יָבֵשׁ
dry
‘dry’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
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.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 5 times (56%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute 2 times (22%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (11%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 1 time (11%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 9 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3002 appears — 9 distinct verses across 5 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.
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 6:3 וִ/יבֵשִׁ֖ים conj + Adjective Adjective mp he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of fermented drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.
- Numbers 11:6 יְבֵשָׁ֖ה adj Adjective fs but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all save this manna to look on.
Job 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Ezekiel 4 verses
- Ezekiel 17:24 יָבֵ֑שׁ adj Adjective ms All the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish; I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.
- Ezekiel 20:47 יָבֵ֤שׁ adj Adjective ms and tell the forest of the South, Hear the word of Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby.
- Ezekiel 37:2 יְבֵשׁ֥וֹת adj Adjective fp He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, behold, they were very dry.
- Ezekiel 37:4 הַ/יְבֵשׁ֔וֹת ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fp Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh.
Nahum 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.
יבש (yâbêsh) is a Hebrew adjective most often rendered “dry.” Scripture first uses it in Numbers 6:3. Spanning 9 verses in 5 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel dominates its distribution — 4 of 9 verses. Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3002 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 →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,481
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,481 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 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 9 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 67%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 22%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 11%
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†: Dry 3×
- American Standard Version†: Dry 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Dry 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Dry 4×, Dried 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3002 across 9† 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3002 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 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 H3002 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 H3002 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
17 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 17 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.
יבש I be dry, dried up, withered (NH id. (rare), 𝔗 יְבֵישׁ, chiefly Pa. Ithp., Syriac ܢܺܒܶܫ
Qal
- Pf. 2 ms. יָבֵשׁ Jos 9:5 + 8 times; וְיָבֵשׁ consec. Is 19:5 + 4 times; 3 fs. יָֽבְשָׁה Gn 8:14; 3 pl. יָֽבְשׁוּ Je 23:10 + 2 times; יָבֵ֑שׁוּ 50:38 + 2 times; Impf. 3 ms. יִבַשׁ Is 19:7; יִיבָ֑שׁ Je 12:4 Jb 8:12; וַיִּיבַשׁ 1 K 17:7; וַיִּיבָ֑שׁ Jon 4:7; 3 fs. תִּיבַשׁ Ez 17:10; תִּיבָ֑שׁ v 10 + 3 times, etc.; Inf. cstr. (בִּ)יבשׁ Is 27:11; יְבשֶׁת Gn 8:7; abs. יָבוֹשׁ Zc 11:17; יָבשׁ Ez 17:10;— e.g. Joshua 9:5
- 1. be dry, dried up without moisture:
- a. of bread Jos 9:5, 12 (JE). e.g. Joshua 9:5
