זֵ֫כֶר
ze.kher
memorial
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# זֵ֫כֶר (zeker): Memorial and Remembrance The Hebrew word *zeker* denotes a memorial or commemorative object—something created or designated to preserve memory of a person, event, or divine act. The term carries the primary sense of "memorial," indicating a concrete or symbolic reminder designed to keep something or someone in active remembrance. With 23 occurrences across the biblical text, the word appears with sufficient frequency to suggest it held meaningful importance in ancient Hebrew religious and cultural practice. The function of *zeker* centers on bridging past and present through tangible markers or practices. Rather than referring to memory as an internal mental state, the word designates the external, deliberate means by which communities maintain collective memory. This could encompass physical monuments, commemorative ceremonies, or named observances—all serving the practical purpose of ensuring that significant persons, events, or divine interventions would not be forgotten by subsequent generations. The relatively modest frequency of occurrences (23 instances) suggests that while the concept was meaningful, it represented a specific semantic category rather than a dominant theme in biblical literature. The word's presence indicates that ancient Hebrew speakers distinguished between memory itself and the intentional, formalized structures—memorials—through which communities preserved and transmitted their understanding of important historical and religious moments.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
23 total occurrences across the text
and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their offspring,
Job 18:17His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.
Psalms 6:5For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?
Psalms 9:6The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.
Psalms 30:4Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.
Psalms 34:16Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
Psalms 97:12Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.
Psalms 102:12But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations.
Psalms 109:15Let them be before Yahweh continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth;
Psalms 111:4He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and merciful.
Psalms 112:6For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever.
Psalms 135:13Your name, Yahweh, endures forever; your renown, Yahweh, throughout all generations.
Psalms 145:7They will utter the memory of your great goodness, and will sing of your righteousness.
Proverbs 10:7The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
Ecclesiastes 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.
Isaiah 26:8Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, we have waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.
Isaiah 26:14The dead shall not live. The departed spirits shall not rise. Therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.
Hosea 12:5even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is his name of renown!
Hosea 14:7Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.
Exodus 3:15God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.
Exodus 17:14Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.”
Deuteronomy 25:19Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
Deuteronomy 32:26I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;