yatsar · form

What it means

yatsar (יָצַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “form”.

Shape, like a potter who molds clay; figuratively, plan, purpose. As a noun, "potter".

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 mold, as God molded man from dust.
2. The one who works clay and shapes it into pots with his hands.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To form, give shape, as the potter molds clay; from there to plan, devise. The participle, “the one who forms”, names the potter and, said of YHWH, the Former. Of the same root is יֵצֶר (what is formed, the inclination of the heart).

• YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust Genesis 2:7Genesis 2:19
• Formed in the womb Jeremiah 1:5Isaiah 43:1
• The potter and the clay Jeremiah 18:4Isaiah 64:8Isaiah 29:16
• YHWH formed the earth, the sea, the seasons Isaiah 45:18Psalms 95:5Psalms 74:17
• Those who form idols Isaiah 44:9Habakkuk 2:18

Historical and cultural background

Jeremiah went down to the potter's house and saw that, when the vessel was ruined in his hand, he made it again, “as seemed right in the eyes of the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:4).

How we translate it

“Formed” 26 times, “who forms” 5, “forms” 2; “potter” 17 and “potters” 2 for the participle in its trade; “Former” 4 when it is a title of YHWH. Since the same verb is used, the image of the potter can be seen also in Genesis 2:7 (“YHWH Elohim formed the man”) and in Isaiah (“we {are} the clay, and you our potter”, Isaiah 64:8).

How it is translated

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

• formed ×26
• potter ×17
• who forms ×5
• Former ×4
• forms ×2
• potters ×2
• Those who form ×1
• am forming ×1
• fashioned ×1
• he shapes it ×1
• others ×2

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×3
• Exodus×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Psalms×8
• Isaiah×27
• Jeremiah×13
• Lamentations×1
• Amos×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 2:7

  And YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

• Genesis 2:8

  And YHWH Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

• Genesis 2:19

  And YHWH Elohim formed from the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called it, as a living being, that was its name.

• Exodus 32:4

  And he took it from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a calf of cast metal. And they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

• 2 Samuel 17:28

  brought beds, basins, and potter’s vessels, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, and roasted grain,

• 2 Kings 19:25

  Have you not heard? From afar I made it, from days of old I formed it; now I have brought it about, and it has been for reducing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

• 1 Chronicles 4:23

  These were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah; with the king, in his work, they lived there.

• Psalms 2:9

  You will break them with a rod of iron; like a vessel of a potter you will dash them to pieces.”

• Psalms 33:15

  he who forms their heart all alike, who understands all their works.

• Psalms 74:17

  You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; summer and winter, you formed them.

• Psalms 94:9

  He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not look?

• Psalms 94:20

  Can a throne of calamities be allied with you, one that forms suffering upon a statute?

• Psalms 95:5

  His is the sea, and he made it, and the dry land his hands formed.

• Psalms 104:26

  There the ships go, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

• Psalms 139:16

  My embryo your eyes saw; and in your book all of them were written, the days that were formed, when there was not one of them.

• Isaiah 22:11

  And a reservoir you made between the two walls for the waters of the old pool; but you did not look to the one who made it, and the one who formed it from afar you did not see.

• Isaiah 27:11

  When its boughs dry up, they will be broken; women will come and set it on fire. For it is not a people of understanding; therefore its Maker will not have compassion on it, and the one who formed it will not show it favor.

• Isaiah 29:16

  Your perversity! Is the potter to be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me,” and the vessel say of its potter, “He has no understanding”?

• Isaiah 30:14

  And he will break it as one breaks a potters’ jar, crushed without sparing, and there will not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to scoop water from the pool.”

• Isaiah 37:26

  Have you not heard? From afar I made it, from days of old I formed it; now I have brought it about, and it has been for reducing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

• Isaiah 41:25

  I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun he will call on my name; and he will come upon officials as upon clay, and as the potter treads mud.

• Isaiah 43:1

  And now, thus says YHWH, who created you, Jacob, and who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.

• Isaiah 43:7

  everyone who is called by my name, and for my glory I have created him, I have formed him, also I have made him.’”

• Isaiah 43:10

  “You are my witnesses, declares YHWH, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am the same; before me no god was formed, and after me there will not be one.

• Isaiah 43:21

  The people whom I formed for myself will recount my praise.

• Isaiah 44:2

  Thus says YHWH, who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: “Do not fear, my servant Jacob, and Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

• Isaiah 44:9

  Those who form carved images, all of them are emptiness, and their desired things do not profit; and their witnesses, they do not see and do not know, so that they will be put to shame.

• Isaiah 44:10

  Who has formed a god and cast a carved image that is of no profit?

• Isaiah 44:12

  The craftsman of iron with a tool works it over the coals, and with hammers he shapes it, and works it with his strong arm; also he is hungry, and there is no strength; he does not drink water, and he grows tired.

• Isaiah 44:21

  “Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are a servant to me, Israel; you will not be forgotten by me.

• Isaiah 44:24

  Thus says YHWH, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: “I am YHWH, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens alone, who spreads out the earth by myself;

• Isaiah 45:7

  who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates evil; I, YHWH, do all these things.

• Isaiah 45:9

  Woe to him who contends with his Former, a potsherd among the potsherds of the ground! Will the clay say to the one who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’?

• Isaiah 45:11

  Thus says YHWH, the Holy One of Israel and his Former: “Ask me about the things that are coming; concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands will you command me?

• Isaiah 45:18

  For thus says YHWH, who creates the heavens —he is the Elohim—, who formed the earth and made it —he established it; not as formless did he create it; to be inhabited he formed it—: “I am YHWH, and there is no other.

• Isaiah 46:11

  calling from the east a bird of prey, from a distant land the man of my counsel; also I have spoken, also I will bring it about; I have formed it, also I will do it.

• Isaiah 49:5

  And now says YHWH, who formed me from the womb as his servant, to bring back Jacob to him, and Israel to him will be gathered —and I am honored in the eyes of YHWH, and my Elohim has been my strength—

• Isaiah 54:17

  No weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of YHWH, and their righteousness is from me,” declares YHWH.

• Isaiah 64:8

  But now, YHWH, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and the work of your hand are all of us.

• Jeremiah 1:5

  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you; a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”

And 22 more times.