, Esther 5:14
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine plural4xPsalms 73:14, Psalms 101:8, Isaiah 33:2, Lamentations 3:23
Preposition-m, Article | Noun - masculine singular3x2 Samuel 2:27, 2 Samuel 24:15, 1 Kings 18:26
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular2xExodus 16:7, Psalms 55:17
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Offer morning hope alongside practical food, housing, medical, mental-health, grief, and safety support rather than as a substitute for care.
- Encourage daily practices flexibly so people can receive God's mercy within the bodily and vocational rhythms they actually inhabit.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that every biblical morning represents resurrection, blessing, or a new spiritual season; context governs the significance.
- Do not claim that Psalm 30:5 promises every believer's grief will turn to joy by the next calendar morning.
Evidence Summary
Creation
Hebrew word. Dawn as the temporal marker of God's renewal and covenant faithfulness, morning as daily mercies
Source Gloss
properly, dawn (as the break of day); generally, morning
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Dawn as the temporal marker of God's renewal and covenant faithfulness, morning as daily mercies
properly, dawn (as the break of day); generally, morning BDB: morning Usage: ( ) day, early, morning, morrow.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Old Testament Witnesses
Dawn or beginning of light.
Showing 1 selected witness from 214 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
בֹּקֶר is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Morning suggests partial relief but not final resolution.Isaiah 21:11-12
Canonical Themes
Creation
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
H1242 brings hope down to the scale of another day. Genesis places morning within God's ordering of time, giving human life a rhythm that is received rather than manufactured. In Exodus 16, morning is when manna must be gathered. The gift is daily, measured by need, and resistant to anxious hoarding. Lamentations speaks even more carefully. The poet remembers God's compassion every morning while also describing affliction, darkness, bitterness, and tears.
New mercy is not denial; it is the ground from which lament can continue without surrendering God's faithfulness. Psalm 30 remembers joy arriving in the morning after weeping, but pastoral honesty must respect the psalm's testimonial form. Some nights last longer than one cycle, and some conditions require years of care. Morning faithfulness may look like receiving food, taking medicine, praying one sentence, returning to work, asking for protection, or allowing another person to help.
The church should celebrate renewal without making early rising, productivity, or visible cheerfulness a measure of holiness. H1242 directs attention toward God's dependable mercy within created time. It invites daily trust and communal provision while protecting sufferers from slogans that demand they feel restored before their actual wounds have been tended.
Anchor passage
Lam.3.23
Doctrinal connections
- Genesis 1:5 grounds morning in God's ordered rhythm of evening and day.
- Exodus 16:21 joins morning provision with sufficiency, obedience, work, and dependence in the wilderness.
- Lamentations 3:23 confesses renewed compassion from inside communal ruin and personal affliction.
- Psalm 30:5 testifies to restoring joy without supplying a universal schedule for grief.
- Daily mercy supports perseverance but does not make productivity, early rising, or emotional brightness measures of faith.
- Christian hope receives each day from God while using ordinary care, shared provision, rest, and truthful lament.
H1242 is a Hebrew noun for dawn or morning. It appears in temporal phrases, repeated daily routines, cultic schedules, narrative departures, and poetic contrasts; the noun itself names the time, while verbs and discourse supply its activity and theological force.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament often locates prayer, resurrection discovery, teaching, judgment scenes, and daily service in the morning. The resurrection gives Christian hope its decisive center, but no occurrence of H1242 by itself turns every dawn into a direct resurrection prediction or guarantees immediate relief from present suffering.
Canonical parallelPastoral application