נָצַל
to rescue
‘to rescue’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Hiphil verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘take away’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘reflex. tear oneself away’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘strip off’
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
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).
1 verse where H5337 appears in the Hiphil stem in the Book of Zechariah. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Zechariah
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 rescue” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb נצל (nâtsal). The verb spans 5 stems, from Niphal to Piel. With 194 verses in 27 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. First canonically at Genesis 31:9, it enters the text early. It clusters with הצלה and נצל under a shared root. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5337 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 →
- 194
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 194 distinct verses.
- 27 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #225
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 225 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 194 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 194 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 99 verses · 51%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 72 verses · 37%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 23 verses · 12%
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).
- King James Version: Deliver 53×, Delivered 18×, Shall deliver 6×
- American Standard Version: Deliver 44×, Delivered 14×, I will deliver 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Deliver 25×, Deliver me 13×, Rescue 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Deliver 24×, Deliver me 12×, Rescue 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5337 across 213 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 74 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 H5337 across 211 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 78 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 H5337 across 207 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 62 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 6 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5337 across 236 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 82 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
15 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) and Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
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 15 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.
Niphal
- Pf. 1 pl. נִצַּלְנוּ Je 7:10; Impf. יִנָּצֵל Dt 23:16, + 1 s. אִנָּֽצְלָה ψ 69:15, + 8 times Impf.; Inf. הִנָּצֵל Is 20:6 + 3 times— e.g. Jeremiah 7:10
- 1. reflex. tear oneself away, deliver oneself: abs. Pr 6:3; Ez 14:16, 18; 2 K 19:11 = Is 37:11; c. מִיַּד Pr 6:5; מֵעִם … אֶל escape from—unto Dt 23:16. e.g. Proverbs 6:3
- 2. passive, be torn out or away מִפִּי הָאֲרִי Am 3:12; be delivered, abs. Gn 32:31 Je 7:10 ψ 33:16 Mi 4:10; מִפְּנֵי Is 20:6; מִכַּף Hb 2:9; מִן ψ 69:15. e.g. Amos 3:12
Piel
- Pf. 2 mpl. נִצַּלְתֶּם Ex 3:22; Impf. יְנַצֵּל Ez 14:14 + 2 times;— e.g. Exodus 3:22
- 1. strip off, spoil, abs. 2 Ch 20:25; c. acc. pers. Ex 3:22; 12:36 (J). e.g. 2 Chronicles 20:25
- 2. deliver, c. acc. נַפְשָׁם Ez 14:14. e.g. Ezekiel 14:14
Hiphil
- Pf. הִצִּיל Ex 12:27; 2 ms. הִצַּ֫לֳתָּ Ex 5:23 + 50 times Pf.; Impf. יַצִּיל 2 K 17:39; יַצֵּל Gn 31:9; + 63 times Impf.; Imv. הַצֵּל Pr 24:11; הַצִּ֫ילָה ψ 22:21; sf. הַצִּילֵנִי Gn 32:12 + 24 times Imv.; Inf. abs. הַצֵּל 2 K 18:30 + 4 times; cstr. הַצִּיל Gn 37:22 + 23 times Inf.; Pt. מַצִּיל Dt 32:39 + 16 times Pt.— e.g. Exodus 12:27