- b. of ground lacking rain Am 4:7, cf. Am 1:2 (of Carmel at utterance of י׳’s voice), Je 23:10. e.g. Amos 4:7
- c. of earth after the flood Gn 8:14 (P), cf. חָרֵב. e.g. Genesis 8:14
- d. of grass, herbage, trees and crops (already implied in b) = wither Is 15:6; 19:7; 27:11 Je 12:4 Jb 8:12 Jo 1:12 Jon 4:7; in sim. of shortness of life ψ 90:6; 102:12; 129:6, v. also Is 40:7, 8 (in these two ‖ נָבֵל); of heart under fig. of grass ψ 102:5; of Judah under fig. of vine Ez 17:9(×2), 10(×3), cf. 19:12; of princes under fig. of tree Is 40:24; of roots of Ephr. under fig. of tree Ho 9:16, so of roots of wicked Jb 18:16. e.g. Isaiah 15:6
- e. of hand, arm, dry up, wither, as judgment from י׳, 1 K 13:4 Zc 11:17(×2); in distress יָבֵשׁ כַּחֶרֶשׁ כֹּחִי ψ 22:16 my strength is dried up like the potsherd; of skin La 4:8, and (fig.) of bones Ez 37:11. e.g. 1 Kings 13:4
- 2. be dried up: of water Gn 8:7 (J), Is 19:5 1 K 17:7 Je 50:38 Jo 1:20 Jb 12:15; 14:11. e.g. Genesis 8:7
Piel
- make dry, dry up, only Impf. 3 ms. sf. וַיַּבְּשֵׁהוּ Na 1:4 and hath made it dry (י׳, the sea); 3 fs. תְּיַבֵּשׁ Jb 15:30 the flame shall dry up his branches (fig. of wicked); fig. תְּיַבֶּשׁ־נָּ֑רֶם Pr 17:22 a broken spirit maketh dry (the) bones. e.g. Nahum 1:4
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. הוֹבִישׁ Jos 2:10 + 3 times + Jo 1:10 (v. infr.); חֹבִישׁ Ez 19:12 + 2 times Jo (v. infr.); 3 fs. הוֹבִישָׁה Jo 1:12 (v. infr.); 2 ms. הוֹבַשְׁתָּ ψ 74:15; 1 s. הוֹבַשְׁתִּי Ez 17:24; וְהוֹבַשְׁתִּ֫י Je 51:36; 3 pl. וְהֹבִישׁוּ consec. Zc 10:11; Impf. 1 s. אוֹבִישׁ Is 42:15(×2); 44:27;—dry up, make dry: e.g. Joshua 2:10
- 1. dry up water, י׳ subj., Jos 2:10; 4:23(×2); 5:1 (all D), Je 51:36 (‖ הֶחֱרִיב), Is 42:15; 44:27 (חֳרָבִי in ‖ cl.), ψ 74:15. e.g. Joshua 2:10
- 2. make dry, wither: herbage, trees, crops, etc., of י׳, Is 42:15 (‖ החריב); obj. Babylon under fig. of tree Ez 17:24; of east wind’s drying up Judah’s fruit Ez 19:12. e.g. Isaiah 42:15
- 3. exhibit dryness: of river-deeps laid bare Zc 10:11.—In like manner might be taken Jo 1:10, 12(×2), 17, if from יבשׁ; but the sense would be difficult, especially in v 10, 12, and הֹבִישׁוּ v 11 must be from בּוֹשׁ, to which all these cases in Jo may be consistently assigned; v. בּוֹשׁ. e.g. Zechariah 10:11
יבש II verb. or pt. dry, dried, so, ms. abs. Na 1
- 1. dried, lit. only עֲנָבִים יְבֵשִׁים Nu 6:3 dried grapes (P; opp. ע׳ לַחִים); fig. נַפְשֵׁנוּ יְבֵשָׁה 11:6 (JE) our soul (i.e. our appetite) is dried up, viz. for want of fresh, juicy meat. e.g. Numbers 6:3
- 2. dry, of chaff, קַשׁ Na 1:10 in sim. of Ninevites under impending judgment; cf. in fig. of Job, Jb 13:25; of tree Ez 17:24 (fig. of Davidic house; opp. עֵץ לָ֑ה), 21:3 (in prediction of Judah’s devastation by Babylon, opp. id.); Is 56:3 fig. of eunuch; of the bones in Ezek.’s vision Ez 37:2, 4. e.g. Nahum 1:10
יבש III loc. et pers.
- 1. n.pr.loc. יָבֵשׁ גִּלְעָד Jabesh of Gilead, 𝔊 Ιαβ(ε)ις Γαλααδ, exact site uknown, Ju 21:8, 9, 10, 12, 14 2 S 21:12; 1 Ch 10:11 (𝔊L Ιαβις τῆς Γαλααδ); יָבֵישׁ גִּלְעָד 1 S 11:1, 9; 31:11 2 S 2:4, 5 (in these three 𝔊L Ιαβις τῆς Γαλαατίδιτος); יָבֵישׁ 1 S 11:1, 3, 5, 9, 10; יָבֵשׁ 1 Ch 10:12; יָבֵ֑ישָׁה v 12; ‖ יָבֵ֫שָׁה 1 S 31:12, 13. e.g. Judges 21:8
- 2. n.pr.m. יָבֵשׁ father of Shallum 2 K 15:10, 13, 14. e.g. 2 Kings 15:10
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 dry, dried up, withered (NH id. (rare), 𝔗 יְבֵישׁ, chiefly Pa. Ithp., Syriac ܢܺܒܶܫ; Sab. Palm. deriv.; Arabic يَبِسَ; Ethiopic የብሰ )—
II. adj.verb. or pt. dry, dried, so, ms. abs. Na 1:10 + 4 times; fs. יְבֵשָׁה Nu 11:6; mpl. (וִ)יבֵשִׁים Nu 6:3; fpl. יְבֵשׁוֹת Ez 37:2, 4;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from יבש (yâbêsh) (H3001) — to dry up.
