To inclose ; by analogy, to hold back ; also to maintain , rule , assemble
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The Hebrew verb often transliterated atsar describes holding back, shutting, restraining, detaining, stopping, or retaining strength and capacity. Its uses range from rain withheld by a closed sky and a plague brought to a halt to a prophet restricted from entering the temple and a person unable to continue.
Reader summary
Full entry for עָצָר (H6113) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb often transliterated atsar describes holding back, shutting, restraining, detaining, stopping, or retaining strength and capacity. Its uses range from rain withheld by a closed sky and a plague brought to a halt to a prophet restricted from entering the temple and a person unable to continue.
The BSB source-word alignment has 46 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include both slave (4), was halted (3), . . . (2), are shut (2), confined (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 16:2. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Chronicles (7), 1 Kings (4), 2 Kings (4), Jeremiah (4).
The Hebrew verb often transliterated atsar describes holding back, shutting, restraining, detaining, stopping, or retaining strength and capacity. Its uses range from rain withheld by a closed sky and a plague brought to a halt to a prophet restricted from entering the temple and a person unable to continue. A rarer governing use describes Saul as the one who will rule Israel, so context must decide whether the idea concerns restraint, confinement, endurance, ability, or rule.
The word does not make every restriction just. Scripture can describe divine restraint, protective stopping, physical confinement, political control, or the loss of capacity with the same lexical family while evaluating each situation differently. Teachers should therefore avoid turning a contextual governing gloss into a general mandate for coercion. Authority remains bounded by God's purpose, truth, justice, and care for those affected.
Atsar gathers images of holding, closing, stopping, retaining, and limited capacity, with one governing use that must remain anchored to its royal narrative context.
If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land.
Job's wisdom poem portrays God holding back or releasing waters, emphasizing divine power over conditions humans cannot master.
Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the Lord;
Jeremiah says he is restricted from entering the Lord's house, so Baruch must carry out the public reading.
He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was halted.
Aaron stands between the living and the dead as the plague is halted, placing restraint within a scene of urgent intercession.
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke; he shall rule over My people.”
The Lord identifies Saul as the man who will rule Israel, a context-specific extension that does not define all uses of the verb.
But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?
Solomon's question about who is able to build for God acknowledges human limitation before the Creator whom heaven cannot contain.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Containment concept: physically enclosing space or restraining force, extending to governance and holding back action
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 46 lexical occurrence verses.
עָצָר is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Atsar reminds readers that restraint is not morally self-interpreting. God may hold back waters, a plague may be halted, a speaker may refrain, a prisoner may be confined, or a person may lack the strength to continue. Jeremiah's restriction does not stop the divine message, because Baruch reads the scroll publicly. Solomon's language of ability humbles human building before the God whom the heavens cannot contain.
Saul's designation as ruler is real, but the wider book evaluates his reign by obedience rather than treating the title as immunity from judgment. The word therefore helps communities ask what a boundary protects, what harm it prevents or causes, whose voice it restricts, and who remains accountable. Wise restraint can preserve life and faithful order. Coercive restraint can obstruct truth and injure people.
Neither a lexical gloss nor an institutional title settles that moral question without the passage's actors, purpose, and outcome.
Jer.36.5
Atsar is a Hebrew verb with Qal and Niphal witnesses. Depending on voice and context, English versions express it as hold back, shut, stop, restrain, detain, remain able, prevail, or rule. These renderings are related but not interchangeable in application.
The New Testament portrays both life-giving restraint and unjust confinement: destructive powers are checked, apostles are imprisoned, and the gospel continues through other witnesses. Jesus also defines leadership through service rather than domination, clarifying an ethical trajectory without making atsar a technical church-office term.