זוּר
to crush
‘to crush’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘become estranged ψ 58’
- Qal Passive
- An archaic passive of the Qal, preserved in a few forms.
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (33%)
- Verb, Qal Passive, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (33%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (33%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 3 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H2115 appears — 3 distinct verses across 3 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Judges 1 verse
Job 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, זור (zûwr) means “to crush.” A scarce word — 3 verses in all of the Hebrew Bible. The word gravitates to Judges (33%), then Job and Isaiah. First canonically at Judges 6:38, it enters the text early. The verb spans 3 stems, from Qal to Niphal. Dig into 3-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2115 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 3
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 3 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,179
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,179 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 3 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 3 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 67%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 33%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: May crush 1×, They have not been closed 1×, Thrust 1×
- American Standard Version†: May crush 1×, Pressed 1×, They have not been closed 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Cleansed 1×, He squeezed 1×, May crush them 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Been pressed out 1×, Might crush it 1×, Squeezed 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2115 across 4† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2115 across 4† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2115 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2115 across 4† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
11 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 11 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
זור I be a stranger (Arabic زَارَ (med. و incline toward, repair to, visit
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. זֹר֫וּ ψ 58:4 (Köi 445), זָ֫רוּ ψ 78:30 Jb 19:13; Pt. זָר Ex 30:33 + 27 times; f. זָרָה Ex 30:9 + 7 times; mpl. זָרִים Ho 5:7 + 30 times; fpl. זָרוֹת Pr 22:14; 23:33; sf. זָרָ֑יִךְ Is 29:5; e.g. Psalms 58:4
- 1. Pf. become estranged ψ 58:4, c. מן from Jb 19:13 ψ 78:30. e.g. Psalms 58:4
- 2. Pt. as adj. strange, or as noun stranger:
- a. to the family, of another household, אִישׁ זָר Dt 25:5, elsewhere זָר 1 K 3:18 Jb 19:15 Pr 6:1; 11:15; 20:16; 27:13; זָרִים ψ 109:11 Pr 5:10, 17; בנים זרים, children of another household than God’s Ho 5:7; especially of another family than priests’ אִישׁ זֶר Lv 22:12 (H) Nu 17:5 (P); זָר Lv 22:10, 13 (H) Ex 29:33; 30:33 Nu 3:10, 38; 18:7 (P); not belonging to the tribe of Levi, Nu 1:51; 18:4 (P). e.g. Deuteronomy 25:5
- b. to the person, another Jb 19:27 Pr 14:10; 27:2; זָרָה (אִשָּׁה) strange woman, harlot Pr 2:16; 5:3, 20; 7:5; 22:14; 23:33. e.g. Job 19:27
- c. to the land, foreign, זָרִים foreigners (as such usually enemies) Ho 7:9; 8:7 Is 1:7(×2); 25:2, 5; 29:5; 61:5 Je 5:19; 30:8; 51:2, 51 La 5:2 Ez 7:21; 11:9; 16:32; 28:7, 10; 30:12; 31:12 Jo 4:17 Ob 11 Jb 15:19 ψ 54:5; אֵל זָר foreign god ψ 44:21; 81:10 = זָר Is 43:12; so זָרִים Dt 32:16 and (in fig.) Je 2:25; 3:13; מַיִם זָרִים foreign waters 2 K 19:24 Je 18:14; זְמֹרַת זָר Is 17:10 vine-slip of a stranger; כְּמוֹ־זָר נֶחְשָׁ֑בוּ Ho 8:12 they are regarded as foreign; מַעֲשֵׂהוּ זָר Is 28:21 his work is foreign (as if dealing with enemies). e.g. Hosea 7:9
