יָצַר
ya.tsar
to form: formed
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of יָצַר (yatsar) - "to form" The Hebrew verb יָצַר appears 38 times in the biblical text and carries the fundamental meaning of forming or shaping. This word describes the act of creation or fashioning, whether material or abstract. The verb encompasses the process of giving shape to something—taking raw material or potential and organizing it into a defined form. Its consistent presence throughout Scripture (38 occurrences) suggests it held considerable importance in Hebrew thought and theological discourse. The significance of this word lies in its application across different contexts of formation. It could describe practical acts of crafting or molding physical objects, as well as more abstract processes of forming plans, purposes, or character. This semantic range indicates that ancient Hebrew speakers used a single verb to connect physical shaping with metaphorical or purposive formation, suggesting an underlying conceptual connection between these different types of creating. The relatively high frequency of the term (38 uses) demonstrates that describing formation and shaping was a regular concern in biblical literature. Without access to specific contextual examples from the lexicon data provided, we can observe that יָצַר represents a foundational concept in biblical language—the idea of purposeful creation or formation. Its prevalence suggests that the notion of taking something unformed and giving it shape, whether literally or figuratively, was central to how biblical writers conceptualized divine action, human
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
38 total occurrences across the text
he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.
Psalms 74:17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
Psalms 94:9He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
Psalms 95:5The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
Psalms 104:26There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
Psalms 139:16Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Isaiah 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
Isaiah 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
Isaiah 45:11Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!
Isaiah 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
Isaiah 29:16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”
Isaiah 43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
Isaiah 43:7everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’ ”
Isaiah 43:10“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.
Isaiah 43:21the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.
Isaiah 44:2This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
Isaiah 44:9Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
Isaiah 44:10Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
Isaiah 44:12The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.
Isaiah 44:21Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
Isaiah 44:24Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;
Isaiah 45:18For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh. There is no other.
Isaiah 45:18For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh. There is no other.
Isaiah 49:5Now Yahweh, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, says to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes, and my God has become my strength.
Isaiah 54:17No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 10:16The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Jeremiah 33:2“Yahweh who does it, Yahweh who forms it to establish it—Yahweh is his name, says:
Jeremiah 51:19The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things; including the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Amos 4:13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”
Amos 7:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest.
Zechariah 12:1A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:
Isaiah 45:7I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
Habakkuk 2:18“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
Habakkuk 2:18“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
Genesis 2:7Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:8Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Genesis 2:19Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.