A bone (as strong ); by extension, the body ; figuratively, the substance , i.e. (as pron.) selfsame
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The Hebrew noun etsem most often means bone or bones, but idioms can extend it toward bodily substance, kinship, or the very identity of a person. Genesis uses bone and flesh language for shared humanity and relationship.
Reader summary
Full entry for עֶצֶם (H6106) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun etsem most often means bone or bones, but idioms can extend it toward bodily substance, kinship, or the very identity of a person. Genesis uses bone and flesh language for shared humanity and relationship.
The BSB source-word alignment has 126 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the bones (17), my bones (16), bones (12), . . . (7), their bones (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (21), Psalms (15), Job (13), 2 Samuel (9).
The Hebrew noun etsem most often means bone or bones, but idioms can extend it toward bodily substance, kinship, or the very identity of a person. Genesis uses bone and flesh language for shared humanity and relationship. Joseph’s bones carry memory and covenant expectation across generations. Psalms and wisdom describe pain, fear, health, guilt, and joy through the body’s frame.
Prophets portray desecrated bones, communal devastation, and the dry bones of exiled Israel receiving life. The term is bodily language, not a code that makes every emotional or spiritual condition a skeletal diagnosis. Responsible teaching honors the unity and dignity of embodied persons, permits sufferers to describe pain without blame, and distinguishes poetry, kinship idiom, burial remains, and prophetic vision.
It supports medical care, trauma-informed ministry, respectful handling of remains, and resurrection hope without promising a cure or imitating extraordinary narratives.
Etsem ranges from literal bone and bodily frame to idioms of kinship and selfhood. Poetry locates suffering or vitality in the bones, burial narratives preserve remains, and Ezekiel’s dry bones vision represents devastated Israel restored by God.
And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”
The man’s bone and flesh language recognizes shared embodied kinship with the woman rather than a hierarchy of human value.
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.”
Moses carries Joseph’s bones from Egypt, honoring an oath and linking bodily remains with remembered covenant hope.
Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am frail; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are in agony.
The psalmist asks mercy and healing while describing bodily frailty and bones in agony within an urgent lament.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
The vision explicitly identifies the dry bones as the whole house of Israel speaking of lost hope and severance.
Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. And as soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet.
A dead man revives after touching Elisha’s bones in an extraordinary narrative that displays divine power without prescribing a ritual.
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. a bone (as strong ); by extension, the body ; figuratively, the substance , i.e. (as pron.) selfsame
a bone (as strong); by extension, the body; figuratively, the substance, i.e. (as pron.) selfsame BDB: bone Usage: body, bone, × life, (self-) same, strength, × very.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Etsem keeps biblical hope tied to embodied life. Genesis 2 uses bone and flesh to recognize shared humanity and close kinship, not to authorize contempt or domination. Joseph’s bones become a durable act of memory: Israel carries the remains of one who trusted God’s promised visitation. Psalm 6 prays from inside bodily agony, legitimizing direct speech about pain rather than treating it as embarrassment.
Ezekiel 37 interprets its own central image: the dry bones are exiled Israel saying that hope is gone, and God’s breath and word promise corporate restoration. Second Kings records an exceptional revival at Elisha’s bones, but the narrative does not teach a technique for handling remains. Churches should respect bodies in life and death, support people with chronic pain or disability, and reject claims that symptoms reveal hidden guilt.
They may proclaim resurrection and restoration while avoiding cure guarantees, relic commerce, dangerous imitation, or simplistic application of national vision to every personal loss. Embodied dignity calls for medicine, access, food, rest, protection, and reverent care.
Ezek.37.11
Etsem is a Hebrew noun for bone and can extend through idiom to bodily frame, substance, kinship, or self. Genre and constructions such as bone of my bones determine whether anatomy, relationship, suffering, remains, or symbol is primary.
The Gospels present Jesus as truly embodied, record His bodily death and resurrection, and note unbroken bones within Passover and psalmic patterns. The apostles proclaim resurrection of the body and describe the church as members joined in one body with mutual honor.