צָעִיר
little
also: insignificant, young fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
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.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
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 9 times (38%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 6 times (25%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Construct 6 times (25%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct 2 times (8%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 1 time (4%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 24 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6810 appears — 22 distinct verses across 10 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 8 verses
- Genesis 19:31 הַ/צְּעִירָ֖ה ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
- Genesis 19:34 הַ/צְּעִירָ֔ה ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."
- Genesis 19:35 הַ/צְּעִירָה֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger arose, and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
- Genesis 19:38 וְ/הַ/צְּעִירָ֤ה conj + ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. The same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
- Genesis 25:23 צָעִֽיר adj Adjective ms Yahweh said to her, Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.
- Genesis 29:26 הַ/צְּעִירָ֖ה ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs Laban said, "It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the first born.
- Genesis 43:33 וְ/הַ/צָּעִ֖יר conj + ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one with another.
- Genesis 48:14 הַ/צָּעִ֔יר ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
Joshua 1 verse
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
1 Kings 1 verse
Job 2 verses
- Job 30:1 צְעִירִ֥ים adj Adjective mp "But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
- Job 32:6 צָ֘עִ֤יר adj Adjective ms Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn't dare show you my opinion.
Psalms 2 verses
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 14:3 צעורי/הם צְעִירֵי/הֶ֖ם adj Adjective mp cs + sfx pers 3mp adj Adjective mp cs + sfx pers 3mp Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
- Jeremiah 48:4 צעורי/ה צְעִירֶֽי/הָ adj Adjective mp cs + sfx pers 3fs adj Adjective mp cs + sfx pers 3fs Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
- Jeremiah 49:20 צְעִירֵ֣י adj Adjective mp cs Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
- Jeremiah 50:45 צְעִירֵ֣י adj Adjective mp cs Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
Micah 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.
צעיר (tsâʻîyr) is a Hebrew adjective most often rendered “little.” It also covers “insignificant” and “young”, alongside “little” — see its full sense range. It turns up in 22 verses across 10 books, an uncommon footprint. It concentrates in Genesis, which alone accounts for 36% of its uses. It first appears in Genesis 19:31. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6810 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 →
- 22
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 22 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,327
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,327 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 22 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 22 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 10 verses · 45%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 8 verses · 36%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 4 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†: Younger 6×, Little ones 2×, Surely the least 2×
- American Standard Version†: Younger 5×, Little 2×, Little ones 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Younger 6×, Youngest 3×, Little 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Younger 7×, Youngest 3×, Small 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6810 across 22† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 H6810 across 22† 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6810 across 23† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 H6810 across 21† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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
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 3 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.
צעיר I little, insignificant, young
- 1.
- a. little, with idea of insignificance Ju 6:15 (‖ הַדַּל), cf. 1 S 9:21 (‖ קְטַנֵּי), Mi 5:1 ψ 68:28; Is 60:22 (opp. גוי עצום); of horn in vision Dn 8:9, read prob. אחרת צעירה for אחת מִצְּעִירָה, cf. Bev Dr; צְעִירֵי הַצֹּאן Je 49:20; 50:45 (fig. of helpless captives). e.g. Judges 6:15
- b. insignificant, mean, ψ 119:141 (‖ נִבְוֶה), Je 14:3 (as subst.); on Je 48:4 v. צֹעַר. e.g. Psalms 119:141
- 2. more often of age, young (usually c. art. the younger, youngest, as subst.), of son (brother), opp. הַבְּכוֹר Gn 43:33; 48:14 (both J), Jos 6:26; 1 K 16:34, opp. רַב Gn 25:23 (J), cf. צ׳ אני לְיָמִים ואתם יְשִׁישִׁים Jb 32:6, cf. 30:1; of daughter (sister), opp. הַבְּכִירָה Gn 19:31, 34, 35, 38 (J) 29:26 (E); here belongs צְעִירִים מִמֶּנִּי לימים Jb 30:1, si vera l.; GHBWr Siegf Bu del. ממני לימים; 𝔊 ἐλάχιστοι; put then under 1 b. e.g. Genesis 43:33
צעיר II loc. prob. on border of Edom, צָעִ֫ירָה 2 K 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
I. adj. little, insignificant, young;—abs. צָעִיר Gn 25:23 +; f. צְעִירָה Gn 19:31 +; צְעִרָה 1 S 9:21; mpl. צְעִירִים Jb 30:1; sf. צְעִירֶיהָ Je 48:4 Qr (Kt צעוריה; but v. צֹעַר); צְעִירֵיהֶם Je 14:3 (Kt צעוריהם), etc.;—
II. n.pr.loc. prob. on border of Edom, צָעִ֫ירָה 2 K 8:21, εἰς Σειωρ (𝔊L ἐκ Σιωρ).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from צער (tsâʻar) (H6819) — to become small.
