Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H1320
בָּשָׂר · bâsâr · appears 270 times in the Old Testament
In one line: The mortal stuff creatures are made of.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24
Basar is flesh — the physical stuff of living bodies, and a way of naming humanity precisely as creaturely and mortal.
Basar means meat, the body, and kinship — “my bone and my flesh” marks a relative. In phrases like “all flesh” it means every living creature, always with mortality in view: flesh is grass, and its glory fades.
Basar is an old Semitic noun whose sense begins in the physical — the flesh of an animal or a person, fresh rather than dried. Hebrew builds relationship vocabulary directly out of it, since shared flesh is shared family.
Basar carries none of the moral weight Paul later gives to Greek sarx; in Hebrew, flesh is simply what creatures are made of. It is a word about frailty rather than sinfulness — which is worth remembering when reading “the Word became flesh.”
Basar (H1320) appears 250 times in the Hebrew Bible, and Genesis 2:24 uses it for marriage — the two “become one flesh.”
Because flesh means creatureliness, the Bible's realism about human limits is built into its vocabulary: God “remembers that we are dust,” and flesh is the reason mercy is needed rather than the reason it is withheld. The incarnation then takes this word seriously rather than politely.
Accept a limit this week instead of overriding it — sleep, rest, or a task handed to someone else. Scripture treats creatureliness as a fact to live within rather than a flaw to defeat.
flesh (from its freshness); by extension, body, person; also (by euphemistically) the pudenda of aman
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.
Genesis 2:21“Put your hand back inside your cloak,” said the LORD. So Moses put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his skin.
Exodus 4:7But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, with its head and legs and its entrails and dung—
Leviticus 4:11This is what you must do to cleanse them: Sprinkle them with the water of purification. Have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.
Numbers 8:7For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived?
Deuteronomy 5:26So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread and an ephah of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and brought them out to present to Him under the oak.
Judges 6:19Press and hold flesh in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.