חָסֵר
needy
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘lack’
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H2638 appears in the Book of 1 Samuel — 1 distinct verse. 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.
1 Samuel
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.
חסר (châçêr) is a Hebrew adjective most often rendered “needy.” It clusters heavily in Proverbs, which alone accounts for 68% of its uses. It turns up in 19 verses across 5 books, an uncommon footprint. It first appears in 1 Samuel 21:15. From the same root come חסר, חסיר and חסר. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2638 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 →
- 19
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 19 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,563
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,563 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 19 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Proverbs 13 verses 68%
- 1 Kings 2 verses 11%
- Ecclesiastes 2 verses 11%
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 19 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 15 verses · 79%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 21%
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 2 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†: Void 3×
- American Standard Version†: Is void 4×, Void 3×, Hither 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Lacks 7×, Lacking 3×, Lack 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Lacking of 7×, Lacking 4×, Is lacking of 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2638 across 19† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2638 across 19† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2638 across 18† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2638 across 23† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 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.
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 8 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.
חסר I lack, need, be lacking, decrease (v. Lag BN 143
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. ח׳ 1 K 17:16; 2 ms. חָסַרְתָּ Dt 2:7; 3 pl. חָסֵ֑רוּ Ne 9:21; 1 pl. חָסַרְנוּ Je 44:18; Impf. יֶחְסַר Dt 15:8 + 2 times; יֶחְסָ֑ר Pr 31:11 Ec 9:8; 3 fs. תֶּחְסָ֑ר 1 K 17:14; Pr 13:25; 2 ms. תֶּחְסַר Dt 8:9; 1 s. אֶחְסָ֑ר ψ 23:1; pl. יַחְסְרוּ ψ 34:11; Ez 4:17; וַיַּחְסְרוּ Gn 8:3; יַחְסְרוּן Gn 18:28; Inf. cstr. חֲסַר Pr 10:21 Ew § 238 a, cf. Ges §45. 1 a; abs. חָסוֹר Gn 8:5; Pt. חָסֵר 1 K 11:22; Ec 10:3 (v. חָסֵר infr.);— e.g. 1 Kings 17:16
- 1. lack:
- a. c. acc. Gn 18:28 (J) perchance the fifty righteous lack five, Dt 2:7 thou hast not lacked anything, 8:9; Je 44:18; 1 K 11:22; Ez 4:17 ψ 34:11; Pr 31:11, cf. also בַּחֲסַר־לֵב Pr 10:21 by lacking intelligence (sense), (Di puts here Dt 15:8 v. infr.) e.g. Genesis 18:28
- b. abs. be in want, want ψ 23:1; Pr 13:25; Ne 9:21. e.g. Psalms 23:1
- 2. be lacking, מַחְסֹרוֹ אֲשֶׁר יֶח׳ לוֹ Dt 15:8 his lack (i.e. thing needed), which is lacking to him (possible also is, which he lacks for himself, so Di, v. supr.); שֶׁמֶן עַל־רֹאְשְׁךָ אַל־יֶח׳ Ec 9:8 oil on thy head let it not be lacking; v. also abs. Is 51:14; Ct 7:3, and לִבּוֹ חָסֵר Ec 10:3 his sense is lacking; of jar of oil 1 K 17:14, 16 (abs.) by meton. for the oil itself (cf. ‖ כלה be consumed, exhausted). e.g. Deuteronomy 15:8
- 3. diminish, decrease, of waters Gn 8:3 (P), cf. הָלוֹךְ וְחָסוֹר v 5 (P), waters continually diminished (v. הלך supr. p. 233b). e.g. Genesis 8:3
