natsav · stand, set up

What it means

natsav (נָצַב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “stand, set up”.

Stand, take one's stand; in other forms, set up, place, appoint.

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 remain upright in a place without moving.
2. To set something up so that it stays firm, like a pillar or a wall of water.
3. One in charge of others.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To stand, to be stationed in a place; in the causative, to set up, erect something. The participle names the one set over others. Of the same root is מַצֵּבָה, the stone or pillar set up as a memorial.

• Standing before someone or beside something Genesis 18:2Genesis 24:13Exodus 18:14
• Standing, firm Genesis 28:13Psalms 119:89
• Setting up an altar or a standing stone Genesis 33:20Genesis 35:14
• Set over others: overseer and prefects Ruth 2:51 Kings 4:7

Historical and cultural background

Solomon had “twelve prefects over all Israel, and they sustained the king and his house”, each one a month of the year (1 Kings 4:7).

How we translate it

“Standing” 13 times, “stand” 6, “stood” 5, “were standing” 5; with the causative, “set” 12 and “set up” 9 (Genesis 35:14). The plural participle in 1 Kings is translated “prefects” (6 times): those Solomon set over the districts (1 Kings 4:7), distinct from נְצִיב, “garrison”, in Samuel.

How it is translated

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

• standing ×13
• set ×12
• set up ×9
• prefects ×6
• stand ×6
• stood ×5
• were standing ×5
• stands ×4
• who stood ×4
• stationed ×2
• others ×9

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×12
• Exodus×8
• Numbers×6
• Deuteronomy×2
• Joshua×1
• Judges×3
• Ruth×2
• 1 Samuel×9
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×7
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Psalms×7
• Proverbs×2
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×2
• Lamentations×2
• Amos×2
• Nahum×1
• Zechariah×1

• 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 21:28

  Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

• Genesis 21:29

  And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What are these seven ewe lambs that you have set by themselves?”

• Genesis 24:13

  Look, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

• Genesis 24:43

  look, I am standing by the spring of water. Let it be that the young woman who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,”

• Genesis 28:12

  He dreamed, and look, a ladder set on the earth, and its top reaching to the heavens; and look, the angels of Elohim were going up and coming down on it.

• Genesis 28:13

  And look, YHWH stood above it and said, “I am YHWH, the Elohim of Abraham your father and the Elohim of Isaac. The land on which you are lying I will give it to you and to your offspring.

• Genesis 33:20

  He set up there an altar and called it “El, the Elohim of Israel.”

• Genesis 35:14

  Jacob set up a standing stone in the place where he had spoken with him, a standing stone of stone; he poured out a libation on it and poured oil on it.

• Genesis 35:20

  Jacob set up a standing stone on her grave; it is the standing stone of Rachel’s grave to this day.

• Genesis 37:7

  Look, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and look, my sheaf rose and also stood upright; and look, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down before my sheaf.”

• Genesis 45:1

  Then Joseph could not control himself before all who stood by him, and he cried out, “Have everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

• Exodus 5:20

  They met Moses and Aaron, who were standing to meet them, as they came out from Pharaoh.

• Exodus 7:15

  Go to Pharaoh in the morning; look, he is going out to the water. Station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and the staff that was turned into a serpent you shall take in your hand.

• Exodus 15:8

  By the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the streams stood up like a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

• Exodus 17:9

  Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of Elohim in my hand.”

• Exodus 18:14

  When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

• Exodus 33:8

  And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each man at the entrance of his tent, and watch after Moses until he went into the tent.

• Exodus 33:21

  And YHWH said, “Look, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.

• Exodus 34:2

  And be ready for the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain.

• Numbers 16:27

  So they moved away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, from around; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.

• Numbers 22:23

  And the donkey saw the angel of YHWH standing in the road, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back to the road.

• Numbers 22:31

  Then YHWH uncovered the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of YHWH standing in the road, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed and prostrated himself on his face.

• Numbers 22:34

  And Balaam said to the angel of YHWH, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road against me. And now, if it is displeasing in your eyes, I will turn back.”

• Numbers 23:6

  So he returned to him, and look, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and all the princes of Moab.

• Numbers 23:17

  And he came to him, and look, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has YHWH spoken?”

• Deuteronomy 29:10

  You are standing today, all of you, before YHWH your Elohim: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your supervisors, every man of Israel,

• Deuteronomy 32:8

  When Elyon gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

• Joshua 6:26

  Joshua made them swear at that time, saying, “Cursed before YHWH be the man who rises up and builds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates.”

• Judges 9:6

  All the lords of Shechem gathered, and all the house of Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the standing stone that is in Shechem.

• Judges 18:16

  Now the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, were standing at the entrance of the gate.

• Judges 18:17

  And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up; they came in there, took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the cast image, while the priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

• 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.

• 1 Samuel 1:26

  And she said, “Pardon me, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here with you to pray to YHWH.

• 1 Samuel 4:20

  And about the time of her death the women standing by her said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not answer or set her heart to it.

• 1 Samuel 13:21

  And the price was a pim for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and for the three-pronged forks and for the axes, and for setting straight the goad.

• 1 Samuel 15:12

  Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told to Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and look, he is setting up for himself a monument; and he turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”

• 1 Samuel 19:20

  Saul sent messengers to take David; and they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing, stationed over them; and the spirit of Elohim was upon the messengers of Saul, and they too prophesied.

• 1 Samuel 22:6

  Saul heard that David had been discovered, and the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah under the tamarisk on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing by him.

And 35 more times.