- 1. take away, snatch away, e.g. property Gn 31:9, 16 (E) Ho 2:11, prey from the mouth of animals 1 S 17:35; Am 3:12; Ez 34:10; words of י׳ from the mouth ψ 119:43; וְאֵין מַצִּיל בֵּינֵיהֶם 2 S 14:6 and there was none to tear them apart (two fighting); וְהִצִּיל עֵינֵנוּ 2 S 20:6 and take away our eye (elude our sight, Ges; Ew We after 𝔊 cast shadow over our eye, denom. from צֵל; Bö Th after 𝔖 tear away our eye, harm us irretrievably, v. Dr 1 S 26:2; HPS escape from us [מִמֶּנּוּ, as 𝔊L], cf. Bu [וְנִצַּל]). e.g. Genesis 31:9
- 2. rescue, recover, e.g. cities Ju 11:26; wives and property 1 S 30:8, 18, 22. e.g. Judges 11:26
- 3. deliver from:
- a. enemies and troubles, abs. 1 S 12:21; Pr 19:19; Is 50:2; Je 39:17; †אֵין מַצִּיל Ju 18:28; Jb 5:4; 10:7 ψ 7:3; 50:22; 71:11; Is 5:29; 42:22; 43:13; Dn 8:4, 7 Ho 5:14; Mi 5:7; c. acc. Ex 18:8 (E) 5:23; 12:27 (J), Dt 23:15 + 39 times; †הַצִּיל נַפְשוֹ Is 44:20; 47:14; Ez 3:19, 21; 14:20; 33:19; c. מִן from Mi 5:6 + 25 times; מִיַּד from the hand or power of Gn 32:12; Ex 2:19 (J) + 57 times; מִתַּחַת יַד Ex 18:10 (E); †מִכַּף 2 S 14:16; 19:10; 22:1 = ψ 18:1, 2 K 20:6 = Is 38:6, 2 Ch 32:11 Ezr 8:31. e.g. 1 Samuel 12:21
- b. from death Pr 11:6; 12:6; מִמּוֹת Jos 2:13 (J), ψ 33:19; 56:14; Pr 10:2 = 11:4; מִשְּׁאוֹל ψ 86:13 Pr 23:14. e.g. Proverbs 11:6
- 4. deliver from sin and guilt (in late writings), מִכָּל־פְּשָׁעַי ψ 39:9 from all my transgressions; מִדָּמִים ψ 51:16 from bloodguiltiness; הַצִּילֵנוּ וְכַפֵּר עַל־חַטֹּאתֵינוּ ψ 79:9 deliver us and cover over all our sins; prob. also כְּאִמְרָֽתְךָ הַצִּילֵנִי ψ 119:170. e.g. Psalms 39:9
Hophal
- Pt. מֻצָּל;—כְּאוּד מֻצָּל מִשְּׂרֵפָה Am 4:11 as a brand plucked out of the burning; מֵאֵשׁ Zc 3:2 from the fire. e.g. Amos 4:11
Hithpael
- וַיִּתְנַצְּלוּ אֶת־עֶדְיָם Ex 33:6 (E) and they stripped themselves of their ornaments. e.g. Exodus 33:6
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
vb. not in Qal; Pi. strip, plunder; Niph. deliver oneself, be delivered; Hiph. snatch away, deliver (Ecclus Hiph. Pt. מצלת delivering 40:24b (Levi conj. יציל 40:24a); NH Hiph. = BH; Biblical Aramaic Haph. id.; Syriac ܢܨܰܠ pour out; Arabic نَصَلَ intrans. tincturam exuit emisitque barba, ex cuspide excidit sagitta, etc., Kam. Frey; Ethiopic iii. ተነጽለ evulsum vel abruptum excidere e suo loco, Di698);—
— 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.
נָצַל
- to remove, set aside.
- to empty, ransack. Esth. R. to III, 9 עד שנִצְּלוּ את מצרים so that they ransacked Egypt.
- , נִיצּוֹל
- *1. to be fit for throwing away (as נֵצֶל), to be decayed. Y. Naz. VII, 56ᵇ bot. בשר המת שנִצַּל Ar. (Ar. ed. Rome שנצול; ed. שנתוק), v. נֵצֶל.
- 2. (b. h.) to be rescued, saved. Midr. Till. to Ps. I לא נִצַּלְתִּי מידו I did not escape his power; Yalk. Num. 750 נוצלתי (read: נִיצַּ׳; ed. Liv. נִצּוֹלְתִּי). Yoma 86ᵇ כגון שבאת … ונ׳ הימנה when an opportunity to sin offered itself to him once and again, and he escaped it; Kidd. 39ᵇ. Esth. R. to II, 7 עתידין לִינָּצֵל וכ׳ are destined to be saved through me; עתידין להִנָּצֵל על ידיה be saved through her. B. Bath. 164ᵇ שלש … אין אדם ניצול מהן וכ׳ there are three sins which man cannot escape &c.; a. fr.
- to save, rescue. Num. R. s. 18 אשתו הִצִּילָתוֹ his wife saved him. Ib. משה … הַצִּילֵנוּ O Moses …, save us! Sabb. XVI, 1 מַצִּילִין אותן וכ׳ we must save them from fire (on the Sabbath). Snh. VIII, 7 שמצילין אותן בנפשן whom we must save (prevent from committing a crime) even at the risk of their lives. Ib. 73ᵃ ניתן להַצִּילָהּ בנפשו it is a duty to save her (from rape) at the expense of the assailant’s life; a. fr.—Trnsf. (in ritual and levitical law) to protect. Ḥull. 55ᵇ כל … מַצִּיל בגלודה every part of the skin (which has remained unaffected) protects a flayed animal from being declared ṭ’refah. Ib. מהו שיַצִּיל וכ׳ does it form a protection from &c.? Ohol. V, 3 מַצֶּלֶת על הכל protects everything in it from uncleanness; a. v. fr.
- to be saved. Esth. R. to V, 3 כבר הוּצְּלוּ חנניה וכ׳ Hananiah and his colleagues have long ere this been delivered from the furnace; a. e.
נְצַל
- , to save. Taan. 9ᵇ רחמנא לִיצְּלַן, v. כִּיסּוּפָא; a. e.