- d. strange to the law; קְטֹרֶת זָרָה strange incense Ex 30:9 (P); אֵשׁ זָרָה strange fire Lv 10:1 Nu 3:4; 26:61 (P). e.g. Exodus 30:9
Niphal
- Pf. נָזֹ֫רוּ Is 1:4 Ez 14:5; be estranged Is 1:4, pregn., sq. אָחוֹר (cf. RV); מֵעַל Ez 14:5. e.g. Isaiah 1:4
Hophal
- Pt. מוּזָר estranged ψ 69:9. e.g. Psalms 69:9
זור II be loathsome, Bö§ 1142 (Arabic ذَارَ fastidivit, abhorruit
Qal
- 3 fs. זָ֫רָה Jb 19:17 רוּחִי זָ֫רָה לְאִשְׁתִּי my breath is loathsome to my wife (וְחַנֹּתִי לְ in ‖ cl.); > most, who derive from i. זוּר, become strange and so repugnant. e.g. Job 19:17
זור III ess down and out (Aramaic זִיר press together, Syriac ܙܘܰܪ, ܙܳܪ compress
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. זֹ֫רוּ Is 1:6 (pass.; > √ זרר, Arabic زَرَّ draw forcibly together Ol§ 233c, 2451 Köi 333); Impf. 3 ms. וַיָּ֫וַר Ju 6:38, 3 fs. sf. תְּזוּרֶהָ Jb 39:15; Pt. pass. f. זוּרֶה (= זוּרָה Ges§ 80 i) Is 59:5;—press (twist or wring) out a fleece Ju 6:38; not pressed out, of sore (fig. of continued disaster) Is 1:6; press under foot an egg, Jb 39:15 (‖ דּוּשׁ), Is 59:5 (pass.) e.g. Isaiah 1:6
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. vb. be a stranger (Arabic زَارَ (med. و incline toward, repair to, visit; ii. honour as visitor or guest; ix. decline, turn aside; زَاىِٔرٌ visitor; Aramaic זוּר, often = Heb. סוּר turn aside, turn aside to visit)—
II. vb. be loathsome, Bö§ 1142 (Arabic ذَارَ fastidivit, abhorruit; Assyrian zâru, hate Impf. izîru, DlPr 65 SchrCOT Gloss)—only
III. vb. press down and out (Aramaic זִיר press together, Syriac ܙܘܰܪ, ܙܳܪ compress; cf. Arabic زَيَّرَ twist the lip of a beast)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from צוק (tsôwq) (H6695) — distress.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
זוּר I
- to go around, with מ־ or הימ־ to turn away, be estranged; to deviate. Yoma 72ᵇ זָרָה הימנו the Law departs from him (is forgotten); v. זָר. Midr. Till. to Ps. XC, 5 (play on ז̇ר̇מ̇ת̇ם̇, ib.) זָֹר̇וּ מ̇תו ות̇מ̇ו they deviated (from the Law) &c.; זרו מתורתיך וכ׳; Yalk. Ps. 841.
זוּר
- 1. (with מ־) to turn away. Targ. Num. XVI, 26 (h. text סור); a. e.
- 2. (with ל־) [to turn from the road to,] to enter as a guest, to lodge. Targ. Gen. XIX, 2, sq.; a. fr.
- to turn, roll.—Part. pass. מְזַוַּור. Bekh. 44ᵃ דמְזַוְּורָן עיניה Ar. (ed. דמְזַוֵּר עיניה, Rashi דמזורדן, read: דמזוורן) one whose eyes are rolled about (ed. who rolls his eyes); v. זִיּוֵּר.—2) זַיֵּיר (cmp. צוּר, זרר) to tie up, keep (as a pledge); to press. B. Mets. 16ᵇ אפשיטי … ז׳ ליה he keeps the document until the writer’s fee is paid. V. זַיָּירָא, מְזוֹרָה, זוּרְיָא &c.
זוּר II
- (preced. v. זֵיר) crown, wreath; (bot.) capsule. Tosef. Maasr. III, 14 כל שאין לו אלא ז׳ אחד המקיף וכ׳ (ed. Zuck. דֵּיר I) (a garlick plant) which has only one capsule of seeds crowning the stem; Y. ib. V, end, 52ᵃ חור (corr. acc.).
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 3 distinct written forms H2115 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַ/יָּ֖זַר | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Judges 6:38 | 1 |
| זֹ֨רוּ֙ | Verb, Qal Passive, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Isaiah 1:6 | 1 |
| תְּזוּרֶ֑/הָ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Job 39:15 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2115, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 3 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 3 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
