עָשִׁיר
a.shir
rich
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word for "Rich" (עָשִׁיר) The Hebrew word *ashir* appears twenty-three times throughout the Bible and carries the straightforward meaning of "rich" or "wealthy." This term describes persons or conditions characterized by material abundance, serving as the primary biblical vocabulary for expressing wealth status in Hebrew texts. The consistent definition across all twenty-three occurrences suggests that *ashir* functions as a stable, unambiguous term without significant semantic variation. Unlike some biblical words that shift meaning depending on context, this lemma maintains its core reference to economic abundance. The relatively modest frequency of occurrence—appearing in only twenty-three verses—indicates that while the concept of wealth was relevant to biblical authors, they did not treat it as a dominant theme requiring extensive vocabulary differentiation. The word's presence throughout the biblical corpus indicates that wealth distinctions were recognized as a regular feature of ancient Israelite and Near Eastern society. Rather than carrying inherent moral judgment within the word itself, *ashir* functioned as a neutral descriptor of economic status, leaving any ethical or theological evaluation to be conveyed through surrounding context and narrative framing.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
23 total occurrences across the text
He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.
Psalms 45:12The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift. The rich among the people entreat your favor.
Psalms 49:2both low and high, rich and poor together.
Proverbs 10:15The rich man’s wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Proverbs 18:11The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.
Proverbs 18:23The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.
Proverbs 22:2The rich and the poor have this in common: Yahweh is the maker of them all.
Proverbs 22:7The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:16Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.
Proverbs 28:6Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich.
Proverbs 28:11The rich man is wise in his own eyes; but the poor who has understanding sees through him.
Ecclesiastes 5:12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
Ecclesiastes 10:6Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place.
Ecclesiastes 10:20Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom: for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.
Isaiah 53:9They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Jeremiah 9:23Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
Micah 6:12Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.
Proverbs 14:20The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.
Exodus 30:15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.
Ruth 3:10He said, “You are blessed by Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, because you didn’t follow young men, whether poor or rich.
2 Samuel 12:1Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 Samuel 12:2The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
2 Samuel 12:4A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”