nasa · lift, carry, bear

What it means

nasa (נָשָׂא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “lift, carry, bear”.

Lift up, carry, bear. "Bear sin" is to suffer its consequences; said of God, "taking away" sin is forgiving it. "Lift up the eyes" is to look.

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 direct the eyes upward, make the voice loud, or put up the hand.
2. To put something on oneself and carry it, on the shoulders or in the arms.
3. To bear the consequences of a fault, like someone carrying a weight.
4. To take away someone's sin, forgive.
5. To get something; with "a wife", to marry.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Lift, raise, carry, bear. BDB: to lift, with a great variety of literal and figurative uses. From the same root is מַשָּׂא, “burden” (H4853).

• To lift up the eyes, the voice or the face Genesis 13:10Genesis 27:38Numbers 6:26
• To carry, to lift a weight Genesis 7:17
• To bear one's own guilt Leviticus 5:1Genesis 4:13
• To bear the sin of another; to forgive Exodus 34:7Genesis 50:17Isaiah 53:12
• Fixed expressions: take a census, show favoritism Numbers 1:2Deuteronomy 10:17

Historical and cultural background

On the Day of Expiation, the goat “shall carry on itself all their iniquities to a land cut off” (Leviticus 16:22).

How we translate it

There is no dominant form: “bear” 69 times, “carry” 62, “lifted up” 60, “lift up” 59, “carried” 58, “take” 37. With guilt or sin, the same verb gives “bear” (the guilty one bears his iniquity) and “forgive” (literally to “carry” or take away the guilt). This edition's fixed expressions: נָשָׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ, “take a census” (literally “lift the head”), and נָשָׂא פָנִים, “show favoritism” (literally “lift the face”), both with a note on the literal sense.

How it is translated

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

• bear ×69
• carry ×62
• lifted up ×60
• lift up ×59
• carried ×58
• take ×37
• lifted ×34
• who carried ×33
• carrying ×28
• raise ×15
• others ×196

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×46
• Exodus×33
• Leviticus×22
• Numbers×47
• Deuteronomy×20
• Joshua×24
• Judges×10
• Ruth×4
• 1 Samuel×32
• 2 Samuel×23
• 1 Kings×12
• 2 Kings×23
• 1 Chronicles×24
• 2 Chronicles×16
• Ezra×5
• Nehemiah×4
• Esther×7
• Job×28
• Psalms×48
• Proverbs×9
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×58
• Jeremiah×26
• Lamentations×5
• Ezekiel×76
• Daniel×5
• Hosea×6
• Joel×1
• Amos×4
• Jonah×2
• Micah×7
• Nahum×1
• Habakkuk×3
• Haggai×2
• Zechariah×11
• Malachi×4

• Genesis 4:13

  And Cain said to YHWH, “My iniquity is too great to bear.

• Genesis 7:17

  And the flood was forty days on the earth; and the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose above the earth.

• Genesis 13:6

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

• Genesis 13:10

  Lot lifted his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well-watered (before YHWH destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of YHWH, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

• Genesis 13:14

  YHWH said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

• Genesis 18:2

  He lifted his eyes and looked, and look, three men were standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed down to the ground.

• Genesis 18:24

  Perhaps there are fifty righteous within the city; will you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

• Genesis 18:26

  YHWH said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

• Genesis 19:21

  He said to him, “Look, I grant you this request also, not to overturn the city of which you have spoken.

• 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 21:18

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

• Genesis 22:4

  On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

• Genesis 22:13

  Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, a ram behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.

• Genesis 24:63

  Isaac went out to meditate in the field as evening drew near; he lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, camels were coming.

• Genesis 24:64

  Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she got down from the camel.

• Genesis 27:3

  So now, take, please, your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,

• Genesis 27:38

  Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me too, my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

• Genesis 29:1

  Jacob lifted up his feet and went to the land of the sons of the east.

• Genesis 29:11

  Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his voice and wept.

• Genesis 31:10

  It happened at the time when the flock was in heat that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and look, the male goats that were mounting the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.

• Genesis 31:12

  He said, ‘Lift up, please, your eyes and see: all the male goats that are mounting the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

• Genesis 31:17

  Then Jacob rose and put his children and his wives on the camels.

• Genesis 32:20

  And you shall say, ‘Also, look, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he said to himself, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

• Genesis 33:1

  Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and look, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave women.

• Genesis 33:5

  He lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” He said, “The children with whom Elohim has favored your servant.”

• Genesis 36:7

  For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they resided as aliens could not support them because of their livestock.

• Genesis 37:25

  Then they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted their eyes and looked, and look, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying aromatic gum, balm, and ladanum, on their way to take it down to Egypt.

• Genesis 39:7

  After these things, his lord’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”

• Genesis 40:13

  Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, after the former manner when you were his cupbearer.

• Genesis 40:19

  Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from upon you and hang you on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh from upon you.”

• Genesis 40:20

  On the third day, Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and the head of the chief of the bakers among his servants.

• Genesis 42:26

  They loaded their grain on their donkeys and went from there.

• Genesis 43:29

  He lifted his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?” And he said, “May Elohim show you favor, my son.”

• Genesis 43:34

  Portions were carried to them from before him, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than the portions of all of them. They drank and became drunk with him.

• Genesis 44:1

  He commanded the one over his house, saying, “Fill the bags of the men with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his bag.

• Genesis 45:19

  And you are commanded: ‘Do this: take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

• Genesis 45:23

  And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys carrying some of the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys carrying grain, bread, and provisions for his father for the journey.

• Genesis 45:27

  But they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and he saw the carts that Joseph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their father revived.

• Genesis 46:5

  Then Jacob set out from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father and their little ones and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

• Genesis 47:30

  When I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” He said, “I will do as you have said.”

And 611 more times.