פָּזַר
to scatter
‘to scatter’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 9 distinct
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (20%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Pual, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (10%)
- Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (10%)
+1 more form (1 occurrence)
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 H6340 appears — 10 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.
Esther 1 verse
Psalms 5 verses
- Psalms 53:5 פִּ֭זַּר Piel pf 3ms There they were in great fear, where no fear was, For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, Because God has rejected them.
- Psalms 89:10 פִּזַּ֥רְתָּ Piel pf 2ms You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
- Psalms 112:9 פִּזַּ֤ר Piel pf 3ms He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.
- Psalms 141:7 נִפְזְר֥וּ Niphal pf 3cp "As when one plows and breaks up the earth, Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol."
- Psalms 147:16 יְפַזֵּֽר Piel impf 3ms He gives snow like wool, And scatters frost like ashes.
Proverbs 1 verse
Jeremiah 2 verses
- Jeremiah 3:13 וַ/תְּפַזְּרִ֨י conj + Piel wimpf 2fs Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 50:17 פְזוּרָ֛ה Qal ptcp.pass fs Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
Joel 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, פזר (pâzar) means “to scatter.” The word gravitates to Psalms (50%), then Jeremiah and Esther. It appears 10 verses across 5 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. Debuting at Esther 3:8, it then recurs through the corpus. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 4 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6340 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.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 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.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 70%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 3 verses · 30%
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: Are scattered 1×, Hast scattered 1×, Hath scattered 1×
- American Standard Version: Are scattered 1×, God hath scattered 1×, Hast scattered 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Has scattered 1×, Have been scattered 1×, He has scattered abroad 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He scatters 2×, Scattered 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6340 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6340 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6340 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6340 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.
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 4 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.
Qal
- Pt. pass. f. שֶׂה פְזוּרָה Je 50:17 a scattered sheep is Israel (i.e. driven off, isolated). e.g. Jeremiah 50:17
Niphal
- Pf. 3 pl. נִפְזְרוּ ψ 141:7 our bones are scattered לְפִי שְׁאוֹל. e.g. Psalms 141:7
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. פִּזַּר ψ 53:6; 112:9, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יְפַזֵּר 147:16; 2 fs. וַתְּפַזְּרִי Je 3:13; Pt. מְפַזֵּר Pr 11:24;—scatter ψ 89:11; 53:6; 147:16 (all subj. י׳), Jo 4:2; obj. דְּרָכַיִךְ Je 3:13, of Isr. running hither and thither to strange gods; abs. of spending money ψ 112:9 (alms), Pr 11:24. e.g. Psalms 53:6
Pual
- Pt. מְפֻוָּר Est 3:8 scattered, of Isr. e.g. Esther 3:8
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. scatter (usually regarded as secondary form of בזר q.v.; NH id. Pi. (opp. כנם = כנשׁ), Niph.; Arabic فَزَرَ rend, slit, also separate, disperse);—
— 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.
פָּזַר
- to scatter, disperse. Part. pass. פָּזוּר; f. פְּזוּרָה; pl. פְּזוּרִים, פְּזוּרִין; פְּזוּרוֹת. Num. R. s. 7, end וכשהן פ׳ שכינה עמהם and when they (the Israelites) are scattered, the Divine Presence is with them; a. e.—Ex. R. s. 15 היו פוזרין, read: חוזרין, v. Tanḥ. Ḥayé 3.]
- same. Tosef. Ber. VII (VI), 24 בשעת … פַּזֵּר ובשעת המְפַזְּרִין וכ׳, v. כָּנַס. B. Bath. 10ᵇ יְפַזֵּר מעותיו לעניים let him scatter his money (give liberally) among the poor. Pes. 87ᵇ (ref. to צדקת פרזונו, Jud. V, 11) צדקה … שפִּזְּרָן וכ׳ (or שפְּזָרָן Kal) the Lord has done kindness to Israel in scattering it among the nations. B. Bath. 10ᵃ רוח מְפַזַּרְתָּן the wind disperses them (the clouds). Midr. Sam. ch. XXV אם מְפַזֵּר הוא דברים whether he would scatter abroad (divulge) the affairs, v. קוּסְדַּרְיוֹת; a. e.—Part. pass. מְפוּזָּר; f. מְפוּזֶּרֶת; pl. מְפוּזָּרִים, מְפוּזָּרִין; מְפוּזָּרוֹת. Neg. IV, 3 במפ׳ when the hairs on the leprous spot are wide apart, opp. מכונס, v. כָּנַס. Meg. 13ᵇ מפ׳ הן בין העמים they are scattered among the nations (of the kingdom), v. פָּרַד. T’bul Yom II, 3 אם היה מפ׳ וכ׳ if the garlic was scattered in the mortar; a. fr. e.g. Judges 5:11
- , Nithpa. נִתְפַּזֵּר to be scattered, dispersed. Tosef. Sot. II, 3 מנחתה נִפְזֶרֶת אבית וכ׳ ed. Zuck. (Var. מִתְפַּזֶּרֶת בבית) her meal-offering is strewn on the ashes; Y. ib. III, 18ᵈ; Sifré Num. 17. Sabb. 16ᵇ ונִתְפַּזְּרוּ וכ׳ and the clouds were dispersed and then gathered again. Gen. R. s. 36; a. fr.
פְּזַר
- , Pa. פַּזֵּר same. Targ. Prov. XX, 8 (usually בדר).
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 H6340 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַ/תְּפַזְּרִ֨י | Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular | Jeremiah 3:13 | 1 |
| יְפַזֵּֽר | Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 147:16 | 1 |
| מְ֭פַזֵּר | Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 11:24 | 1 |
| מְפֻזָּ֤ר | Verb, Pual, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Esther 3:8 | 1 |
| נִפְזְר֥וּ | Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Psalms 141:7 | 1 |
| פְזוּרָ֛ה | Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 50:17 | 1 |
| פִּ֭זַּר | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 53:5 | 1 |
| פִּזְּר֣וּ | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Joel 3:2 | 1 |
| פִּזַּ֤ר | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 112:9 | 1 |
| פִּזַּ֥רְתָּ | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 89:10 | 1 |
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 8 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.
