Dust (as powdered or gray); hence, clay , earth , mud
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H6083 is a Hebrew noun for dust, loose earth, dry ground, or material like clay and mortar. Genesis 2:7 says that the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, holding creaturely dependence and God-given dignity together.
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Full entry for עָפָר (H6083) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6083 is a Hebrew noun for dust, loose earth, dry ground, or material like clay and mortar. Genesis 2:7 says that the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, holding creaturely dependence and God-given dignity together.
The BSB source-word alignment has 110 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the dust (19), dust (12), in the dust (11), like dust (5), from the dust (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (26), Isaiah (15), Psalms (13), Genesis (9).
H6083 is a Hebrew noun for dust, loose earth, dry ground, or material like clay and mortar. Genesis 2:7 says that the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, holding creaturely dependence and God-given dignity together. Ecclesiastes 3:20 observes that living creatures come from dust and return to dust, while Daniel 12:2 looks beyond the grave to the awakening of those who sleep in the dust.
Elsewhere the word appears in grief, humiliation, judgment, abundance, and God's raising of the poor. The image never makes a human life worthless. Dust names frailty and origin, but the biblical story places dust in the hands of the Creator who gives breath, hears lament, lifts the lowly, and promises resurrection. H6083 opens teaching on creation, mortality, repentance, grief, humility, justice, and hope.
It corrects proud self-sufficiency, but it also corrects religious speech that uses human frailty to degrade bodies, excuse poverty, or silence grief.
H6083 names ordinary dust and earth while carrying important images of creaturely origin, mortality, grief, humiliation, judgment, abundance, and restoration. Genesis joins formation from dust with God's life-giving breath, and Daniel can place resurrection hope precisely where death appears to have reduced people to dust.
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
God forms the man from the dust of the ground and gives him life by His own breath, joining dependence with bestowed dignity.
All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
Human beings and animals share a creaturely destination in death: all come from dust and all return to dust.
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those sleeping in the dust awaken to sharply different outcomes, making the grave a setting for God's future judgment and life-giving action.
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. Dust as humanity's material origin and mortality; earth from which humans are formed and to which they return.
Dust as humanity's material origin and mortality; earth from which humans are formed and to which they return.
dust (as powdered or gray); hence, clay, earth, mud BDB: dry earth Usage: ashes, dust, earth, ground, morter, powder, rubbish.
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 1 selected witness from 110 lexical occurrence verses.
עָפָר is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H6083 tells the truth about human smallness without surrendering human worth. In Genesis, dust does not live by its own power; God forms the creature and gives breath. That origin humbles every claim to independence, yet it also locates dignity in God's deliberate action rather than in strength, wealth, or social rank. In wisdom and lament, returning to dust names mortality honestly and gives sufferers language for grief.
In royal and prophetic texts, licking dust or being brought to dust can depict defeat and judgment, so interpreters must attend to whether the word names a universal creaturely limit or a particular act of humiliation. Scripture also says God raises the poor from the dust, refusing the assumption that low social position reflects low value before Him. Daniel 12:2 carries hope into the place of burial: sleepers in the dust remain answerable to the God who awakens.
Christian teaching may connect this hope with bodily resurrection, but should not use it to minimize death's sorrow. H6083 therefore supports humility, solidarity, justice, and hope. We are dust enlivened by God, not self-created masters and not refuse to be discarded.
Gen.2.7
H6083 is a concrete noun whose range includes dust, loose earth, dry material, and clay-like substance. Figurative force arises from the context: the same noun can evoke origin, mortality, mourning, humiliation, innumerable abundance, or burial without making those ideas interchangeable.
The New Testament's teaching on Adam, mortality, Christ's resurrection, and the resurrection of the dead develops themes already visible in creation and Daniel. Those connections deepen the canonical hope without turning every occurrence of H6083 into a direct resurrection prediction.