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.
צְעֵיר
- , v. צְעֵר
צָעִיר
- young, junior; attendant, boy. Gen. R. s. 6 (ref. to Gen. XLVIII, 14) וכי … שהוא הצ׳ do we not know from the genealogical records that he was the younger?—Pl. צְעִירִים. Arakh. II, 6 (13ᵇ) וצְעִירֵי הלוים וכ׳ Ar. a. Maim. (Mish. וצוֹעְרי; Bab. ed. וצערי Rashi וצוע׳) and they were called the junior Levites; ib. 13ᵇ תנא וסועדי … ותנא דידן … קרי להו צערי there is a version, ‘and they were called the assistants of the Levites’; and as to our version (צעירי or צוערי), because the voices of those were fine …, therefore he calls them tsa’ăré (the troubles) of the Levites (v. צַעַר). Gen. R. s. 75 צְעִירֵיהֶם של שבטים the youngest of the tribes; a. e.—Fem. צְעִירָה. B. Kam. 38ᵇ צ׳ דקאמרה בן עמי וכ׳ the younger (daughter of Lot) that called her son Ben-ammi &c.; Hor. 11ᵃ; Naz. 23ᵇ; a. e.—Y. Meg. I, 71ᵈ bot. כתבו לו … צְעִירַת הרגלים they (the Greek translators) wrote for him (Ptolemy) ‘the slender-footed’ (in place of ארנבת, Lev. XI, 6); Bab. Meg. 9ᵇ; Treat. Sof’rim I, 8; Mekh. Bo, s. 14; Tanḥ. Sh’moth 22.—[LXX Lev. XI, 5; 6 has δασύποδα = שְׂעִירַת הרגלים.] e.g. Genesis 48:14
צְעֵר
- ; (act. verb) צְעַר [to diminish,] disregard, shame, curse (cmp. גדף, חסד). Targ. II Esth. II, 5 (transl. of תקלל, Ex. XXII, 27). Targ. Prov. XXX, 11 נִיצְעֵיר ed. Lag. (oth. ed. נִצְעַר; ed. Wil. נְצַעֵר Pa.; h. text קלל). Ib. 10 נִיצְעֲרִיךְ ed. Lag. (oth. ed. נְצַעֲרִינָךְ, Pa.). e.g. Exodus 22:27
- 1. same, v. supra.—Meg. 28 same, v. supra.—Meg. 28ᵃ when going to bed he used to pray, שרא … לכל מאן דצַעֲרָן the Lord forgive every one that may have insulted me.
- 2. to afflict, grieve, trouble. Targ. Y. Deut. XXVI, 6 (not צעד׳). Targ. Job XVIII, 4; a. fr.—Ber. 10ᵃ הוו קא מְצַעֲרֵי ליה טובא they annoyed him exceedingly. Ib. 27ᵇ עד כמה נצַעֲרִיה וניזיל how long shall he go on vexing him? Naz. 23ᵇ; Hor. 10ᵇ sq. (ref. to Deut. II, 9) מלחמה הוא דלא הא צַעוּרֵי צֵעֲרִינְהוּ war you must not wage (against Moab), but you may afflict them (put them under tribute); אפי׳ צַעוּרֵי לא you must not even afflict them (the Ammonites); (B. Kam. 38ᵇ עביד בהו אנגריא). Y. Snh. I, 18ᶜ bot. כן … לצעורי וכ׳ is that your custom, to trouble your teacher? Ḥull. 95ᵃ לצַעוּרֵיה, v. כּוּן ch.; a. fr. e.g. Deuteronomy 2:9
- 3. to grieve, take pains. Ber. 18ᵇ הוו מְצַעֲרֵי לאדכוריה they took pains (in vain) to recall (what they had learned; Ms. M. הוו יתבי ומִצְטַעֲרֵי they sat and grieved; v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note).
- to suffer, grieve, be vexed, troubled. Targ. Y. Num. XI, 1 (h. text מתאננ׳). Targ. Ps. VII, 15; a. fr.—Keth. 104ᵃ חלץ … וקמִצְטַעֵר he put his T’fillin off and put them on again, and was in pain. Sabb. 140ᵇ עד דמִיצְטַעֲרָן until they were vexed (by curiosity). Succ. 52ᵃ. Ber. 18ᵇ Ms. M, v. supra; 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 21 distinct written forms H6810 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6810, 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
Derived from this word
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 → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. 4 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 20 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 22 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 19:31
- Joshua 6:26
- Judges 6:15
- 1 Samuel 9:21
- 1 Kings 16:34
- Job 30:1
- Psalms 68:27
- Isaiah 60:22
- Jeremiah 14:3
- Micah 5:2
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.
