אֶ֫שֶׁר
blessed
‘blessed’ 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 Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
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.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
24 verses where H835 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Psalms. 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 1:1 אַ֥שְֽׁרֵי n c mp Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
- Psalms 2:12 אַ֝שְׁרֵ֗י n c mp Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, For his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
- Psalms 32:1 אַשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
- Psalms 32:2 אַ֥שְֽׁרֵי n c mp Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn't impute iniquity, In whose spirit there is no deceit.
- Psalms 33:12 אַשְׁרֵ֣י n c mp Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
- Psalms 34:8 אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
- Psalms 40:4 אַ֥שְֽׁרֵי n c mp Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, And doesn't respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
- Psalms 41:1 אַ֭שְׁרֵי n c mp Blessed is he who considers the poor: Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.
- Psalms 65:4 אַשְׁרֵ֤י n c mp Blessed is one whom you choose, and cause to come near, That he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, Your holy temple.
- Psalms 84:4 אַ֭שְׁרֵי n c mp Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Selah.
- Psalms 84:5 אַשְׁרֵ֣י n c mp Blessed are those whose strength is in you; Who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.
- Psalms 84:12 אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp Yahweh of Hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in you.
- Psalms 89:15 אַשְׁרֵ֣י n c mp Blessed are the people who learn to acclaim you. They walk in the light of your presence, Yahweh.
- Psalms 94:12 אַשְׁרֵ֤י n c mp Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah, And teach out of your law;
- Psalms 106:3 אַ֭שְׁרֵי n c mp Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times.
- Psalms 112:1 אַשְׁרֵי n c mp Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, Who delights greatly in his commandments.
- Psalms 119:1 אַשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, Who walk according to Yahweh's law.
- Psalms 119:2 אַ֭שְׁרֵי n c mp Blessed are those who keep his statutes, Who seek him with their whole heart.
- Psalms 127:5 אַשְׁרֵ֤י n c mp Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won't be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
- Psalms 128:1 אַ֭שְׁרֵי n c mp Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, Who walks in his ways.
- Psalms 137:8 אַשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, He will be happy who rewards you, As you have served us.
- Psalms 137:9 אַשְׁרֵ֤י n c mp Happy shall he be, Who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
- Psalms 144:15 אַשְׁרֵ֣י אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י n c mp n c mp Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
- Psalms 146:5 אַשְׁרֵ֗י n c mp Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
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.
“blessed” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun אשר (ʼesher). It clusters heavily in Psalms, which alone accounts for 60% of its uses. With 42 verses in 9 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Catalogued under 3 senses, its meaning is not single-sense. The King James Version usually renders it “blessed,” while modern versions prefer “happinesses of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. See the sense tree, 42-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H835 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 →
- 42
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 42 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #810
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 810 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 42 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 42 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 37 verses · 88%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 10%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 2%
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: Blessed 25×, Happy 16×
- American Standard Version: Blessed 24×, Happy 14×, Happy is he 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Blessed 31×, How blessed 6×, Blessed is 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Happinesses of 22×, Happy 7×, Happiness of 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H835 across 45 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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 H835 across 45 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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 H835 across 45 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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 H835 across 48 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 BDB
The 3 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- happiness, blessedness
- often used as interjection
- blessed are
Word origin
Derived from אשר (ʼâshar) (H833) — to go straight.
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.
אֲשֶׁר
- ; v. Ges. H. Dict. s. v., as to opinions on etymol.) [being,] who, which. Ber. 11ᵇ א׳ בחר וכ׳ who hast chosen us; a. v. fr. (in prayer formulas).—In Talm. mostly prefix-שֶׁ.
אָשַׁר
- , v. אשש) to exist, be strong, happy; v. יָשַׁר.
- (b. h.)
- 1. to exalt, praise, declare happy. Pesik. R. s. 45 התחיל מְאַשְּׁרֵם he commenced by declaring them happy; v. אַשְׁרֵי.
- 2. to substantiate; to verify, attest to. Num. R. s. 14 לאַשֵּׁר את הדין to give strength to the legal decision Y. Gitt. IX, 50ᶜ bot. (אישרניהי) אִישַּׁרְנוּהוּ we have verified it in the presence of &c.—Part. pass. מְאוּשָּׁר 1) firm, strong. Gen. R. s. 15, beg. the bux-tree is called תְּאַשּׁוּר because it is מא׳ וכ׳ the strongest of all (cmp. אֵשֶׁל). Y. Succ. III, 54ᵃ top; Y. Meg. I, 72ᵃ top המא׳ שבכלן וכ׳ the strongest (expression) of all, is Hallelujah.—2) substantial, good, rich. Gen. R. s. 90, end (ref. to את כל אֲשֶׁר Gen. XLI, 56) המְאוּשָּׁרִין שבהם the best stores of all. Gen. R. s. 28.—Snh. 22ᵃ is called Ashurith שמְאוּשֶּׁרֶת בכתב because its characters are substantial (Ar. שמאושר); Y. Meg. I, 71ᵇ bot.; Y. Sot. VII, 21ᶜ top. e.g. Genesis 41:56
- to be set up, be erected. Sifra K’dosh. beg. (play on אֲשֵׁרִים) על שם שהם מִתְאַשְּׁרִים מאחרים because they are put up by others.
