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צַר

distress

‘distress’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓

H6862 Strong's Hebrew
tsar Transliteration
/tsar/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 110 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

The Hebrew adjective צר centers on the idea of “distress.” Lexicons map it across 4 senses. It turns up in 107 verses across 25 books, a common footprint. The word gravitates to Psalms (36%), then Isaiah and Job. First canonically at Genesis 14:20, it enters the text early. Dig into 107-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
adversary
Modern gloss
distress
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H6862 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 →

107
distinct verses
The word appears in 107 distinct verses.
25 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 14:20
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 14:20.
Zechariah 8:10
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 8:10.
#396
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 396 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 107 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 9 · 8%
  • Historical 17 · 16%
  • Wisdom 48 · 45%
  • Prophets 33 · 31%

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 107 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 64 verses · 60%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 34 verses · 32%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 9 verses · 8%

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 5 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: Enemies 23×, Adversaries 16×, Trouble 13×
  • American Standard Version: Adversaries 28×, Adversary 12×, Distress 8×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Enemies 21×, Foes 20×, Distress 16×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Adversaries 30×, Distress 12×, Enemies 9×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H6862 across 103 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Enemies” 23×
  • “Adversaries” 16×
  • “Trouble” 13×
  • “Enemy” 8×
  • “Adversary” 4×
  • “Affliction” 3×
  • “Distress” 3×
  • “Enemy's” 2×
  • “Foes” 2×

Plus 29 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 2 further occurrences.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H6862 across 102 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Adversaries” 28×
  • “Adversary” 12×
  • “Distress” 8×
  • “Trouble” 8×
  • “Affliction” 2×
  • “Against the adversary” 2×
  • “Foes” 2×
  • “I was in distress” 2×

Plus 38 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 H6862 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Enemies” 21×
  • “Foes” 20×
  • “Distress” 16×
  • “Enemy” 7×
  • “Trouble” 7×
  • “Adversary” 6×
  • “Adversaries” 5×
  • “Against the enemy” 2×
  • “Distressed” 2×
  • “You are in distress” 2×

Plus 21 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 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H6862 across 115 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Adversaries” 30×
  • “Distress” 12×
  • “Enemies” 9×
  • “Adversary” 7×
  • “Enemy” 7×
  • “Trouble” 6×
  • “Narrow” 5×
  • “Distressing” 4×
  • “In” 4×
  • “Distress of” 2×
  • “Is narrow” 2×
  • “Opponent” 2×

Plus 25 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 0 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.

צר I ii. צֹר v. I, II, III. צרר.

צר II arrow, tight

צר III [m.] straits, distress

צר IV [m.] hard pebble, flint

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. ii. צֹר v. I, II, III. צרר.

II. adj. narrow, tight;—abs. צ׳ 2 K 6:1 +; צָ֑ר Nu 22:26 +; f. צָרָה Pr 23:27;—narrow, מָקוֹם צָ֑ר Nu 22:26, צַר מִמֶּנּוּ 2 K 6:1 too narrow for us, cf. צַר־לִי הַמָּקוֹם Is 49:20 (of land of Judah after exile); בְּאֵר צָרָה Pr 23:27 (fig. of harlot; i.e. rescue difficult; ‖ שׁוּחָה עֲמֻקָּה); כַּנָּהָר צָר Is 59:19 like a contracted (and hence swift, powerful) river (sim. of י׳; Klo נְהַר מָצוֹר, CheHpt. נ׳ מִצֹּר, both ‘of Egypt’); סָגוּר חוֹתָם צָ֑ר Jb 41:7 (of scaly back of crocodile), usually closely joined (as) with tight seal (𝔊 Me Bi Hoffm Bu Du חוֹתַם צֹד with seal of flint, but why specify material?); בְּיוֹם צָרָה צַר כֹּחֶ֑כָה Pr 24:10 thy strength will be narrow, limited (si vera l., cf. Toy).

