עָצַב
to pain
‘to pain’ 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 Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘his father had not pained him’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- 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).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 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
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms 13 distinct
- Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 3 times (18%)
- Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (12%)
- Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (12%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct 1 time (6%)
+5 more forms (5 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 17 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6087 appears — 17 distinct verses across 11 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 3 verses
- Genesis 6:6 וַ/יִּתְעַצֵּ֖ב conj + Hithpael wimpf 3ms Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
- Genesis 34:7 וַ/יִּֽתְעַצְּבוּ֙ conj + Hithpael wimpf 3mp The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.
- Genesis 45:5 תֵּעָ֣צְב֗וּ Niphal juss 2mp Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 20:3 יֵֽעָצֵ֑ב Niphal impf 3ms David swore moreover, and said, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
- 1 Samuel 20:34 נֶעְצַב֙ Niphal pf 3ms So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
2 Samuel 1 verse
1 Kings 1 verse
1 Chronicles 1 verse
Nehemiah 2 verses
- Nehemiah 8:10 תֵּ֣עָצֵ֔בוּ Niphal juss 2mp Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord: neither be you grieved; for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.
- Nehemiah 8:11 תֵּעָצֵֽבוּ Niphal juss 2mp So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be you grieved.
Job 1 verse
Psalms 2 verses
Ecclesiastes 1 verse
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 54:6 וַ/עֲצ֥וּבַת conj + Qal ptcp.pass fs cs For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, says your God.
- Isaiah 63:10 וְ/עִצְּב֖וּ conj + Piel wpf 3cp But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] himself fought against them.
Jeremiah 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, עצב (ʻâtsab) means “to pain.” The verb spans 5 stems, from Qal to Niphal. It appears 17 verses across 11 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. First canonically at Genesis 6:6, it enters the text early. It shares a root with מעצבה, עצב and עצב. Dig into 17-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6087 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 →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,671
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,671 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 17 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 17 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 41%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 41%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 18%
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†: Grieved 2×
- American Standard Version†: Grieved 3×, Be ye grieved 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Grieve 2×, He was grieved 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Do 3×, Grieve 2×, He was grieved 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6087 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 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 H6087 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H6087 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 H6087 across 21† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 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 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 7 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.
עצב I hurt, pain, grieve
Qal
- his father had not pained him
Niphal
- . be pained for
Piel
- . they vexed his holy spirit
Hiphil
- . they used to cause him [י׳] pain.
Hithpael
- . and he was vexed to his heart
עצב II shape, fashion
Piel
- . thy hands shaped me, etc.
Hiphil
- . to fashion her, i.e. make images of her
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. [ עָצַב ] vb. hurt, pain, grieve
II. [ עָצַב ] vb. Pi. shape, fashion
— 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.
עָצַב
- (b. h.)
- 1. to cut, form, shape.
- 2. (cmp. יָגָה a. יָגוֹן) to cut, grieve, pain.
- to shape, handle, esp. to straighten an infant’s body by manipulation. Sabb. XXII, 6 אין מְעַצְּבִין את הקטן you must not manipulate a child (on the Sabbath), expl. ib. 147ᵇ בחומרי שדרה straightening the vertebra (v. לְפַף). Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. II, 9 שהוא מְעַצֵּב עליה וכ׳ because he (the surgeon) manipulates children thereon.
- to grieve. Gen. R. s. 44 (ref. to Ps. CXXXIX, 24) אם עתיד … (ו)להַעֲצִיבְךָ וכ׳ if it be my destiny to rear children who are to grieve thee, it is better that thou shouldst lead me in the way of the world (death); (Yalk. Ps. 888 ולהכעיסך). e.g. Psalms 139:24
- to be grieved, mourn. Snh. 38ᵇ שמח בתורתו ונ׳ במיתתו he rejoiced over his (R. ‘Ăkiba’s) learning, and mourned over his death (predestined martyrdom).
עֲצַב
- ; (intr.) to be grieved. Targ. Ps. XXXIV, 6 (v. חֲסַד II).—Part. pass. עָצֵב, עָצִיב; f. עֲצִיבָא; pl. עֲצִיבֵי grieved, sad. Targ. Esth. IV, 1; Targ. Y. Ex. XII, 31 קל ע׳ the voice of a mourner.—Bets. 16ᵇ חזייה דהוה ע׳ he saw that he looked down-hearted; אמאי עֲצִיבַת why art thou grieved? Taan. 25ᵃ. Ib. 22ᵃ מבדחינן ע׳, v. בָּדוֹחָא; a. fr.
- to be grieved. Ber. 31ᵃ ואִעֲצִיבוּ and they grew sad; Yalk. Ps. 881 ואִיעֲ׳.
עָצָב
- 1. form, esp. idol.—Pl. עֲצַבִּים. Sifra K’dosh., beg. ע׳ על שם שנעשו פרקים פרקים idols are called ‘forms’, because they are made limb by limb; Mekh. Mishp. s. 20; Ab. d’R. N. ch. XXXIV.—Snh. 63ᵇ ועושין דמות עֲצַבֵּיהֶם (not עצבים, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 1) they made an image of their (the rich men’s) figures; Yalk. Hos. 529.
עֶצֶב
- 2. trouble, toil; that which is acquired through toil.—Pl. עֲצָבִים. Num. R. s. 9 (ref. to ועצביך, Prov. V, 10) אין עֲצָבֶיךָ אלא בנים (ed. Wil. עֲצִיבָה וכ׳) ‘thy toils’ means thy children (with ref. to Gen. III, 16); ע׳ זו יגיעת הארץ ‘thy toils’ means painful labor in the field (with ref. to ib. 17). e.g. Proverbs 5:10
עָצֵב
- preced.) sad, grief-stricken. Pes. 119ᵃ מלך בו"ד מנצחין אותו וע׳ וכ׳ a human King grieves when he is defeated, but the Lord &c.; (Midr. Till. to Ps. IV כועס), v. נָצַח. Ber. 5ᵃ מוכר ע׳ ולוקח שמח the seller grieves (because he has to part with a dear possession), and the buyer is glad; a. e.—Pl. עֲצֵבִים, עֲצֵבִין; עֲצֵבוֹת, עֲצֵי׳. Yoma 21ᵇ. Ib. 67ᵃ; a. e.—Trnsf. (of the fingers of the hand) pressed together, narrow, opp. שׂוֹחֵק. Erub. 3ᵇ, a. e., v. אַמָּה.
עָצֵב ²
- ch., v. עֲצַב
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 17 distinct written forms H6087 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 H6087, 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
- מעצבה maʻătsêbâh H4620 place of grief
- עצב ʻătsab H6088 pained
- עצב ʻetseb H6089 pain
- עצב ʻâtsâb H6091 idol
- עצב ʻâtsêb H6092 labourer
- עצבון ʻitstsâbôwn H6093 toil
- עצבת ʻatstsebeth H6094 sorrow
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 14 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 17 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 6:6
- 1 Samuel 20:3
- 2 Samuel 19:2
- 1 Kings 1:6
- 1 Chronicles 4:10
- Job 10:8
- Psalms 56:5
- Ecclesiastes 10:9
- Isaiah 54:6
- Jeremiah 44:19
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.
