yashav · sit, dwell

What it means

yashav (יָשַׁב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sit, dwell”.

Sit, sit down; from there stay in a place, live, dwell. In the causative form, settle someone, make to dwell. Also sit as judge or as king.

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. To sit; or sit on the throne to reign.
2. To remain in a place.
3. To make one's home in a place.
4. For a land to be inhabited.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Sit; from there stay and dwell. BDB: properly to sit down (also as judge, in ambush or at rest); by extension, to dwell, to remain.

• To sit Genesis 18:1Ruth 4:1
• To sit on the throne: to reign 1 Kings 1:13Psalms 2:4
• To stay, to remain Genesis 22:5
• To live in a place; “the inhabitants” Genesis 13:12Genesis 19:25

Historical and cultural background

Legal matters were settled sitting at the city gate, before the elders (Ruth 4:1-2).

How we translate it

“Inhabitants” 186 times, “lived” 164, “live” 133, “dwell” 89, “sit” 79, “sat” 75, “stayed” 43. “Inhabitants” renders the participle, “those who dwell”. When the scene is physical it is translated “sit”; when the point is residing, “live” or “dwell”; when it is staying on, “stay”.

How it is translated

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

• inhabitants ×186
• lived ×164
• live ×133
• dwell ×89
• sit ×79
• sat ×75
• sitting ×53
• stayed ×43
• inhabitant ×40
• stay ×39
• others ×180

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×71
• Exodus×21
• Leviticus×24
• Numbers×37
• Deuteronomy×46
• Joshua×52
• Judges×71
• Ruth×11
• 1 Samuel×47
• 2 Samuel×29
• 1 Kings×53
• 2 Kings×41
• 1 Chronicles×43
• 2 Chronicles×51
• Ezra×12
• Nehemiah×22
• Esther×9
• Job×8
• Psalms×60
• Proverbs×8
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×3
• Isaiah×69
• Jeremiah×148
• Lamentations×9
• Ezekiel×63
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×8
• Joel×5
• Amos×7
• Jonah×3
• Micah×11
• Nahum×2
• Habakkuk×2
• Zephaniah×8
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×23
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 4:16

  And Cain went out from the presence of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

• Genesis 4:20

  And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock.

• Genesis 11:2

  As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

• Genesis 11:31

  Terah took Abram his son, Lot son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came as far as Haran and settled there.

• Genesis 13:6

  But the land could not support them living together, for their possessions were great, and they could not live together.

• Genesis 13:7

  So there was a quarrel between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living then in the land.

• Genesis 13:12

  Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

• Genesis 13:18

  So Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and he built there an altar to YHWH.

• Genesis 14:7

  Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated the whole territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

• Genesis 14:12

  They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions, and went away; for he was living in Sodom.

• Genesis 16:3

  So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, at the end of ten years of Abram’s living in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.

• Genesis 18:1

  YHWH appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.

• Genesis 19:1

  The two messengers came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

• Genesis 19:25

  He overturned those cities, and the whole plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

• Genesis 19:29

  So it was that when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, Elohim remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overturning, when he overturned the cities in which Lot had lived.

• Genesis 19:30

  Lot went up from Zoar and lived on the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar; and he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.

• Genesis 20:1

  Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur, and he resided as an alien in Gerar.

• Genesis 20:15

  And Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever it is good in your eyes.”

• Genesis 21:16

  Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Let me not see the death of the child.” And she sat opposite him, lifted up her voice, and wept.

• Genesis 21:20

  Elohim was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

• Genesis 21:21

  He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.

• Genesis 22:5

  Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there; we will bow down and come back to you.”

• Genesis 22:19

  Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived in Beersheba.

• Genesis 23:10

  Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

• Genesis 24:3

  and I will make you swear by YHWH, the Elohim of the heavens and the Elohim of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,

• Genesis 24:37

  My lord made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live;

• Genesis 24:55

  Her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us some days, or ten; after that she will go.”

• Genesis 24:62

  Isaac had come back from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the land of the Negev.

• Genesis 25:11

  After the death of Abraham, Elohim blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi.

• Genesis 25:27

  The boys grew up, and Esau became a man skilled in hunting, a man of the field, while Jacob was a man of integrity, living in tents.

• Genesis 26:6

  So Isaac lived in Gerar.

• Genesis 26:17

  Isaac went away from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and lived there.

• Genesis 27:19

  Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”

• Genesis 27:44

  and stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away,

• Genesis 29:14

  Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.

• Genesis 29:19

  Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I give her to another man; stay with me.”

• Genesis 31:34

  Now Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them in the saddle of the camel and sat on them. Laban felt through the whole tent but did not find them.

• Genesis 34:10

  You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you; dwell in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

• Genesis 34:16

  Then we will give our daughters to you, and your daughters we will take for ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people.

• Genesis 34:21

  “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for the land, look, is spacious enough for them. Their daughters we will take for ourselves as wives, and our daughters we will give to them.

And 1041 more times.