Properly, a valiant man or warrior ; generally, a person simply
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The Hebrew noun geber commonly refers to an adult man and often carries an overtone of strength, vigor, or capacity. In poetry and wisdom it may speak of a person facing mortality, receiving discipline, trusting God, or boasting in power.
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Full entry for גֶּבֶר (H1397) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun geber commonly refers to an adult man and often carries an overtone of strength, vigor, or capacity. In poetry and wisdom it may speak of a person facing mortality, receiving discipline, trusting God, or boasting in power.
The BSB source-word alignment has 66 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a man (9), of a man (6), man (5), like a man (4), . . . (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 10:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (15), Psalms (10), Jeremiah (9), Proverbs (8).
The Hebrew noun geber commonly refers to an adult man and often carries an overtone of strength, vigor, or capacity. In poetry and wisdom it may speak of a person facing mortality, receiving discipline, trusting God, or boasting in power. The term does not define masculinity by aggression, physical dominance, emotional silence, wealth, or public authority. Its emphasis shifts with the passage: Job is summoned to answer as a man, Jeremiah contrasts the man who trusts human strength with the man who trusts the Lord, and the Psalms bless the person whose confidence rests in God.
Faithful teaching recognizes the noun's male reference where present while refusing to make bodily strength the measure of courage, dignity, holiness, or fitness to lead.
Geber places an adult man or strong person before God as creature, worshiper, sufferer, worker, and moral agent. Scripture repeatedly redirects confidence from human vigor toward the covenant Lord.
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.
The cursed man trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, so the issue is misplaced confidence rather than maleness or physical ability itself.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.
The blessed man trusts in the Lord, contrasting covenant reliance with fleshly self-sufficiency within the same prophetic oracle.
Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me.
God tells Job to brace himself like a man and answer, summoning accountable creaturely speech without conceding equality with the Creator.
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. properly, a valiant man or warrior ; generally, a person simply
properly, a valiant man or warrior; generally, a person simply BDB: man Usage: every one, man, × mighty.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
גֶּבֶר 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.
Geber can sound like a word of strength, yet Scripture repeatedly places the strong man under limits he did not create. Jeremiah does not condemn muscle or male identity; he condemns reliance on flesh that turns the heart from the Lord. The corresponding blessing belongs to the man whose confidence rests in God. Job is called to answer like a man, but the summons exposes how small even vigorous human understanding is before the Creator's wisdom.
Psalms and wisdom literature likewise speak of the man who dies, suffers correction, receives ordered steps, or finds refuge in God. Churches should therefore teach men toward humble courage, repentance, tenderness, protection of the vulnerable, faithful work, prayer, and accountable service. Physical or social strength is a stewardship, never a license to dominate.
Men who are ill, disabled, poor, grieving, gentle, or dependent do not possess less dignity. In Christ, mature strength is cruciform and serves others in truth and love.
Jer.17.7
Geber is a masculine human noun often associated with adult vigor, but contextual uses can foreground mortality, responsibility, or trust. The lexical form does not supply a complete anthropology or a universal personality profile for men.
The New Testament locates human boasting, strength, and leadership under the cross of Christ. Jesus serves and gives His life, Paul boasts in weakness so Christ's power may rest upon him, and church leaders are measured by character, truth, and care rather than forceful self-display.