Hebrew word · H1472

גְּוִיָּה

geviyatenu

body

Body, the physical trunk or frame. It is very often used of a dead body or carcass: Samson's lion (Judg 14:8–9), Saul's corpse (1 Sam 31:10, 12), the heaps of slain (Nah 3:3).

Appears 13 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) a body (of living creatures)

2) a corpse, carcass, dead body

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 1:23

Range of meaning

Body, the physical trunk or frame. It is very often used of a dead body or carcass: Samson's lion (Judg 14:8–9), Saul's corpse (1 Sam 31:10, 12), the heaps of slain (Nah 3:3). It is also used of living bodies: the Egyptians' 'bodies and land' offered in payment (Gen 47:18), Israel's 'bodies' ruled by foreign kings (Neh 9:37), and the radiant figure in Daniel whose 'body was like beryl' (Dan 10:6).

Against the English

English 'body' covers it well. There is no drift.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 1:11 and 1:23 both use it for the creatures. Daniel 10:6, which is strongly influenced by Ezekiel 1, uses it of a heavenly being's living body.

From the study of Daniel 10:6

Range of meaning

Body, bodily frame. Very often it means a dead body or carcass: Samson's lion (Judges 14:8-9), Saul's corpse (1 Samuel 31:10, 12), heaps of corpses (Nahum 3:3; Psalm 110:6). It can also mean a living body seen as something physical (Genesis 47:18; Nehemiah 9:37), including the bodies of the heavenly creatures in Ezekiel 1:11, 23.

Against the English

'Body' is accurate. English simply does not carry the word's frequent link with corpses, and that link does not apply here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 1:11, 23 uses it for the living beings around God's throne. That is the closest parallel, and it is the source vision this verse draws on throughout.

From the study of Ezekiel 1:11

Range of meaning

The body as a physical mass or trunk. It often means a dead body (Judg 14:8–9 of the lion's carcass; 1 Sam 31:10, 12; Nah 3:3; Ps 110:6), but it can also mean a living body (Gen 47:18; Neh 9:37; Dan 10:6).

Against the English

'Bodies' is accurate. The Hebrew carries no idea of 'body' as opposed to 'soul'. It simply means the physical frame.

Used elsewhere in the period

Daniel 10:6 uses the same word for the glorious figure whose 'body was like beryl'. That is a close visionary parallel for a living, radiant body.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 47:18 גְּוִיָּתֵ֖נוּ body our

    When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 14:8 בִּגְוִיַּ֥ת [was] in [the] carcass of

    When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey.

  2. Judges 14:9 מִגְּוִיַּ֥ת from [the] carcass of

    So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

1 Samuel · 3

  1. 1 Samuel 31:10 גְּוִיָּתוֹ֙ corpse his

    They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.

  2. 1 Samuel 31:12 גְּוִיַּ֣ת גְּוִיֹּ֣ת [the] corpse of, [the] corpses of

    all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 9:37 גְּ֠וִיֹּתֵינוּ bodies our

    Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 110:6 גְוִיּ֑וֹת corpses

    He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead; He will crush the leaders far and wide.

    Here: Bodies. In a battle setting that means the dead lying unburied on the field. It is the word used for Saul's corpse hung on the wall at Beth-shan (1 Samuel 31:10, 12).

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 1:11 גְּוִיֹתֵיהֶֽנָה׃ bodies their

    Such were their faces. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.

    Here: Geviyyah means the body or trunk as a physical bulk. Elsewhere it often means a corpse, but here it means a living body, as in Daniel 10:6. The suffix is feminine ('their', feminine), although 'their faces' at the start of the verse is masculine. Ezekiel 1 switches gender often when speaking of the creatures.

  2. Ezekiel 1:23 גְּוִיֹּתֵיהֶֽם׃ bodies their

    And under the expanse, their wings stretched out toward one another. Each one also had two wings covering its body.

    Here: 'Their bodies', the torso or physical frame of the living creatures. The word is often used for corpses elsewhere, but here, as in Dan 10:6, it is a living body. The ending is masculine, though the creatures were feminine in v. 5. This gender wavering runs through Ezekiel 1.

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 10:6 וּגְוִיָּת֣וֹ and body his

    His body was like beryl, his face like the brilliance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of polished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.

    Here: The whole bodily frame of the 'man clothed in linen' from v.5. The word often means a corpse, but here it is a living body, as with the living creatures' bodies in Ezekiel 1:11, 23, which this verse draws on.

Nahum · 2

  1. Nahum 3:3 לַגְּוִיָּ֔ה בִּגְוִיָּתָֽם׃ to the bodi[es], over bodi[es] their

    Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over their dead—

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.