Piel
- cause to lack, c. acc. pers., Impf. 2 ms. sf. וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוּ מעט מֵאֱלהים ψ 8:6 and thou didst make him lack little of God; Pt. וּמְחַסֵּר את־נפשׁי מִטּוֹבָה Ec 4:8 for whom am I labouring and depriving myself of good things? e.g. Psalms 8:6
Hiphil
- Pf. הֶחֱסִיר Ex 16:18; Impf. יַחְסִיר Is 32:6;—cause to be lacking, fail, c. acc. rei מַשְׁקֵה צָמֵא יַח׳ Is 32:6; the drink of the thirsty he causeth to fail (‖ לְהָרִיק נפשׁ רָעֵב); abs. Ex 16:18 (P), he that gathered little caused no lack. e.g. Exodus 16:18
חסר II eedy, lacking, in want of
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. lack, need, be lacking, decrease (v. Lag BN 143; NH חִסֵּר cause to lack or fail, diminish (act.), and deriv.; Aramaic חֲסַר, ܚܣܰܪ, want, lack, and deriv., cf. Ph. מחסר, v. מחסור infr.; Arabic حَسَرَ remove, strip off; disappear, retire (of water), fail (of sight), etc.; perhaps also Ethiopic ኀስረ: be inferior, worthless, diminished Di 590 and deriv.)—
II. adj. needy, lacking, in want of—ח׳ abs. Ec 6:2; cstr. חֲסַר 1 S 21:16 + 13 times;—needy, in want of ח׳ משׁגעים אני 1 S 21:16 am I in want of madmen? 2 S 3:29 in need of bread, so Pr 12:9; usually חֲסַר־לֵב lacking understanding, sense Pr 6:32; 7:7; 9:4, 16; 10:13; 11:12; 12:11; 15:21; אָדָם ח׳־לֵב Pr 17:18; 24:30; נָּגִיד ח׳ תְּבוּנוֹת Pr 28:16; אֵינֶנּוּ חָסֵר לְנַפְשׁוֹ מִכֹּל וג׳ Ec 6:2 neither is he lacking for his soul in aught of (מן part.) all that he desireth.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חסר (châçêr) (H2637) — to lack.
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.
חָסַר
- [to scrape off,] to diminish, take off; to be diminished, less; to want, miss; to be imperfect. Snh. 68ᵃ ולא חָסַרְתִּי מרבותי וכ׳ yet I skimmed of the knowledge of my teachers no more than a dog takes who licks out of the sea. Ib. ולא חֲסָרוּנִי וכ׳ they skimmed of my knowledge &c.; Cant. R. to I, 3 לא חֲסַרְתִּיהָ וכ׳ what wisdom I skimmed of the Law, was no more than &c., v. זַכְרוּת. Ib. רבותי חֲסָרוּהָ וכ׳ my teachers carried off at least a real smattering of it &c. B. Kam. 20ᵃ bot. מאי חֲסַרְתִּיךָ what loss have I occasioned to thee?—Ib.ᵇ, a. fr. זה נהנה … חָסֵר the one profits while the other loses nothing (therefore can claim no damages). Lev. R. s. 1 מה חָסַרְתָּ, v. דֵּעָה. Men. 30ᵃ, a. e. is it possible ס"ת ח׳ אות וכ׳ that the Book of the Law wanted one letter yet (to be written) &c.?—Pesik. R. s. 3 (ref. to מתה עלי, Gen. XLVIII, 7) שחֲסרְתִּיהָ for I miss her; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 48:7
- to lessen, omit; to deprive. Ker. 6ᵃ חי׳ אחת וכ׳ if he left out one of its ingredients. Erub. 13ᵃ שמא אתה מְחַסֵּר וכ׳ for if thou omit one letter. Koh. R. to I, 15 (ref. to חסרון, ib.) משאדם מְחַ׳ עצמו וכ׳ as soon as a man deprives himself of the words of the Law (neglecting them); ib. מַחֲסִיר (Hif.). Y. Snh. XI, beg. 30ᵃ אפי׳ לא חי׳ even if on inflicting an injury (v. חַבּוּרָה) he did not create a diminution (open wound); a. fr.—Part. pass. מְחוּסָּר, constr. מְחוּסַּר wanting, requiring. R. Hash. 6ᵃ מח׳ זמן wanting time, i.e. too young for sacrifice. Ker. II, 1 מח׳ כפרה requires a ceremony of atonement (before he may partake of a sacred meal). Gen. R. s. 32, a. e. מח׳ אמנה, v. אֲמָנָה I. Ḥull. 25ᵃ, v. חֲטִיטָה.—Y. B. Mets. V, 10ᶜ bot. מח׳ מעשה אחד wanting one action to be available; a. fr.—Pl. constr. מְחוּסְּרֵי. Ker. l. c. ארבעה מ׳ וכ׳ there are four persons requiring a ceremony of atonement before being permitted &c., v. supra; a. fr.
