יָצַר
to bind
also: be distressed, be in distress, be cramped, be narrow 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”).
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘suffer distress’
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- 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 3 times (30%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (20%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (20%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (10%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 10 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3334 appears — 10 distinct verses across 8 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Judges 2 verses
- Judges 2:15 וַ/יֵּ֥צֶר conj + Qal wimpf 3ms Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed.
- Judges 10:9 וַ/תֵּ֥צֶר conj + Qal wimpf 3fs The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.
1 Samuel 1 verse
2 Samuel 1 verse
Nehemiah 1 verse
Job 2 verses
Proverbs 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.
“to bind” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb יצר (yâtsar). Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 32:7. It turns up in 10 verses across 8 books, an uncommon footprint. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Pual. It clusters with יצר under a shared root. See the sense tree, 10-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3334 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 →
- 10
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 10 distinct verses.
- 8 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 8 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,342
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,342 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 10 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 10 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 5 verses · 50%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 4 verses · 40%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 10%
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 4 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†: Distressed 4×
- American Standard Version†: Distressed 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Distress 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Narrowed 3×, Narrow 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3334 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H3334 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 H3334 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H3334 across 13† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
9 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 Pual (the passive of Piel).
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 9 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.
יצר I bind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, cramped (NH id.
- A. trans.:
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. צָרַר Ho 4:19; Pr 30:4; Imv. צוֹר Is 8:16; Inf. cstr. צְרוֹר Pr 26:8 (?); Pt. act. צֹרֵר Jb 26:8; pass. צָרוּר Ho 13:12, f. צְרוּרָה 1 S 25:29; fpl. צְרֻרֹת Ex 12:34; 2 S 20:3;—bind or tie up, of kneading-troughs Ex 12:34 (E); fig. of a life preserved by י׳, נֶפֶשׁ צְרוּרָה בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים 1 S 25:29; of preserving prophetic teaching Is 8:16; of retention of guilt Ho 13:12; of י׳’s binding waters in (a garment of) cloud Pr 30:4 Jb 26:8; = shut up 2 S 20:3;—צָרַר רוּחַ אֹתָהּ בִּכְנָפֶיהָ Ho 4:19 (si vera l.) pregn., the wind hath wrapped her up in its wings, to carry her off; כִּצְרוֹר אֶבֶן Pr 26:8 like the tying up of a stone, but unintellig. in context (v. Toy). e.g. Hosea 4:19
Pual
- Pt. pl. מְצֹרָרִים Jos 9:4 tied up (mended by tying), of old wine-skins. e.g. Joshua 9:4
- B. intrans.:
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. צָ֫רָה Is 28:20; Impf. 3 ms. יֵצַר Pr 4:12, יֵ֫צֶר לוֹ Jb 20:22, וַיֵּ֫צֶר Gn 32:8 +, 2 fs. תֵּצְרִי Is 49:19;—be scant, cramped; of scanty bed-covering Is 28:20 (in fig.); of land too small for (מִן) its people Is 49:19 + Jos 19:47 (for וַיֵּצֵא) DrExpos. Jan. 1887, 59 Benn, cf. 𝔊; of steps = be cramped, or impeded, Pr 4:12; Jb 18:7 (both in fig.); especially impers. c. ל pers., וַיֵּצֶר לוֹ Gn 32:8 and it was narrow for him = he was in straits, distress, so Ju 2:15; 2 S 13:2; Jb 20:22, also 3 fs. וַתֵּ֫צֶר לְ Ju 10:9; 1 S 30:6 (v. Dr).* e.g. Isaiah 28:20
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. וְהֵצַר Dt 28:52, 52 consec.; 1 s. וַהֲצֵרֹתִי Je 10:18; Zp 1:17; Impf. 3 ms. יָצַר־לוֹ 1 K 8:37 = 2 Ch 6:28, וַיָּ֫צַר 2 Ch 28:20; 3 mpl. וַיָּצֵרוּ Ne 9:27; Inf. cstr. הָצֵר 2 Ch 28:22; 33:12;—make narrow for, press hard upon, cause distress to, c. ל pers., Je 10:18 (subj. י׳), Zp 1:17 (subj. id.); Dt 28:52(×2); 1 K 8:37 = 2 Ch 6:28; Ne 9:27 (all subj. foe), 2 Ch 28:20 (subj. TP); Indef. subj. 2 Ch 28:22 (but read כִּי אִם לִצָרָה לוֹ, and join to v 21, opp. לְעֶזְרָה לוֹ, 𝔊 Kit BuhlLex), 33:12. e.g. Deuteronomy 28:52
יצר II denom.
