katsar · reap, be short

What it means

katsar (קָצַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “reap, be short”.

Reap: cut the grain; harvest. Also be short, be shortened ("is the hand of YHWH too short?").

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 cut the ripe grain; those who cut it.
2. To come up lacking; run out of patience.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To reap, to cut the grain; and, from the same root meaning ‘cut’, to be shortened, to be short. Hence the expression ‘the soul was shortened’, which is to grow impatient. From this verb comes קָצִיר, ‘harvest’ (H7105).

• Reaping the field Leviticus 19:9Ruth 2:3Leviticus 25:5
• Sowing and reaping: what one harvests Psalms 126:5Hosea 8:7Proverbs 22:8
• “Is YHWH’s hand too short?” Numbers 11:23Isaiah 59:1
• “Grew impatient”: the soul that is shortened Numbers 21:4Judges 16:16
• Shortening the days Psalms 89:45

Historical and cultural background

In the land’s year of rest, what grew by itself was not reaped (Leviticus 25:5). Ruth gleans “behind the reapers” in Boaz’s field (Ruth 2:3).

How we translate it

When it is the grain, “reap” (18 times), and the participle, “reapers” (7) or “reaper” (3), as in Ruth 2. With the hand or the days, “too short” or “shortened” (“the hand of YHWH has not grown too short to save”, Isaiah 59:1; “You have shortened the days of his youth”, Psalm 89:45). The expression קָצְרָה נֶפֶשׁ is rendered “grew impatient” (4): “the soul of the people grew impatient on the way” (Numbers 21:4).

How it is translated

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

• reap ×18
• reapers ×7
• grew impatient ×4
• too short ×4
• reaper ×3
• finish reaping ×2
• You have shortened ×1
• been shortened ×1
• grow impatient ×1
• he has shortened ×1
• others ×7

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Leviticus×7
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×2
• Ruth×7
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Kings×2
• Job×3
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×6
• Jeremiah×2
• Ezekiel×1
• Hosea×3
• Amos×1
• Micah×2
• Zechariah×1

• Leviticus 19:9

  And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not finish reaping the edge of your field, and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not gather.

• Leviticus 23:10

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.

• Leviticus 23:22

  And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not finish reaping the edge of your field, and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not gather; for the poor and for the resident alien you shall leave them. I am YHWH your Elohim.”

• Leviticus 25:5

  What grows by itself from your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you shall not gather; it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

• Leviticus 25:11

  That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; you shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows by itself and you shall not gather its unpruned vines.

• Numbers 11:23

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Is YHWH’s hand too short? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

• Numbers 21:4

  And they set out from Hor the mountain by the way of the Sea of Reeds, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people grew impatient on the way.

• Deuteronomy 24:19

  When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to take it; it shall be for the resident alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all the work of your hands.

• Judges 10:16

  They removed the foreign gods from among them and served YHWH; and his soul grew impatient with the toil of Israel.

• Judges 16:16

  And it happened, when she pressed him with her words every day and urged him, that his soul grew impatient to the point of death.

• Ruth 2:3

  So she went, came, and gleaned in the field behind the reapers; and her chance happened to be the plot of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.

• Ruth 2:4

  And look, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, “YHWH be with you.” And they said to him, “May YHWH bless you.”

• Ruth 2:5

  Then Boaz said to his young man who was set over the reapers, “Whose is this young woman?”

• Ruth 2:6

  The young man who was set over the reapers answered and said, “She is a Moabite young woman, the one who returned with Naomi from the field of Moab.

• Ruth 2:7

  She said, ‘Let me glean, please, and I will gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came and has been standing from the morning until now; she has sat in the house only a little.”

• Ruth 2:9

  Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men draw.”

• Ruth 2:14

  At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and eat some of the bread and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her roasted grain; she ate, was satisfied, and had some left over.

• 1 Samuel 6:13

  Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping the harvest of wheat in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it.

• 1 Samuel 8:12

  and he will appoint for himself chiefs of thousands and chiefs of fifties, and some to plow his plowland and to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and the equipment of his chariots.

• 2 Kings 4:18

  The child grew, and it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers.

• 2 Kings 19:29

  And this shall be for you the sign: this year you will eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

• Job 4:8

  As I have seen, those who plow wickedness and those who sow suffering reap it.

• Job 21:4

  Is my complaint to a human being? And why should my spirit not grow impatient?

• Job 24:6

  In the field they reap his fodder, and the vineyard of the wicked they glean.

• Psalms 89:45

  You have shortened the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame. Selah.

• Psalms 102:23

  He has afflicted in the way my strength; he has shortened my days.

• Psalms 126:5

  Those who sow with tears with shouts of joy will reap.

• Psalms 129:7

  with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor the one who binds sheaves his lap;

• Proverbs 10:27

  The fear of YHWH adds days, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.

• Proverbs 22:8

  Whoever sows injustice will reap wickedness, and the rod of his fury will come to an end.

• Ecclesiastes 11:4

  Whoever watches the wind will not sow, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

• Isaiah 17:5

  And it will be as when one gathers the harvest, the standing grain, and his arm reaps the ears; and it will be like one who gleans ears in the valley of Rephaim.

• Isaiah 28:20

  For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

• Isaiah 37:30

  And this shall be for you the sign: this year you will eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

• Isaiah 50:2

  Why did I come, and there was no one; I called, and there was no one to answer? Is my hand really too short to ransom? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Look, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

• Isaiah 59:1

  Look, the hand of YHWH has not grown too short to save, nor his ear too heavy to hear.

• Jeremiah 9:22

  Speak: “Thus declares YHWH: ‘The corpses of human beings will fall like dung on the face of the field, and like a sheaf behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.’”

• Jeremiah 12:13

  They have sown wheat and thorns they have reaped; they have worn themselves out; it does not profit them. And be ashamed of your harvests because of the burning anger of YHWH.

• Ezekiel 42:5

  And the upper chambers were shorter, because the terraces took space from them more than from the lower ones and the middle ones of the building.

• Hosea 8:7

  For wind they sow, and a whirlwind they will reap; standing grain, it has no sprout; it will not yield flour; if perhaps it yields, strangers will swallow it.

And 9 more times.