To be heavy , i.e. in a bad sense ( burdensome , severe , dull ) or in a good sense ( numerous , rich , honorable ); causatively, to make weighty (in the same two senses)
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H3513, kābad, is a Hebrew verb whose concrete idea of weight develops in several directions. A burden can become heavy, conflict can intensify, a heart can become unresponsive, and a person can treat someone as weighty or worthy of honor.
Reader summary
Full entry for כָּבַד (H3513) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3513, kābad, is a Hebrew verb whose concrete idea of weight develops in several directions. A burden can become heavy, conflict can intensify, a heart can become unresponsive, and a person can treat someone as weighty or worthy of honor.
The BSB source-word alignment has 113 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include heavy (5), . . . (4), Honor (3), honors (3), and honored (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 18:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (20), 1 Samuel (11), Psalms (11), Exodus (10).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H3513, kābad, is a Hebrew verb whose concrete idea of weight develops in several directions. A burden can become heavy, conflict can intensify, a heart can become unresponsive, and a person can treat someone as weighty or worthy of honor. The shared word does not make those outcomes morally equivalent. Stem, subject, object, and narrative setting determine whether the action describes oppression, stubbornness, rightful honor, public reputation, or the Lord's own honoring work.
The command to honor father and mother gives parents real weight within Israel's covenant life, but it does not authorize abuse, concealment, or obedience to wrongdoing. First Samuel 2 sharpens the issue through Eli, who honored his sons above the Lord while benefiting from their misuse of sacrificial portions. Honor can become disordered when loyalty to family, office, or institution outweighs fidelity to God and care for people harmed.
In the same chapter, the Lord promises to honor those who honor Him, locating faithful honor under His moral judgment rather than human prestige. The verb can also name burdens imposed by power. Rehoboam makes the people's yoke heavy after rejecting counsel that would have served them. That context prevents leaders from treating weight, severity, or endurance as virtues in themselves.
A policy may be impressive and still crush those required to carry it. When Proverbs calls readers to honor the Lord with wealth, the action concerns truthful stewardship and firstfruits, not a transaction that guarantees prosperity or permits pressure on the poor. In hardening texts, H3513 can describe making the heart heavy or unresponsive. First Samuel 6 recalls Pharaoh and the Egyptians as a warning to stop resisting what God's acts have made plain.
These passages must preserve both divine purpose and human responsibility as their narratives state them. The verb alone does not settle every theological question about causation, freedom, or judgment. H3513 therefore asks what a person or community treats as weighty. Faithful honor recognizes God, receives people as precious in the ways Scripture names, tells the truth about authority, and refuses burdens that protect power at another's expense.
The word opens a moral contrast between giving due weight and making life needlessly heavy.
H3513 moves among physical or social weight, severe burden, hardened response, public honor, and the act of treating God or another person as weighty. Its narratives test who receives honor, who carries the burden, and whether a hardened response resists truth.
Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
The covenant command gives father and mother due honor while placing family duty inside allegiance to the Lord who gives the land.
Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.
The Lord contrasts honoring Him with Eli's preference for his sons and promises to honor those who honor Him.
Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
Philistine leaders recall the hardened hearts of Pharaoh and Egypt as a warning against continuing resistance after devastating signs.
And spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”
Rehoboam makes an already heavy yoke heavier, showing how royal severity burdens people while presenting itself as strength.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;
Wisdom calls readers to honor the Lord with wealth and firstfruits, placing resources under grateful covenant stewardship.
Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.
The Lord calls Israel precious and honored in His sight within a promise of covenant presence, gathering, and redemption.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
The Lord uses a son's honor for a father to expose priests who claim His name while treating His altar with contempt.
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. Weight as moral-existential force: dishonor/burden in negative sense, glory/dignity in positive sense.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 116 lexical occurrence verses.
כָּבַד is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Glorifying the Lord affirms his supreme worth.Isaiah 24:14-16a
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
First Samuel 2 makes H3513 a searching word for ordered loyalty. Eli's failure is not that he loves his sons, but that he honors them above the Lord while their conduct injures worshipers and profanes the offering. The Lord's answer, that He will honor those who honor Him, removes honor from the control of office, family name, and public recognition. Exodus 20 still commands honor for parents, yet the canon never turns that command into permission to participate in sin or hide harm.
Rehoboam shows the other side of weight. He announces that he will make the people's yoke heavier, confusing severity with authority and refusing the counsel that would have made him a servant to them. Proverbs 3 calls resources into the honor of the Lord, but its wisdom promise must not become a guaranteed-return scheme. H3513 helps teachers ask who is being made heavy, who is being treated as weighty, and whether the result corresponds to God's truth and care.
Faithful honor can include gratitude, provision, truthful speech, accountability, and protection. It never requires leaders to make their own reputation heavier than the neighbor's burden.
1Sam.2.30
H3513 is a verb represented in several Hebrew stems. Qal can describe being heavy or burdensome, Piel commonly gives honor, Hiphil can make heavy or dull, and other stems mark received honor or reflexive display. Context must govern the English sense.
The New Testament continues to command honor, warns leaders against loading people with burdens they will not help carry, and locates lasting glory in God through Christ. These themes form a canonical bridge without claiming that each Greek term is a lexical equivalent of H3513.