naar · young man, servant

What it means

naar (נַעַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “young man, servant”.

Boy, young man; also a servant or attendant.

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 child or a young man who is still growing and does not rule a household.
2. A young man, often in someone's service: servant, messenger or soldier.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

A boy or young man, from infancy to youth; from there a servant or attendant. BDB gives these senses. Its feminine is נַעֲרָה, girl (H5291).

• A little child or a boy Exodus 2:6Genesis 21:171 Samuel 1:24
• A youth: Joseph “was a young man” Genesis 37:2
• A servant, someone's attendant Genesis 22:32 Kings 5:20
• “You {are} a young man”: too young 1 Samuel 17:33

How we translate it

“Young man” 92 times, “young men” 62, “boy” 61, “boys” 7, “youth” 6. English chooses by age: “boy” for a child (Exodus 2:6; Genesis 21:17), “young man” for a youth; for an attendant it keeps “young man” (“two of his young men”, Genesis 22:3; Gehazi, “the young man of Elisha”, 2 Kings 5:20), with a note where needed.

How it is translated

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

• young man ×92
• young men ×62
• boy ×61
• young ×9
• boys ×7
• youth ×6
• youths ×2

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×27
• Exodus×4
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×2
• Judges×23
• Ruth×6
• 1 Samuel×60
• 2 Samuel×26
• 1 Kings×11
• 2 Kings×24
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Nehemiah×8
• Esther×4
• Job×7
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×7
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×3
• Lamentations×2
• Hosea×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 14:24

  Nothing for me; only what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre: let them take their share.”

• Genesis 18:7

  And to the herd Abraham ran, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the young man, who hurried to prepare it.

• Genesis 19:4

  Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter.

• Genesis 21:12

  But Elohim said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your eyes on account of the boy and on account of your slave woman. All that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, for through Isaac offspring will be named for you.

• Genesis 21:17

  Elohim heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of Elohim called to Hagar from the heavens and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for Elohim has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

• Genesis 21:18

  Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

• Genesis 21:19

  Then Elohim opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave a drink to the boy.

• Genesis 21:20

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

• Genesis 22:3

  Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he rose and went to the place that Elohim had told him.

• 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 22:12

  He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear Elohim, since you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.”

• Genesis 22:19

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

• 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 34:19

  The young man did not delay to do the thing, for he delighted in the daughter of Jacob; and he was the most honored of all the house of his father.

• Genesis 37:2

  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought bad reports about them to their father.

• Genesis 41:12

  A young man was there with us, a Hebrew, a slave of the chief of the guard. We told him, and he interpreted for us our dreams; to each according to his dream he interpreted.

• Genesis 43:8

  Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the young man with me, and we will get up and go, so that we may live and not die, both we and you and our little ones.

• Genesis 44:22

  We said to my lord, ‘The young man cannot leave his father; if he leaves his father, he would die.’

• Genesis 44:30

  Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the young man is not with us, since his soul is bound up with his soul,

• Genesis 44:31

  when he sees that the young man is not there, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to Sheol.

• Genesis 44:32

  For your servant became surety for the young man to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him to you, then I will have sinned against my father for all time.’

• Genesis 44:33

  Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the young man as a slave to my lord, and let the young man go up with his brothers.

• Genesis 44:34

  For how can I go up to my father if the young man is not with me? Let me not see the evil that would come upon my father.”

• Genesis 48:16

  the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the young men; and in them let my name be called, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them teem in multitude in the midst of the earth.”

• Exodus 2:6

  She opened it and saw him, the child, and look, a boy crying! She had pity on him and said, “This is one of the children of the Hebrews.”

• Exodus 10:9

  Moses said, “With our young and with our old we will go; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go, for we have a feast of YHWH.”

• Exodus 24:5

  He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as sacrifices of peace to YHWH.

• Exodus 33:11

  And YHWH would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his companion. Then he would return to the camp, but his assistant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from inside the tent.

• Numbers 11:27

  And the young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

• Numbers 22:22

  But the anger of Elohim burned because he was going, and the angel of YHWH took his stand in the road as an opponent to him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two young men were with him.

• Deuteronomy 28:50

  a nation fierce of face, which will not show regard for the old and will not favor the young.

• Joshua 6:21

  And they devoted to destruction all that was in the city, from man to woman, from young man to old man, to ox, lamb, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

• Joshua 6:23

  So the young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had; and all her families they brought out, and they left them outside the camp of Israel.

• Judges 7:10

  But if you are afraid to go down, go down, you and Purah your young man, to the camp,

• Judges 7:11

  and you will hear what they say, and afterward your hands will be strengthened, and you will go down against the camp.” So he went down, he and Purah his young man, to the edge of those in battle array who were in the camp.

• Judges 8:14

  He captured a young man of the men of Succoth and questioned him, and he wrote down for him the officials of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.

• Judges 8:20

  He said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise, kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man.

• Judges 9:54

  He called at once to the young man who carried his weapons and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his young man ran him through, and he died.

• Judges 13:5

  For look, you will be pregnant and bear a son. And no razor shall come up on his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb, and he will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

• Judges 13:7

  But he said to me, ‘Look, you will be pregnant and bear a son; so now do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, and do not eat any uncleanness, for the boy shall be a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb until the day of his death.’”

And 199 more times.