- same. Snh. 72ᵇ דלא מצי אַצּוּלֵיה when he cannot save him. Sabb. 115ᵃ השתא אַצּוּלֵי מַצִּילִינָן וכ׳ since we are bound to save them (on the Sabbath), is it necessary to say that they require burying (when defective)?; a. fr.
- to be saved. Ab. Zar. 18ᵃ bot. ומִתַּצְּלַת and thou shalt be saved.
נֵצֶל
- (preced. wds.) [that which is thrown away,] decayed matter, esp. (in levitical law) liquid and coagulated portions of a corpse. Ohol. II, 1; Naz. VII, 2. Y. ib. VII, 56ᵇ bot. איזהו נ׳ בשר המת שנתוק ומוהל וכ׳ (Ar. שנצל) what is netsel (in levitical law)? A corpse which is dissolving &c., v. מוֹהַל; Bab. ib. 50ᵃ איזהו נ׳ בשר המת שקרש ומוהל שהרתיח a secretion from a corpse which became coagulated, and a liquid secretion exposed to heat. Tosef. Ohol. III, 6; a. e.
צָלַל
- 1. to move, shake, hang over; denom. צֵל.
- 2. to turn, circle, roll (v. Jud. VII, 13); to eddy, sink. Koh. R. to XII, 7; Y. Ber. IV, 7ᵇ bot., a. e. (ref. to צולה, Is. XLIV, 27) why is Babylonia called tsulah, ששם צָלְלוּ מיתי וכ׳ because there sank the corpses of the generation of the flood; Lam. R. introd. (R. Josh. 2) צללו מי מבול (corr. acc.); v. infra.—3) (cmp. שָׁקַע) to settle, be clear; to clarify. Tosef. Nidd. III, 11 צָלְלוּ לא יחזור וכ׳ if the mixture has settled (become clear), he must not stir it up again; Nidd. 20ᵃ, v. עָכַר. Y. Keth. I, 25ᵇ bot. וחוזרת וצוֹלֶלֶת, v. צָכַר. Gen. R. s. 80, end וצָלַלְנוּ, v. צָכַר; a. e.—Part. pass. צָלוּל; f. צְלוּלָה; pl. צְלוּלִים, צְלוּלִין; צְלוּלוֹת. Ib. צ׳ היתה, v. צָכַר. Y. Ter. V, end, 43ᵈ יין צ׳ clarified wine. Sabb. 109ᵃ; 139ᵇ; a. fr.—Pesik. Haʿomer, p. 71ᵃ (play on צלול, K’ri צליל, Jud. VII, 13) על שצלול היה אותו הדור וכ׳ (not על שצלל עליהם, v. Rashi to Jud. l. c.) because that generation was cleared (bared) of righteous men; Pesik. R. s. 18 שצליל עליהם corr. acc.); Yalk. Jud. 62, Yalk. Lev. 643 (corr. acc.).—[ e.g. Judges 7:13
- 4. to glisten, be bright; (of sound) to vibrate, ring; v. מְצִילָּה, צִלְצֵל &c.]
- to be cleared. Y. Nidd. II, end, 50ᵇ יִצָּלְלוּ ולא יעכרו, v. עָכַר. Sabb. XX, 2 (139ᵇ) שיִצַּלּוּ (Bab. ed. שיִצּוֹלּוּ; v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 20) that they (the dregs) may settle.
- 1. to become clear, settle. Par. VIII, 11 עד שתָּצֵל until it is settled.
- 2. (denom. of צֵל) to shade. Pes. 50ᵃ (ref. to מצלות, Zech. XIV, 20) there will be an addition to the sacred precincts of Jerusalem עד שהסוס רץ ומֵיצֵל Ms. M. (ed. ומֵצֵיל; Rashi: עד שעה שהסרס וכ׳) as far as a horse can run (from sunrise) until it gives shade (casts its shadow under itself, i.e. till noon-time; Y. ib. III, end, 30ᵇ עד מקום שהסוס רץ ואינו עושה צל); Bab. l. c. כל ביזה … עד שהסוס רץ ומיצל וכ׳ whatever booty Israel will make (from morning) to the time &c., will be sacred &c. e.g. Zechariah 14:20
- to be sunk, dumped. Zeb. 113ᵇ שכל מתי מבול נִצְטַלְּלוּ לשם Ms. R. a. K. (ed. נִצְתַּלְּלוּ שם) because all the corpses of the flood were dumped there (in Babylonia); Sabb. 113ᵇ; 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 157 distinct written forms H5337 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 97 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5337, 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 175 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 194 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
- Genesis 31:9
- Exodus 2:19
- Numbers 35:25
- Deuteronomy 23:14
- Joshua 2:13
- Judges 6:9
- 1 Samuel 4:8
- 2 Samuel 12:7
- 2 Kings 17:39
- 1 Chronicles 11:14
- 2 Chronicles 20:25
- Ezra 8:31
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.
