Hebrew word · H7015

קִינָה

kinah

dirge

A formal funeral dirge: a composed song or chant performed over the dead, often by professional women mourners (Jer 9:17–20). Its typical pattern looks back on past glory and contrasts it with present ruin ('How the mighty have fallen', 2 Sam 1:19).

Appears 18 times in 16 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

lamentation, dirge, elegy

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 28:12

Range of meaning

A formal funeral dirge: a composed song or chant performed over the dead, often by professional women mourners (Jer 9:17–20). Its typical pattern looks back on past glory and contrasts it with present ruin ('How the mighty have fallen', 2 Sam 1:19). Scholars since the 19th century have noted a characteristic 'limping' rhythm in many Hebrew dirges: a longer line answered by a shorter one, like a sob breaking off.

Against the English

'Lament' and 'lamentation' sound to modern ears like sincere sorrow or a personal complaint to God, as in the lament psalms. A qinah is a funeral genre. Singing one over a living person is a way of announcing that his death is certain.

How it drifted

In modern English 'lament' covers any expression of grief. The specific funeral setting has faded.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel uses the genre as a weapon. There are dirges over Israel's princes (ch. 19), over Tyre (26:17; 27:2, 32), over the king of Tyre (here), and over Pharaoh and Egypt (32:2, 16). Compare Amos 5:1–2, a dirge over 'virgin Israel', and the mocking song over the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:4–21, which has the same shape of high glory followed by a fall to the depths.

From the study of Jeremiah 9:10

Range of meaning

A formal funeral dirge for the dead, sung by family or by professional mourners, often in a limping rhythm of a long half-line followed by a short one. It was also used of political laments over fallen kings and cities (2 Sam 1:17; Ezek 19:1; 27:2).

Against the English

'Lamentation' (KJV, YLT), 'dirge' (BSB), 'lament' (WEB). 'Dirge' best keeps the funeral setting. 'Lamentation' can sound like general sadness.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used for David's song over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:17). In Jeremiah 9:17–20 the women skilled in qinah are summoned to teach their daughters a dirge, because 'death has climbed in at our windows'. Mesopotamian city laments, such as the Lament over Ur, similarly mourn ruined cities and abandoned pens and fields.

From the study of Ezekiel 19:1

Range of meaning

A formal funeral song or dirge, chanted over a dead person, city or nation. It is a recognised poetic genre. Many examples have a limping rhythm: a longer line followed by a shorter one, sometimes called the 'qinah meter'. They tend to open with 'How...!' and set past glory against present ruin.

Against the English

'Lament' and 'lamentation' (KJV, BSB, WEB, ESV) are accurate but general. To modern ears they can mean any expression of sadness. NLT's 'funeral song' brings out the genre: this is the kind of song sung at a burial.

How it drifted

English 'lament' has broadened to mean any regret or complaint ('he lamented the traffic'). The Hebrew word is more specific than that.

Used elsewhere in the period

David's qinah over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:17); Jeremiah's for Josiah, remembered in 2 Chr 35:25; professional mourning women taught to sing qinah (Jer 9:10, 9:20 [Eng. 9:17-20]); Amos 5:1-2, a dirge over 'virgin Israel' as though already dead. Ezekiel uses the genre more than any other prophet: over Tyre (26:17; 27:2), the king of Tyre (28:12), Pharaoh and Egypt (32:2, 16), and here. Chapter 19 closes with 'This is a lament, and it has become a lament' (19:14).

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 1:17 הַקִּינָ֖ה the lamentation

    Then David took up this lament for Saul and his son Jonathan,

2 Chronicles · 2

  1. 2 Chronicles 35:25 בְּקִינ֨וֹתֵיהֶ֤ם הַקִּינֽוֹת׃ in lamentations their, the lamentations

    Then Jeremiah lamented over Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers recite laments over Josiah. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Book of Laments.

    Here: "In their dirges." This is the noun from the same root as the opening verb. The singers' own repertoire of funeral songs included or referred to Josiah.

Jeremiah · 3

  1. Jeremiah 7:29 קִינָ֑ה a lamentation

    Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

  2. Jeremiah 9:10 קִינָ֔ה lamentation

    I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

    Here: A formal funeral song, normally chanted over a dead person. Singing one over a landscape treats the land as a corpse.

  3. Jeremiah 9:20 קִינָֽה׃ a lamentation

    Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament.

Ezekiel · 10

  1. Ezekiel 2:10 קִנִ֥ים lamentations

    which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

  2. Ezekiel 19:1 קִינָ֔ה a lamentation

    “As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel

    Here: The technical name for a funeral song, the formal mourning poem chanted over the dead. Calling the coming poem a qinah tells the hearers from the first line that a death is being mourned.

  3. Ezekiel 19:14 קִ֥ינָה לְקִינָֽה׃ פ [is] a lamentation, <into> a lamentation

    Fire has gone out from its main branch and devoured its fruit; on it no strong branch remains fit for a ruler’s scepter.’ This is a lament and shall be used as a lament.”

    Here: 'A dirge': the formal song sung over someone who has died. It names the genre and matches the command in v. 1, 'raise a dirge'. The royal house is being mourned as though it were already dead.

  4. Ezekiel 26:17 קִינָה֙ a lamentation

    Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!

    Here: A formal funeral song for the dead. Calling the song a qinah tells the hearer that Tyre is being treated as already dead.

  5. Ezekiel 27:2 קִינָֽה׃ a lamentation

    “Now you, son of man, take up a lament for Tyre.

  6. Ezekiel 27:32 קִינָ֔ה a lamentation

    As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament for you: ‘Who was ever like Tyre, silenced in the middle of the sea?

  7. Ezekiel 28:12 קִינָ֖ה a lamentation

    “Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

    Here: A funeral song, the kind sung over a corpse. Ezekiel is told to sing one over a king who is still alive and on his throne. That declares him as good as dead.

  8. Ezekiel 32:2 קִינָה֙ a lamentation

    “Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’

    Here: A set form of song sung over the dead. Singing one over a king who is still alive and ruling announces that he is already as good as dead.

  9. Ezekiel 32:16 קִינָ֥ה [is] a lamentation

    This is the lament they will chant for her; the daughters of the nations will chant it. Over Egypt and all her multitudes they will chant it, declares the Lord GOD.”

Amos · 2

  1. Amos 5:1 קִינָ֖ה a lamentation

    Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

    Here: A formal funeral song for someone who has died. It names the kind of song that follows in verse 2, and it treats living, prosperous Israel as already dead.

  2. Amos 8:10 לְקִינָ֔ה into lamentation

    I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

    Here: 'Into a dirge': a set funeral song, sung over a corpse with a limping rhythm. Amos already sang one over Israel in 5:1–2. The same singers who sang festival songs will sing laments.

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