צַר
tsar · enemy; distress
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H6862 · appears 110 times in the Bible
What is the Strong number?
Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.What it means
tsar (צַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “enemy; distress”.
Enemy, adversary; also distress, a tight spot. The common idea is something that hems in and presses.
How to say it
tsar
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
- Someone who oppresses and attacks another; the adversary.
- A tight situation from which one cannot escape.
- Not wide, with no room to move.
- A very hard stone that gives off sparks, like the hooves of a horse.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
A word with two senses that come from the idea of narrowness: the adversary, the one who oppresses; and distress, a tight spot. As an adjective, narrow. From the same root is צָרָה, distress (H6869).
- The adversary: “who has delivered your adversaries into your hand” Genesis 14:20Numbers 10:9
- “YHWH, how many are my adversaries” Psalms 3:1Esther 7:6
- “In my distress I called on YHWH” 2 Samuel 22:7Psalms 18:6
- “When you are in distress … you will return to YHWH” Deuteronomy 4:30Psalms 4:1
- A narrow place Numbers 22:26
How we translate it
“Adversaries” 52 times, “distress” 29, “adversary” 18, “narrow” 5… This edition sets צַר = “adversary”, distinct from אֹיֵב = “enemy” (H341) (“an adversary and an enemy”, Esther 7:6), and “distress” when it is the tight spot.
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- adversaries ×52
- distress ×29
- adversary ×18
- narrow ×5
- Anguish ×1
- I am in great ×1
- enemy ×1
- like flint ×1
- tight ×1
- too small ×1
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×1
- Numbers×3
- Deuteronomy×5
- Joshua×1
- Judges×1
- 1 Samuel×2
- 2 Samuel×3
- 2 Kings×1
- 1 Chronicles×3
- 2 Chronicles×1
- Ezra×1
- Nehemiah×3
- Esther×2
- Job×8
- Psalms×38
- Proverbs×2
- Isaiah×15
- Jeremiah×4
- Lamentations×9
- Ezekiel×2
- Hosea×1
- Amos×1
- Micah×1
- Nahum×1
- Zechariah×1
- Genesis 14:20
and blessed be El Elyon, who has delivered your adversaries into your hand.” And he gave him a tenth of everything.
- Numbers 10:9
And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who harasses you, you shall sound an acclamation with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before YHWH your Elohim, and you will be saved from your enemies.
- Numbers 22:26
And the angel of YHWH went ahead again and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn to the right or to the left.
- Numbers 24:8
El brings him out of Egypt; he has as it were the horns of the wild ox. He shall devour the nations, his adversaries, and break their bones, and with his arrows shatter them.
- Deuteronomy 4:30
When you are in distress and all these things have found you, in the days to come, you will return to YHWH your Elohim and listen to his voice.
- Deuteronomy 32:27
if I did not fear the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries misjudge it, lest they say, “Our hand is raised high, and it is not YHWH who has done all this.”’
- Deuteronomy 32:41
if I sharpen the lightning of my sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will return vengeance to my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
- Deuteronomy 32:43
Acclaim, nations, his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and he will return vengeance to his adversaries, and make expiation for his land, his people.”
- Deuteronomy 33:7
And this is for Judah, and he said, “Hear, YHWH, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. His hands contend for him; and be a help against his adversaries.”
- Joshua 5:13
And it came about, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and look, a man was standing in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”
- Judges 11:7
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did not you hate me and drive me out of the house of my father? Why have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
- 1 Samuel 2:32
And you will look on the distress of the dwelling place in all the good that he does to Israel; and there will not be an old man in your house all the days.
- 1 Samuel 13:6
The men of Israel saw that they were in distress, for the people were hard pressed, and the people hid in the caves, in the thickets, in the rocks, in the strongholds, and in the cisterns.
- 2 Samuel 22:7
In my distress I called on YHWH, and to my Elohim I called; he heard from his temple my voice, and my cry came to his ears.
- 2 Samuel 24:13
So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall there come to you seven years of famine in your land? Or three months that you flee before your adversaries while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.”
- 2 Samuel 24:14
David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of YHWH, for his mercies are many; but into the hand of man let me not fall.”
- 2 Kings 6:1
The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, please, the place where we live before you is too small for us.
- 1 Chronicles 12:17
David went out before them and answered and said to them, “If you have come to me in peace, to help me, I will have toward you a heart united; but if it is to deceive me in favor of my adversaries, though there is no violence in my palms, may the Elohim of our fathers see and judge.”
- 1 Chronicles 21:12
either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your adversaries, with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or three days of the sword of YHWH, that is, pestilence in the land, with the angel of YHWH destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what word I should bring back to the one who sent me.”
- 1 Chronicles 21:13
David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall, please, into the hand of YHWH, for very great are his mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”
- 2 Chronicles 15:4
But in his distress he turned back to YHWH, Elohim of Israel; they sought him, and he let himself be found by them.
- Ezra 4:1
And the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the sons of the exile were building a temple for YHWH, the Elohim of Israel,
- Nehemiah 4:11
And our adversaries said, “They will not know nor see until we come into their midst and kill them and stop the work.”
- Nehemiah 9:27
So you gave them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them; and in the time of their distress they would cry out to you, and you from the heavens would hear, and according to your many mercies you would give them saviors, and they would save them from the hand of their adversaries.
- Esther 7:4
For we have been sold, I and my people, to destroy, to kill, and to make perish. And if we had been sold as male slaves and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for the adversary is not worth the harm to the king.”
- Esther 7:6
And Esther said, “A man, an adversary and an enemy: Haman, this evil man!” And Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
- Job 6:23
and ‘Rescue me from the hand of the adversary,’ and ‘From the hand of tyrants ransom me’?
- Job 7:11
So I too will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the distress of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 15:24
Anguish and distress terrify him; they overpower him like a king ready for the assault.
- Job 16:9
His anger tears and bears a grudge against me; he gnashes his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes at me.
- Job 19:11
And he has kindled his anger against me, and counts me to himself as his adversaries.
- Job 36:16
And he also incites you to come out from the mouth of distress into a broad place, with no constraint beneath it, and what is set on your table is full of fatness.
- Job 38:23
which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of battle and war?
- Job 41:15
Its pride is its rows of shields, shut up with a seal tight.
- Psalms 3:1
A psalm of David, when he fled from before Absalom his son. YHWH, how many are my adversaries; many are rising against me.
- Psalms 4:1
For the director. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David. When I call, answer me, Elohim of my righteousness. In distress you gave me room; show me favor and hear my prayer.
- Psalms 13:4
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him”; my adversaries will be jubilant when I am moved.
- Psalms 18:6
In my distress I called on YHWH, and to my Elohim I cried for help; he heard from his temple my voice, and my cry before him came into his ears.
- Psalms 27:2
When evildoers drew near against me to eat my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies —they stumbled and fell.
- Psalms 27:12
Do not give me over to the desire of my adversaries, for there have risen against me witnesses of lies and one who breathes out violence.
And 70 more times.