bachur · young man

What it means

bachur (בָּחוּר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “young man”.

A young man in the prime of life.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A young man in the fullness of his strength.
2. A chosen young man, the best among the others.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Young man: a man in the strength of his age, fit for war or for marriage.

• Young men and virgins: the youth of a people Deuteronomy 32:25Lamentations 1:15Amos 8:13
• “Your young men will see visions” Joel 2:28
• The strength of young men, which also fails Isaiah 40:30Ecclesiastes 11:9
• Saul, “a young man and handsome” 1 Samuel 9:2Ruth 3:10
• The chosen one Psalms 89:19Jeremiah 50:44

Historical and cultural background

The laws and the prophets name the young men together with the virgins to mean the whole people: “both young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hair” (Deuteronomy 32:25).

How we translate it

“Young men” 36 times and “young man” 8. Where the word designates not age but the one chosen, it is rendered so (2): “I have exalted one chosen from the people” (Psalm 89:19), “whoever is chosen” (Jeremiah 50:44).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• young men ×36
• young man ×8
• one chosen ×1
• whoever is chosen ×1

Where it appears

• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×1
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×1
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×12
• Lamentations×5
• Ezekiel×5
• Joel×1
• Amos×3
• Zechariah×1

• Deuteronomy 32:25

  Outside the sword will bereave, and in the inner rooms terror, both young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hair.

• Judges 14:10

  His father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for so the young men used to do.

• Ruth 3:10

  And he said, “Blessed be you by YHWH, my daughter. You have made your last loyal love better than the first, by not going after the young men, whether poor or rich.

• 1 Samuel 8:16

  Your male slaves and your female slaves and your best young men and your donkeys he will take and put them to his work.

• 1 Samuel 9:2

  He had a son whose name was Saul, a young man and handsome; there was no man among the sons of Israel more handsome than he; from his shoulders upward he was taller than all the people.

• 2 Kings 8:12

  Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” He said, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their fortresses you will set on fire, their young men you will kill with the sword, their little ones you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open.”

• 2 Chronicles 36:17

  He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or the very old; he gave them all into his hand.

• Psalms 78:31

  when the anger of Elohim rose against them, and he killed among their sturdiest, and the young men of Israel he brought low.

• Psalms 78:63

  His young men the fire devoured, and his virgins were not celebrated.

• Psalms 89:19

  Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful ones, and said, “I have set help upon a mighty man; I have exalted one chosen from the people.

• Psalms 148:12

  young men and also maidens, old men with youths.

• Proverbs 20:29

  The beauty of young men is their strength, and the majesty of the old is gray hair.

• Ecclesiastes 11:9

  Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart do you good in the days of your young manhood, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things Elohim will bring you into judgment.

• Isaiah 9:17

  Therefore Adonai does not rejoice over its young men, and on its orphans and its widows he has no compassion; for every one of them is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks infamy. For all this his anger has not turned back, and his hand is still stretched out.

• Isaiah 23:4

  Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have not been in labor nor given birth, nor have I raised young men nor brought up virgins.”

• Isaiah 31:8

  And Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man; and a sword, not of a human being, will devour him; and he will flee from before the sword, and his young men will be for forced labor.

• Isaiah 40:30

  Youths will grow tired and grow weary, and young men stumbling, will stumble;

• Isaiah 62:5

  For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as the rejoicing of a bridegroom over a bride, so your Elohim will rejoice over you.

• Jeremiah 6:11

  But I am full of the fury of YHWH; I am weary of holding in. “Pour out on the child in the street, and on the gathering of young men together; for both husband with wife will be taken, the old with the one full of days.

• Jeremiah 9:21

  For death has come up through our windows; it has entered our palaces, to cut off the child from the street, the young men from the squares.

• Jeremiah 11:22

  therefore thus says YHWH Tsevaot: “Look, I am punishing them; the young men will die by the sword, their sons and their daughters will die by famine,

• Jeremiah 15:8

  Their widows became more numerous before me than the sand of the seas; I brought upon them, upon the mother of the young man, a destroyer at noonday; I made fall upon her suddenly anguish and terrors.

• Jeremiah 18:21

  Therefore give their sons to famine, and pour them out into the hands of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of children and widows; and let their men be slain by death, their young men struck by the sword in battle.

• Jeremiah 31:13

  Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; and I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them and make them rejoice out of their sorrow.

• Jeremiah 48:15

  Moab is devastated, and one has gone up against her cities, and the choice of his young men have gone down to the slaughter, declares the King, YHWH Tsevaot is his name.

• Jeremiah 49:26

  Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all the men of war will be silenced in that day, declares YHWH Tsevaot.

• Jeremiah 50:30

  Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all her men of war will be silenced in that day, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 50:44

  Look, like a lion he comes up from the thicket of the Jordan against the perennial fold; for in an instant I will make them run from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it; for who is like me? And who will summon me? And who is this shepherd who will stand before me?

• Jeremiah 51:3

  Against her let the archer bend his bow, and against her let him rise up in his armor; and do not spare her young men; devote to destruction all her army.

• Jeremiah 51:22

  and I will shatter with you man and woman; and I will shatter with you old man and boy; and I will shatter with you young man and virgin;

• Lamentations 1:15

  Adonai has rejected all my mighty ones in my midst; he has called against me an appointed feast to crush my young men; Adonai has trodden as a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

• Lamentations 1:18

  “Righteous is he, YHWH, for against his mouth I have rebelled; hear, please, all the peoples, and see my pain; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

• Lamentations 2:21

  They lie on the ground in the streets, boy and old man; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, you have not pitied.

• Lamentations 5:13

  Young men have carried the mill, and boys have stumbled under the wood.

• Lamentations 5:14

  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

• Ezekiel 9:6

  Old man, young man, and virgin, and little ones, and women, kill to destruction; but any man on whom is the mark, do not come near; and from my sanctuary begin.” And they began with the men, the elders who were before the house.

• Ezekiel 23:6

  clothed in blue, governors and prefects, desirable young men all of them, horsemen riding horses.

• Ezekiel 23:12

  With the sons of Assyria she was infatuated, governors and prefects, near ones, clothed to perfection, horsemen riding horses, desirable young men all of them.

• Ezekiel 23:23

  the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the sons of Assyria with them, desirable young men, governors and prefects all of them, officers and renowned men, riding horses, all of them.

• Ezekiel 30:17

  The young men of On and of Pi-beseth by the sword will fall, and they will go into captivity.

And 6 more times.