אֹ֫שֶׁר
happiness
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H837 appears — 1 distinct verse across 1 book. 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 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, אשר (ʼôsher) means “happiness.” The Hebrew Bible uses it only 1 verse. The word gravitates to Genesis (100%). It occurs only once, in Genesis 30:13. It clusters with אשר, אשר and אשר under a shared root. Dig into 1-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H837 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 →
- 1
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 1 distinct verse.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #6,101
- by frequency
- Rank #6,101 (rank 6,101 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 1 occurrence in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Genesis 1 verse 100%
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 1 distinct verse.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 100%
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: Happy am i 1×
- American Standard Version: Happy am i 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: How happy i am 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: How blessed i am 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H837 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H837 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H837 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H837 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense 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
Word origin
[ אֹ֫שֶׁר ] n.[m.] happiness, Gn 30:13 (J).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H837, 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 ʼesher H835 blessed
- 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
- איתיאל ʼÎythîyʼêl H384 Ithiel
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 5 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 1 verse that also exists in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 1 Hebrew verse 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.
