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 Nu 14:29; 1Sa 17:46; Isa 34:3; 66:24; Eze 6:5; 43:7:Eze 9:1-11, and "corpse" in Na 3:3. (2) The Hebrew nebhelah, is also translated "carcass" in Le 5:2; 11:8,11; Jer 16:18, but as "dead body" in De 28:26 ("body," Jos 8:29; 1Ki 13:22,29; 2Ki 9:37); Isa 5:25; Jer 7:33; 16:4; 19:7. (3) In Jg 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" (Mt 14:12; Mr 6:29; 15:45), and "dead bodies" (Re 11:8-9).
W. N. Stearns