yetser · inclination, intention

What it means

yetser (יֵצֶר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “inclination, intention”.

What a person forms inwardly: their inclination, intentions, purpose; also something formed.

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. What one thinks and intends inside.
2. The way God made us: frail, from dust.
3. What someone shapes with his hands, like a clay pot.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• inclination ×5
• frame ×1
• maker ×1
• purpose ×1
• vessel ×1
• work ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Deuteronomy×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• Psalms×1
• Isaiah×2
• Habakkuk×2

• Genesis 6:5

  And YHWH saw that the wickedness of the human being was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day.

• Genesis 8:21

  And YHWH smelled the pleasing aroma, and YHWH said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human being, for the inclination of the heart of the human being is evil from his youth; and I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

• Deuteronomy 31:21

  And it shall be, when many evils and troubles have found them, that this song will testify before them as a witness, for it will not be forgotten from the mouths of their offspring. For I know their inclination, what they are doing today, before I bring them into the land that I swore.”

• 1 Chronicles 28:9

  And you, Solomon my son, know the Elohim of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing soul; for YHWH seeks out all hearts and understands every inclination of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will let himself be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

• 1 Chronicles 29:18

  YHWH, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever as the inclination of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and establish their heart toward you.

• Psalms 103:14

  For he knows our frame; he remembers that dust we are.

• Isaiah 26:3

  The purpose that is sustained you will keep in peace, peace, for in you it trusts.

• 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”?

• Habakkuk 2:18

  What does a carved image profit when its maker has carved it, a cast image and a teacher of falsehood, that the maker of his work trusts in it, to make mute idols?

And 1 more times.