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.
יָבֵשׁ I
- parched, dry, withered, opp. לח moist, green. Dem. II, 3 לח וי׳ fresh or dried fruits. Ib. 5 בי׳ שלשת קבין wholesale dealing in dried fruits means three Kab. Y. ib. II, end, 23ᵃ נתנו שיעור לי׳ for dried fruit they make quantity the standard; a. fr.—Pl. יְבֵשִׁים, יְבֵשִׁין; יְבֵי׳. Sabb. IV, 1. Pes. II, 6; a. fr.—Fem. יְבֵשָׁה, יְבֵי׳. Ukts. I, 2; a. fr.—Tosef. Ter. VII, 16 נעשית י׳ the date became dry (so as to be called יְבֵּישָׁה).—Pl. יְבֵשׁוֹת, יְבֵי׳. T’bul Yom III, 6 תמרים י׳, opp. רטובות; a. fr.
יָבֵשׁ
- Targ. Josh. IX, 5; 12. Targ. Job. XIII, 25 (ed. Wil. יְבֵשׁ); a. e.—Pl. יְבֵשִׁין, יְבֵשַׁיָּא, יְבֵי׳. Targ. Ez. XXXVII, 2; 4.—Fem. יְבֶשְׁתָּא, יְבֶישְׁ׳. Gitt. 69ᵇ. Bets. 33ᵃ; a. e.—[V. יַבַּשְׁתָּא.]
יָבֵשׁ II
- preced.) to be dry, to wither. Bets. 26ᵇ מוקצה שי׳ stored fruits (v. מוקצה) which were dry (on Friday), though the owner did not find it out until the Sabbath day; Y. ib. I, beg. 60ᵃ
- to dry up. Gen. R. s. 33 עתיד … וליַיבֵּשׁ וכ׳ in the future a righteous man (Elijah) will come and lay the world dry (through want of rain).
יְבֵשׁ
- Targ. O. Gen. VIII, 14 יְבֵישַׁת ed. Berl. (oth. ed. יַבִּישַׁת).—Y. Taan. III, 66ᵈ יַבְשַׁת ידיה his hand withered. Gitt. 69ᵇ כי היכי דיביש הדא ידא וכ׳ (read דיְבִישַׁת) as this hand (of the dead man) is withered, so may the milt of … dry (shrink to its normal size); a. e.
- to dry. Targ. Josh. II, 10.—Targ. Prov. XVII, 22; a. e.—Gitt. l. c. ונְיַיבְּשִׁינְהוּ בטולא and let him dry them (the leeches) in the shade; a. e.
- to be dried up, withered. Targ. Ps. CII, 5 Ms. (missing in ed.). Targ. Y. Gen. VIII, 14; a. e.—Targ. Job XXXVIII, 11 Ms. (ed. תשוי).—Gitt. l. c. נִיַּיבֵּשׁ ההיא טוחלא, v. supra.
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 H3002 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַ/יְבֵשׁ֔וֹת | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 37:4 | 1 |
| וִ/יבֵשִׁ֖ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Numbers 6:3 | 1 |
| יְבֵשׁ֥וֹת | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 37:2 | 1 |
| יְבֵשָׁ֖ה | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Numbers 11:6 | 1 |
| יָבֵ֑שׁ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezekiel 17:24 | 1 |
| יָבֵ֖שׁ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Nahum 1:10 | 1 |
| יָבֵ֣שׁ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 13:25 | 1 |
| יָבֵ֤שׁ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezekiel 20:47 | 1 |
| יָבֵֽשׁ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 56:3 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3002, 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
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 → 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 8 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 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.