Hiphil
- suffer distress (specif. of travail, cf. Je 4:31; 49:24);—Pt. לֵב אִשָּׁה מְצֵרָה (in sim.) Je 48:41; 49:22. e.g. Jeremiah 4:31
יצר III shew hostility toward, vex (NH צַר foe
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. וְצָֽרֲרוּ Nu 33:55 consec., sf. צְרָרוּנִי ψ 129:1, 2; Impf. 3 ms. יָצֹר Is 11:13; Inf. abs. צָרוֹר Nu 25:17; Pt. act. צֹרֵר 10:9, pl. sf. צֹרֲרַי ψ 31:12 +, etc.;—shew hostility toward, treat with enmity, vex, harass, c. acc. pers. Is 11:13; Nu 10:9; 25:17; once c. ל pers. v 18; also pt. as subst. (cstr. or c. sf.) vexer, harasser, Am 5:12; Is 11:13; Ex 23:22 (E), ψ 6:8; 7:5, 7; 8:3; 10:5; 23:5; 31:12; 42:11; 69:20; 74:4, 23; 143:12; Est 3:10; 8:1; 9:10, 24.—Lv 18:18 v. [צָרַר] sub ii. צָרָה, infr. e.g. Numbers 33:55
יצר IV denom. make a rival-wife
Qal
- Inf. cstr. לִצְרֹר Lv 18:18 to make [her] a rival-wife (LagGGN, 1882, 406 Dr-WhLv Baen Lv). e.g. Leviticus 18:18
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. bind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, cramped (NH id.; Arabic صَرَّ bind, tie up; so Aramaic צְרַר, ܨܰܪ );—
III. vb. shew hostility toward, vex (NH צַר foe; Arabic ضَرَّ harm, damage, Sab. צֿר war, foe MordtmHim. Inschr. 60. 71 SabDenkm 24 CIS iv. 174, 1. 6 HomChrest. 125; Ethiopic ፀረረ be hostile, in der. spec. and deriv.; Assyrian ṣarâru, be hostile, ṣarru, foe; Arabic ضَرَّةٌ, Assyrian ṣirritu, Syriac ܥܰܪܬܳܐ, all = rival-wife, so (? Heb. infl.) 𝔗 צָרָא 1 S 1:6; v. especially Lag Deceased Wife’s Sister, GGN, 1882, No. 13; = Mi. 125 ff. Dr 1 S 1:6);—
IV. vb. denom. make a rival-wife;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
יָצַר
- to turn, shape, form. Keth. 8ᵃ (marriage benediction) אשר י׳ את וכ׳ who hast formed man in thine image. Ber. 58ᵇ (prayer in a burial place) אשר י׳ אתכם וכ׳ who created you in justice &c.; a. fr.—Part. יוֹצֵר (as noun, v. יוֹצֵר). Ib. 11ᵇ (in the morning prayer) י׳ אור בורא וכ׳ who didst form light and create darkness.—יוֹצֵר אוֹר or יוֹצֵר name of one of the benedictions preceding the reading of the morning Sh’ma. Ib.; ib. 12ᵃ; a. fr.
- to be formed, created; to be fully developed. Gen. R. s. 9 קודם עד שלא נוֹצְרָה מחשבה וכ׳ ere yet a thought is formed in the heart of man &c. Ib. קודם … נ׳ יצור, v. יְצִיר. Ab. II, 8 לכך נוֹצָרְתָּ for that purpose (of studying) thou hast been created. Ib. IV, 22. Gen. R. s. 14, beg.; Y. Yeb. IV, 5ᵈ top נ׳ לשבעה if the embryo was fully developed at seven months, contrad. to נולד, v. יָלַד. Yoma 85ᵃ; Sot. 45ᵇ מהיכן הוולד נ׳ from where does the formation of the embryo start?; a. fr.—V. צוּר.
יְצַר
- Targ. Am. IV, 13 דִּיצַר (some ed. דְּצָר), v. צוּר
- to be created, formed. Yoma 85ᵃ; Sot. 45ᵇ ממציעתיה מִיתְּצַר the formation of the embryo starts from the central portion of the body.
יֵצֶר
- preced.) [shape, formation, whence] (v. Gen. VI, 5) = י׳ מחשבות the formation of thoughts, bent of mind, inclination, desire.—י׳ הטוב or י׳ טוב (abbr. יה"ט or י"ט) the good nature of man, the inclination to do good; (personified) the good genius; י׳ הרע (abbrev. יצה"ר), also only י׳ the evil inclination, worldly desires; (personified) the tempter. Ber. 61ᵃ מיִצְרִי, v. יוֹצֵר. Gen. R. s. 9; Koh. R. to III, 11 אילולי יצה"ר לא בנה וכ׳ but for the worldly desires of man, none would build a house &c. Ab. II, 11 עין הרע ויצה"ר וכ׳ greed, sensual passion and hatred &c. Snh. 103ᵃ; Yalk. Ps. 842 שלא ישלוט בך יצה"ר that temptation may have no power over thee. Succ. 52ᵃ … לעתיד מביאו ליצה"ר וכ׳ in the days to come the Lord shall bring the Tempter and slaughter him &c. Gen. R. s. 22 מפנק את יִצְרוֹ who indulges the senses. Ib. אם בא יִצְרְךָ להשחיקך when thy inclination (Tempter) comes to lead thee to amusement. Cant. R. to VII, 8 י׳ ע"ז the passion for idolatry, י׳ זנות the passion of lust. Ab. IV, 1 הכובש את יצרו who conquers his inclination; a. v. fr. [Yoma 69ᵇ כובש את יצרו, read with Ms. M. כעסו.]—Pl. יְצָרִים. Ber. 61ᵃ (ref. to וייצר, Gen. II, 7, v. יְצִירָה) שני י׳ וכ׳ two natures, the good and the evil. Cant. R. l. c. שני י׳ ברא וכ׳ two passions did God create in this world, v. supra. Snh. 105ᵃ יסרו יצריכם chasten your passions; Yalk. Is. 302.—[יְצָרִים moulds, v. יְצִירִין.] e.g. Genesis 6:5
יֵצֶר ²
- Targ. Gen. VI, 5. Targ. Ps. XIII, 5; a. fr.—Sabb. 156ᵇ אלמיה יִצְרֵיה, v. אֲלַם. Ḥag. 16ᵃ דמצי כייף ליה ליצריה when he can conquer his passion. Kidd. 81ᵇ; Keth. 51ᵇ יצר אלבשה, v. לְבַשׁ. Snh. 64ᵃ היינו י׳ דע"ז this (lion of fire) is the passion for (tempter to) idolatry. Ib. ניבעי רחמי אַיִּ׳ דעבירה let us pray against the sensual desire (the tempter to sexual indulgence); a. fr.
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 10 distinct written forms H3334 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3334, 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.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 10 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.
