Word

יָקַר

yâqar · H3365 · Hebrew · 11 occurrences

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Meanings

to be precious

State in which humans are valuable and worthy of respect in the eyes of others

Examples
Isaiah 43:4 “Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other people in your place and other nations in exchange for your life.
Zechariah 11:13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
to be precious

Literally: precious; hence: state in which a condition or activity is highly appreciated or considered of high significance

Examples
1 Samuel 18:30 Then the commanders of the Philistines went to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David was more successful than all the servants of Saul. So his name was held in high esteem.
1 Samuel 26:21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again since my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have made a very great mistake.”
2 Kings 1:13 So the king again sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty men. When the third captain of fifty went up, he came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah, and begged him and said to him, “You man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.
to visit seldom, to go sparingly

Literally: to cause (one's) foot to be precious; hence: causative action by which humans do not visit a certain place very often

Examples
Proverbs 25:17 Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor’s house, Or he will become weary of you and hate you.
to make scarce

Literally: to cause to be precious; hence: causative process by which deities cause objects to be relatively limited in number

Examples
Isaiah 13:12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

How it’s used In 4 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Who or what does itSubject

11 occurrences in 7 groups

נֶפֶשׁsoul, life 4
Not stated: I 2
Not stated: you (one person) 2
דָּםblood 1
פִּדְיוֹםransom 1
רֵעַshouting 1

What it acts on, or what is saidObject

2 occurrences in 2 groups

אֱנוֹשׁhuman being 1
רֶגֶלfoot, leg 1

With prepositionsPrepositional phrases

8 occurrences in 4 groups

בin/on/with+ עַיִןeye, sight 5
מִןfrom+ בַּיִתhouse, household 1
מִןfrom+ פָּזpure gold 1
לto/for+ נִיme 1

With adverbsAdverbs

1 occurrences in 1 groups

מְאֹדvery 1

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Near synonyms 2 words

אָדַר ʼâdar · H142 · to be great, to be majestic, to be glorious: Both lexemes denote positive evaluative qualities — glorious or honorable versus precious or prized — words that could substitute for each other in contexts of high value or honor.
כָּבַד kâbad · H3513 · to be heavy, to be burdensome: Both lexemes share semantic territory around value, honor, and weight/importance.

In the other Testament 1 word

ἔντιμος éntimos · G1784 · valuable, precious, honored: Greek ἔντιμος (valued, honored, precious) serves as the standard LXX rendering of Hebrew יָקַר in its stative/resultant sense 'be precious, be prized, be highly valued,' capturing the qualitative state of being esteemed or costly rather than the process of making precious or the distinct sense 'withdraw.'

Semantic domains 4 entries

Great002001002012: The verb conveys being held in high regard or great esteem, as when David's name was held in high esteem among Saul's servants in 1 Samuel 18:30.
Extraordinary002001003006: The sense of a life being uncommonly precious or valued beyond the ordinary appears in Saul's plea that David's life be precious in his sight in 1 Samuel 26:21.
Frequency002001003009: The recurring plea that a life be counted precious — repeated by the captain of fifty in 2 Kings 1:13 and again in 1:14 — reflects the value placed on something regarded again and again as worth sparing.
Quantity002001001046: The verb can also describe a valuation of worth or measure, in keeping with its broader sense of being weighed as precious or costly in the accounts where it occurs.

Word family 6 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

יָקַרyâqar · H3365יָקָר yâqâr · H3368 · precious, choice, costly · 36×יְקָר yᵉqâr · H3366 · preciousness, honor, respect · 17×יְקָר yᵉqâr · H3367 · glory, honour · 7×יַקִּיר yaqqîyr · H3358 · noble, rare · 2×יַקִּיר yaqqîyr · H3357 · precious, noble, difficult · 1×

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H3365. yaqar [יָקַר] verb be precious, prized, appraised (Late Hebrew id., Pi`el,…

H3365. yaqar
[יָקַר] verb be precious, prized, appraised (Late Hebrew id., Pi`el, Hiph`il; Aramaic יְקַר, , be heavy, precious; Pa`el honour; יַקִּיר, weighty, precious, honoured; compare Assyrian a‡âru, be precious, costly, and derivatives, DlHWB 240; Arabic be heavy, II. honour; dignity; Sabean noun יקר honour DHMZMG 1883, 402) —
Qal Perfect3feminine singular יָָֽקְרָה 1Sa 16:21; 1Sa 16:2masculine singular יָקַרְתָּ Isa 43:4; Isa 43:1singular יָקַרְתִּי Zec 11:13; Zec 11:3plural יָקְרוּ Psa 139:17; Imperfect וַיִּיקַר 1Sa 18:30; וְיֵקַר Psa 49:9; וְיֵיקַר Psa 72:14; jussive תִּיקַר(נָֿאׅ 2Ki 1:13-14, —
1 be precious:
a. = highly valued, esteemed, David's name, מְאֹד שְׁמוֺ וַיִּיקַר 1Sa 18:30; of Israel, בְעֵינַי יָקַרְתָּ Isa 43:4 (+ אֲהַבְתִּיךָ נִכְבַּדְתָּ,); of God's thoughts רֵעֶיךָ מַהיָָּֽֿקִרוּ וְלִי Psa 139:17 (Ew Hi Hup render hard, difficult: compare יַקִּירָה Dan 2:11).
b. especially of life (נֶפֶשׁ), in phrase בְּעֵינֶיךָ נַפְשִׁי יָָֽקִרָה 1Sa 26:21, i.e. thou hast spared it; so (jussive) 2Ki 1:13-14, similarly בְּעֵינָיו דָּמָם יֵיקַר Psa 72:14 (|| נַפְשָׁס יִגְאַל וּמֵחָמָס מִתּוֺךְ).
c. be costly, נַפְשָׁם מִּדְיוֺן וְיֵקַר Psa 49:9.
2 be appraised, valued, מֵעֲלֵיהֶם יָקַרְתִּי אֲשֶׁר הַיְקָר אֶדֶר Zec 11:13 the magnificence of the price at which I was appraised (and dismissed) from them!
Hiph`il Imperfect1singular מִמָּ֑ז אֱנוֺשׁ אוֺקִיר Isa 13:12 I will make men more rare (literally precious) than fine gold. Imperative הֹקַר Pro 25:17 make rare (i.e. withhold) thy foot from the house of thy friend.

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain

Topical studies with this word 3 entries

Quantity1 occurrence Great2 occurrences Extraordinary7 occurrences

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0