- same, v. supra.
חֲסַר
- Targ. Y. Ex. XVI, 18 (O. ed. Berl. חַסָּר, oth. ed. חֲסַר, חַסִּיר) had less. Targ. Deut. II, 7; a. fr.—Nidd. 68ᵃ חַסְרַת, v. דּוּדָא; a. e.
- 1. same, v. supra.—2)
- to lessen, deprive, reduce. Targ. Ps. VIII, 6. Targ. Koh. IV, 8; a. fr.—Snh. 22ᵃ חַסְּרֵיה וכ׳ v. גַּנָּבָא; a. e.—Part. pass. מְחַסַּר (v. preced. Pi.) wanting. Targ. Y. Num. XI, 32.—Bets. 24ᵃ; Bekh. 39ᵃ, a. fr. חַסּוּרֵי מְחַסְּרָא (or מִיחַסְּרָא Ithpa.) the relation is defective (a clause has been omitted).
חָסֵר II
- 1. wanting, defective; less. Sabb. VII, 2 ארבעים ח׳ אחת forty (labors) less one. B. Bath. VII, 2, v. הֵן. Ib. 89ᵇ מדה ח׳ וכ׳ a measure too small or too large. Tosef. Taan. I, 2 אם … השנה ח׳ if the year had a deficiency of rain; Y. ib. I, 64ᵇ; a. fr.—Pl. חֲסֵירִים, … רִין; חֲסֵירוֹת. Macc. 23ᵃ חֲסֵירֵי כח of feeble physics; a. fr.—Esp. a) (calendar) חָסֵר a defective month (of 29 days), opp. מלא of thirty days. B. Mets. 59ᵇ ואיחליף מלא לח׳ … and he made a mistake between a full and a defective month (thought it was the thirtieth day of the preceding month). R. Hash. 19ᵇ; a. fr.—Pl. as ab. Ib.— b) (orthogr.) a defective writing, omission of the vowel letter, opp. מלא (plene), e. g. חֹדֶשׁ, plene חוֹדֶשׁ.—Pl. f. חֲסֵירוֹת. Erub. 13ᵃ; Kidd. 30ᵃ ח׳ ויתרות the rules concerning defective and plene; a. fr.
- 2. creating a defect. Ḥag. 3ᵇ (ref. to Koh. XII, 11) אי מה … ח׳ וכ׳ you might think, as the nail (driven in) creates a hole and not an addition, אף ד"ת חֲסֵירִין וכ׳ so do the words of the Law &c.; Yalk. Koh. 989 end אף ד"ת מְחַסְּרִין וכ׳. e.g. Ecclesiastes 12:11
חָסֵר
- Targ. I Kings XI, 22. Targ. I Sam. XXI, 16; a. fr.—Targ. II Esth. III, 8 חד ח׳ one month is defective (of 29 days).—Pl. חֲסֵרִין, חֲסֵי׳. Targ. Prov. XXVII, 12 (ed. Wil. חַסְרִין, v. חֲסַר).—Targ. II Esth. l. c. (ed. Lag. חֲסוֹרִין) starving
*חֶסֶר
- (preced.) diminution. Keth. 66ᵇ, v. מֶלַח.
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 9 distinct written forms H2638 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| חֲסַר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Proverbs 6:32 | 8 |
| וַ/חֲסַר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct | 2 Samuel 3:29 | 3 |
| חָסֵ֑ר | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ecclesiastes 10:3 | 2 |
| בַּ/חֲסַר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Proverbs 10:21 | 1 |
| חֲסַ֣ר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Proverbs 28:16 | 1 |
| חֲסַ֤ר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct | 1 Samuel 21:15 | 1 |
| חָסֵ֥ר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 6:2 | 1 |
| חָסֵר֙ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Kings 11:22 | 1 |
| לַ/חֲסַר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 15:21 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2638, 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
Shares the same root
- חסיר chaççîyr H2627 lacking
- חסר cheçer H2639 poverty
- חסר chôçer H2640 want
- חסרון cheçrôwn H2642 deficiency
- מחסור machçôwr H4270 need
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 19 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 19 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.
