yavesh · dry up, wither

What it means

yavesh (יָבֵשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “dry up, wither”.

Dry up, become dry; wither.

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 lose water or moisture and become parched or withered.
2. To feel shame and be left with a lowered face.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To dry up, become dry; in the causative, to dry up something. It is said of water, of the ground and of plants. In a few passages, in the causative form, it has the sense of putting to shame or being ashamed; BDB places those cases under בּוֹשׁ (be ashamed).

• Waters that dry up Genesis 8:141 Kings 17:7Psalms 74:15
• “The grass withers, the flower fades” Isaiah 40:7Isaiah 40:8
• The body or the spirit drying up Psalms 22:15Proverbs 17:22
• The hand that dries up 1 Kings 13:4
• Being put to shame Jeremiah 10:142 Samuel 19:5

How we translate it

“Dried up” 22 times, “will dry up” 7, “wither” 7, “dries up” 5, “dry” 4, “withers” 4. Where the context asks for shame, “put to shame” 9 (“every goldsmith is put to shame”, Jeremiah 10:14) or “you have shamed” (2 Samuel 19:5).

How it is translated

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

• dried up ×22
• put to shame ×9
• will dry up ×7
• wither ×7
• dries up ×5
• dry ×4
• dry up ×4
• withers ×4
• withered ×3
• Were they ashamed ×2
• others ×6

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Joshua×6
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• Job×5
• Psalms×6
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×14
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×9
• Hosea×2
• Joel×6
• Amos×2
• Jonah×1
• Nahum×1
• Zechariah×4

• Genesis 8:7

  and he sent out the raven, and it went going out and returning until the waters had dried up from the earth.

• Genesis 8:14

  And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

• Joshua 2:10

  For we have heard how YHWH dried up the water of the Sea of Reeds before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorite who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

• Joshua 4:23

  For YHWH your Elohim dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as YHWH your Elohim did to the Sea of Reeds, which he dried up before us until we had crossed,

• Joshua 5:1

  And it came about, when all the kings of the Amorite who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanite who were by the sea, heard how YHWH had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

• Joshua 9:5

  and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out cloaks on them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and crumbled.

• Joshua 9:12

  This bread of ours was hot when we took it as provision from our houses on the day we set out to come to you; and now, look, it is dry and has crumbled.

• 2 Samuel 19:5

  Joab came to the king in the house and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the life of your sons and your daughters, and the life of your wives and the life of your concubines,

• 1 Kings 13:4

  And it happened when the king heard the word of the man of Elohim, which he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand dried up, which he had stretched out against him, and he could not draw it back to himself.

• 1 Kings 17:7

  And it happened after some days that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

• Job 8:12

  While it is still in its greenness, not cut down, it dries up before any grass.

• Job 12:15

  Look, he holds back the waters, and they dry up; and he releases them, and they overturn the earth.

• Job 14:11

  Waters go away from the sea, and a river is drained and dries up;

• Job 15:30

  He will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoot, and he will depart by the breath of his mouth.

• Job 18:16

  Below his roots dry up, and above his branches wither.

• Psalms 22:15

  My strength has dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my palate; and in the dust of death you lay me.

• Psalms 74:15

  You opened spring and brook; you dried up constant rivers.

• Psalms 90:6

  in the morning it blooms and is renewed; in the evening it withers and dries up.

• Psalms 102:4

  Struck down like grass and withered is my heart, for I forget to eat my bread.

• Psalms 102:11

  My days are like a shadow stretched out, and I like grass wither.

• Psalms 129:6

  May they be like grass on the rooftops, which before it is pulled up withers,

• Proverbs 17:22

  A glad heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bone.

• Isaiah 15:6

  For the waters of Nimrim will be desolations; for the grass has dried up, the tender grass is finished; green growth there is none.

• Isaiah 19:5

  And the waters of the sea will fail, and the river will be parched and dry up.

• Isaiah 19:7

  The meadows by the Nile, by the mouth of the Nile, and every sown field of the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

• 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 40:7

  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of YHWH blows on it; surely the people is grass.

• Isaiah 40:8

  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Elohim will stand forever.”

• Isaiah 40:24

  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their trunk taken root in the earth, when he also blows on them, and they wither, and the storm like stubble carries them off.

• Isaiah 42:15

  I will lay waste mountains and hills, and all their vegetation I will dry up; and I will turn rivers into coastlands, and the pools I will dry up.

• Isaiah 44:27

  who says to the deep, ‘Be dry, and your rivers I will dry up’;

• Jeremiah 6:15

  Were they ashamed because they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, and they did not know how to blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them they will stumble, says YHWH.

• Jeremiah 8:12

  Were they ashamed because they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, and to blush they did not know. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they will stumble, says YHWH.

• Jeremiah 10:14

  Every human being has become dull, without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

• Jeremiah 12:4

  How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of those who dwell in it the animals and the birds are swept away, for they say: “He will not see our end.”

• Jeremiah 23:10

  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the curse the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness have dried up; and their course is evil, and their might is not right.

• Jeremiah 46:24

  The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; she has been given into the hand of a people of the north.

• Jeremiah 48:1

  Concerning Moab. Thus says YHWH Tsevaot, Elohim of Israel: Woe to Nebo, for it has been devastated! Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is captured; the high refuge is put to shame and dismayed.

• Jeremiah 48:20

  Moab is put to shame, for it is dismayed; wail and cry out! Declare in the Arnon that Moab is devastated.

• Jeremiah 50:2

  Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner; proclaim, do not conceal it; say, “Babylon is captured, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her idols are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.”

And 33 more times.