עֶ֫צֶם
e.tsem
bone
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# עֶצֶם (E.tsem): Bone in Biblical Hebrew The Hebrew word *e.tsem* literally denotes "bone," the hard skeletal material of bodies. With 105 occurrences throughout the biblical text, it represents a frequently used anatomical term in Hebrew Scripture. The consistency of this high usage frequency suggests that bones held concrete importance in biblical discourse—whether describing physical anatomy, discussing remains, or employing skeletal imagery in metaphorical contexts. The word's prevalence across 105 biblical passages indicates its functional necessity in Hebrew expression. Rather than appearing as an obscure or specialized term, *e.tsem* served as the standard vocabulary for referring to bones in everyday communication as well as in theological and narrative contexts. This frequency pattern reflects how fundamental the concept of skeletal structure was to biblical writers when describing bodies, mortality, covenant ceremonies, and physical restoration. Without access to the specific contextual examples within those 105 occurrences, the data confirms only that *e.tsem* maintained a consistent meaning—"bone"—across its diverse biblical applications. The word's reliability as a basic anatomical reference point made it suitable for literal descriptions, symbolic language, and religious practice throughout Hebrew Scripture.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
105 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
Job 2:5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
Job 4:14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
Job 7:15so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
Job 10:11You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Job 20:11His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
Job 21:23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
Job 21:24His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
Job 30:17In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
Job 33:19He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones,
Job 33:21His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.
Job 40:18His bones are like tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron.
Psalms 6:2Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
Psalms 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.
Psalms 31:10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
Psalms 32:3When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Psalms 34:20He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.
Psalms 35:10All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”
Psalms 38:3There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
Psalms 42:10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Psalms 51:8Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
Psalms 53:5There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
Psalms 102:3For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
Psalms 102:5By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
Psalms 109:18He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.
Psalms 141:7“As when one plows and breaks up the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.”
Proverbs 3:8It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
Proverbs 12:4A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones.
Proverbs 14:30The life of the body is a heart at peace, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 15:30The light of the eyes rejoices the heart. Good news gives health to the bones.
Ecclesiastes 11:5As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.
Isaiah 38:13I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
Isaiah 58:11and Yahweh will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.
Isaiah 66:14You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones will flourish like the tender grass. Yahweh’s hand will be known among his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies.
Jeremiah 8:1“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jeremiah 8:1“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jeremiah 8:1“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jeremiah 8:1“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jeremiah 8:1“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jeremiah 20:9If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t.
Jeremiah 23:9Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.
Joshua 24:32They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
Lamentations 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
Lamentations 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
Lamentations 4:8Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.
Ezekiel 6:5I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars.
Ezekiel 24:4Gather its pieces into it, even every good piece: the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones.
Ezekiel 24:5Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the cauldron. Make it boil well. Yes, let its bones be boiled within it.”