אֲשַׁר
- [Ithpe. אִיתְּשַׁר to be strengthened. Targ. Y. Deut. X, 2 יַיתְשַׁר, prob. to be read יִתְיַשַּׁר, v. ישר.]
- 1. to make strong. Keth. 10ᵇ; Gitt. 70ᵃ (dates) מְאַשְּׁרָן give strength.
- 2. to confirm, verify; also to credit, (consider true). Keth. 21ᵃ אַשַּׁרְנוּהִי וכ׳ we verified it &c., v. preced.—Gitt. 30ᵇ (prov.) חברך מית א׳ וכ׳ if you are told, ‘your friend is dead’, believe it; ‘your friend has grown rich’ לא תְאַשַּׁר don’t trust.
אֶשֶׁר
- (b. h.), only in plur. constr. אַשְׁרֵי the happiness of!, happy is he, are they &c. Pes. 117ᵃ; a. fr.—Midr. Till. to Ps. LXXXIV אַשְׁרַאי happy am I.—Yoma VIII, 9 אַשְׁרֵיכֶם happy are ye. Ib. 87ᵃ אַשְׁרֵיהֶם לצדיקים happy are the righteous; a. fr.
שֵׁר
- Tower of Sher (or Shed), Straton’s Tower (v. Hildesh. Beitr. p. 4 sq.). Sifré Deut. 51 מדבר שרשך דור, read: מגדל שר שן דור; Yalk. ib. 874 מגדל שרשן דירו (corr. acc.); Y. Shebi. VI, 36ᶜ top מגדל שיד.
שַׂר
- prince, chief.; שר (של מעלה) guardian angel, genius. Zeb. 116ᵇ שר ונגיד a prince or a nobleman. Yeb. 16ᵇ שר העולם the genius of the universe; Ḥull. 60ᵃ. Ex. R. s. 22 נטל הקב"ה שר שלהם וכ׳ the Lord took first their (the Egyptians’) guardian angel and drowned him. Pes. 118ᵃ שר הברד, v. יוּרְקָמִי. Ib. אני שר של אש I (Gabriel) am the angel of fire. B. Bath. 74ᵇ שר של ים the angel of the sea. Mekh. B’shall., Shir., s. 2 כיון שראו שָׂרָהּ של מלכות נופל (not נופלת) when they saw the genius of the (Egyptian) empire fallen; Yalk. Ex. 243; a. v. fr.—Pl. שָׂרִים. Ib. אין … משָׂרֵיהֶן תחלה the Lord will not punish governments, unless he have punished their guardian angels first. Gen. R. s. 78, beg. מיכאל … שהם ש׳ של מעלה Michael and Gabriel who are the princes on high. Yalk. l. c. קרא … לכל שָׂרֵי האומות the Lord summoned all the tutelary angels of the nations. Cant. R. to VIII, 14 ש׳ של מעלה the princes on high (angels); ש׳ של מטה the earthly (human) governors. Ib. (play on הרי בשמים, ib.) המתינו לי … על הריהם שהם שָׂרֵיהֶם שנתונים אצלי בַּשָּׁמַיִם (not שנתונות) wait until I shall have sat in judgment over their mounts, that is, their chiefs that are placed with me in heaven; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 98 גני ש׳, v. גִּינֵּיסַר.—Fem. שָׂרָה. Tosef. Ber. I, 12 (ref. to Gen. XVII, 15) בתחלה הרי היא ש׳ על עמה ועכשיו הרי היא ש׳ על אומות העולם ed. Zuck. (Var. שָׂרַי על עמה … על כל באי העולם, v. ed. Zuck. note) at first she was a princess of her own people, and now she is a princess for the nations of the world (for all that enter into the world); Ber. 13ᵃ שרי לאומתה … ש׳ לכל העולם. e.g. Genesis 17:15
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 18 distinct written forms H835 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 H835, 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
- אשר ʼôsher H837 happiness
- אשר ʼâshur H838 step
- אשרנא ʼushsharnâʼ H846 wall
- תאשור tᵉʼashshûwr H8391 box tree
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- אשור ʼAshshûwr H804 Assyria
- אשר ʼÂshêr H836 Asher
- אשראל ʼĂsarʼêl H840 Asareel
- אשרה ʼăshêrâh H842 Asherah
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — 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 40 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 42 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
- Deuteronomy 33:29
- 1 Kings 10:8
- 2 Chronicles 9:7
- Job 5:17
- Psalms 1:1
- Proverbs 3:13
- Ecclesiastes 10:17
- Isaiah 30:18
- Daniel 12:12
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.