III. n.[m.] straits, distress;—abs. צ׳ Jb 15:24 +, also c. art. בַּצַּר Ho 5:15 +, צָ֑ר ψ 4:2 +;—straits, distress Is 5:30; Jb 15:24 ψ 32:7; 60:13 108:13 צַר־וּמָצוֹק 119:143; עֵת־צ׳ Jb 38:23, cf. בַּצַּר Is 26:16, בַּצָּ֑ר ψ 4:2; צ׳־רוּהִי Jb 7:11 distress of my spirit; לֶחֶם צַר Is 30:20; לֹא צָ֗ר Is 63:9 usually he (י׳) had distress (reading לִוֹ Qr), but 𝔊 οὐ πρέσβυς, Du CheHpt. al. לֹא צִר, no messenger (but) his own face, etc.; cf. Jb 36:16, 19. Instead of sf. directly appended, ל sf. is used (only after ב): בַּצַּר־לִי in my distress ψ 18:7 = 2 S 22:7, ψ 66:14, so בְּיוֹם צַר(־)לִי 59:17; 102:3; בַּצַּר לְךָ Dt 4:30 (prob. orig. meant as בְּצַר, or בְּצֹר [inf.], Dr; so) בַּצַּר־לוֹ Is 25:4; 2 Ch 15:4, בַּצַּר לָהֶם Ho 5:15 ψ 107:6, 13, 19, 28, also (after רָאָה) 106:44—צַר 1 S 2:32 is corrupt. III. צַר v. II. צָרַר.

IV. n.m. Nu 10:9 adversary, foe;—abs. צַר Am 3:11 +, even c. art. הַצַּר Nu 10:9, but also הַצָּר Est 7:4; צָ֑ר Zc 8:10 +; pl. צָרִים La 1:7; cstr. צָרֵי Ezr 4:1 + Is 9:10 (but read prob. צָרוֹ or צָרָיו, cf. Di-Kit CheHpt.; al. שָׂרֵי), Je 48:5 (del. 𝔊 Hi Gie), Ez 30:16 (but 𝔊 Sm וְנָפֹצוּ, so Berthol; Co וְנִפְרְצוּ, so Toy; Krae יָעוּף); sf. צָרַי ψ 3:2, צָרֵיהֶם Ez 39:23, צָרֵימוֹ Dt 32:27, etc.;—adversary, foe, Am 3:11; Gn 14:20; Nu 10:9; (P), 24:8 (JE); Dt 32:27; 33:7; Jos 5:13 (JE); 2 S 24:13; Is 9:10 (v. supr.), Zc 8:10; Ezr 4:1; Ne 4:5; Est 7:6 (אִישׁ צַר וְאוֹיֵב), + 21 times, + ψ 3:2; 13:5; 27:2; 78:42, + 13 times ψψ, + (of י׳’s foes) 78:66; 97:3; + (of י׳’s foes) also Is 1:24; 26:11; 59:18; 64:1; Je 46:10; Na 1:2; Dt 32:41, 43; Jb 19:11.—Je 48:5; Ez 30:16 v. supr.

V. n.[m.] hard pebble, flint;—כַּצַּר Is 5:28 (sim. of horses’ hoofs; read perhaps צֹר).

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from צרר (tsârar) (H6887) — to bind.

Part of speech: Adjective TWOT: 1973a , 1973b , 1974a , 1975a


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.

צֹר

  • , v. צוֹר

צַר I

  • to be narrow, v. צָרַר.

