Carcass; Carcase

Carcass; Carcase kar'-kas: The dead body of a beast; used sometimes in a contemptuous way of the dead body of a human being. The use of the word as applied to a living body is not found in either Old Testament or New Testament.

(1) It occurs as a translation of the Hebrew pegher, in Ge 15:11; this Hebrew word is also translated "dead body" in Num 14:29, 1Sa 17:46, Isa 34:3, Isa 66:24, Eze 6:5, Eze 43:7, and "corpse" in Na 3:3.

(2) The Hebrew nebhelah, is also translated "carcass" in Lev 5:2, Lev 11:8, Lev 11:11, Jer 16:18, but as "dead body" in De 28:26 ("body," Jos 8:29, 1Ki 13:22, 1Ki 13:29, 2Ki 9:37); Isa 5:25, Jer 7:33, Jer 16:4, Jer 19:7.

(3) In Jud 14:8 the word mappelah, from naphal, "to incline" or "fall," is also translated "carcass."

(4) In Mt 24:28 the word "carcase" (not "carcass") is used to render the Greek ptoma, the reference probably being here to the dead body of an animal for the body of a human being the Greek is translated "corpse" (Mat 14:12, Mar 6:29, Mar 15:45), and "dead bodies" (Rev 11:8, Rev 11:9).

W. N. Stearns