צַר II

  • preced.)
  • 1. (adj.) narrow. Par. XII, 2 צלוחית שפיה צר a flask with a narrow neck; a. e.—צַר עַיִן, pl. צָרֵי עין narrow-minded, selfish, envious. Y. Taan. III, 66ᵈ (ref. to Job XXXVI, 19) אם סדרתה תפלה לא יהו לך צ׳ ע׳ מלמעלה if thou orderest thy prayer well, thou shalt have no envious adversaries in heaven above; a. e.; v. עַיִן.—Fem. צָרָה. Esth. R. to I, 5, a. e., v. עַיִן; a. fr.—Pl. צָרוֹת. Y. Sot. IX, 24ᵃ bot. רחבות מלמעלן וצ׳ וכ׳ wide above, and narrow below; a. fr. e.g. Job 36:19
  • 2. anguish, trouble. Erub. 65ᵃ בַּצַּר אל יורה, v. יָרָה.
  • 3. oppressor, adversary. Gen. R. s. 61, end, v. צוֹר.—[Yalk. Gen. 62 שונא וצר, v. עָר.]—Pl. צָרִים. Ex. R. s. 21 (ref. to Job l. c.) ערוך שועך … צ׳ מלמעלן order thy prayer before thy Maker, that thou have no adversaries (accusers) in heaven above; Snh. 44ᵇ כל המאמץ … אין לו צ׳ וכ׳ he who strengthens himself (makes a strong effort) for prayer, has no adversaries &c. Ib. ואל יהיו צ׳ וכ׳ and that he may have no adversaries &c. Ex. R. s. 27 צָרֵיהֶם של ישראל Israel’s allied adversaries; 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 67 distinct written forms H6862 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
בַּ/צַּ֣ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 4:30 7
צַ֣ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 5:30 6
צַר Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 21:13 6
צָֽר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 1:5 5
בַּ/צַּר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 15:4 5
צָ֑ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 6:23 4
צָרֵ֥י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Ezekiel 30:16 4
צָ֔ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Numbers 22:26 3
צָ֗ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 63:9 3
לְ/צָרָ֔י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Deuteronomy 32:43 3
צָרָ֑י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Lamentations 1:17 3
צַ֥ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 6:1 2
מִ/צָּ֑ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 60:11 2
מִ/צָּרֵ֑י/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 44:7 2
צָרֵֽי/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 60:12 2
צָרָ֑/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 3:1 2
בְ/צָרָֽי/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 112:8 1
בְּ/צַ֣ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct Job 7:11 1
בַּ/צַּ֥ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Hosea 5:15 1
בַּ֭/צָּר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 4:1 1
הַ/צַּר֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Numbers 10:9 1
הַ/צָּ֔ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Zechariah 8:10 1
הַ/צָּ֛ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Esther 7:4 1
וְ/צָרֵי/הֶ֥ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 50:7 1
וְ/צָרָ֑/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 119:157 1
וְ/צֹרְרֵ֥י Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 11:13 1
כְ/צָרָֽי/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Job 19:11 1
כְּ/צָ֔ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 2:4 1
כַּ/צַּ֣ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 5:28 1
לְ/צָרֵֽי/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Joshua 5:13 1
לְ/צָרֶ֑י/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 64:2 1
לְ/צָרַ֗/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 Chronicles 12:17 1
לְ/צָרָ֔/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Deuteronomy 32:41 1
מִ/צַּ֪ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 32:7 1
מִ/צָּרַ֔/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 1:24 1
מִ/צָּרָ֔י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 46:10 1
מִ/צָּרָ֖י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Deuteronomy 33:7 1
מִ/צָּרָֽי/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 105:24 1
צַ֖ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Amos 3:11 1
צַ֫ר Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Psalms 102:2 1
צָ֖ר Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 30:20 1
צָ֝רֵי/הֶ֗ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 81:14 1
צָ֝רָ֗ה Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 23:27 1
צָֽרֵי/הֶ֔ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Nehemiah 9:27 1
צָרִ֓/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Job 16:9 1
צָרִ֔ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Lamentations 1:7 1
צָרֵ֑י/מוֹ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Deuteronomy 32:27 1
צָרֵ֕י/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 63:18 1
צָרֵ֗י/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Nehemiah 4:11 1
צָרֵ֣י/נוּ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 44:5 1
צָרֵי/הֶ֑ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 106:11 1
צָרֵי/הֶ֔ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Ezekiel 39:23 1
צָרֵי/הֶֽם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Nehemiah 9:27 1
צָרֶ֑י/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Micah 5:9 1
צָרֶ֖י/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Genesis 14:20 1
צָרֶ֜י/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 2 Samuel 24:13 1
צָרֶ֤י/הָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Lamentations 1:5 1
צָרֶ֥י/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 26:11 1
צָרֶי/ךָ֮ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 Chronicles 21:12 1
צָרַ֣/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Psalms 27:2 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 7 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6862, 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 5 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 86 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 107 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.

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