to be worth a great deal: to count as valuable, whether treasured by someone who will not give it up or expensive because the price is high
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
Hebrew does not keep worth and price in separate drawers, and this verb sits exactly where the two meet. It can say that a ransom costs more than anyone is able to pay, and it can say that a people is dear to God, without changing words. What holds those uses together is the image of a scale: whatever this verb describes weighs heavy, so nobody parts with it cheaply.
Worth here is almost always somebody's judgment about something, and the phrase that carries it is "in your eyes". When the thing being weighed is a life, that phrasing stops being a compliment and becomes a matter of life and death:
a hunted king admits that his own life counted for something with the man who had him at knifepoint
an army officer on his knees begs a prophet to let him and his fifty men live
the ideal king of Psalm 72 will not let a poor man's blood be spilled as though it were worth nothing
The same weighing can be done in silver, and then the word reports what something costs or what figure a person was rated at. That is also why it can be used of a reputation: a name people value is a name whose worth has gone up. Two nearby words from the same root run along the same line, the adjective "precious" (יָקָר) and the noun for worth and honor (יְקָר). And where Isaiah says a people is precious to God, the very next word says they are honored (כָּבֵד), the two ideas standing shoulder to shoulder.
Nuances
1ato be treasured by someone: to matter so much to a person that they hold it dear
Psa 139:17Isa 43:4
1bof a life or its lifeblood: to count as too valuable to destroy, and so to be spared
TranslatabilityPartial
1Sa 26:212Ki 1:132Ki 1:14Psa 72:14
1cof a name or reputation: to rise in people's regard and be held in high honor
1Sa 18:30
1dto carry a high price: to be expensive, or to be rated at a set amount of money
TranslatabilityDirect
Psa 49:8(9)Zec 11:13*
2
to make something scarce: to thin it out, or to hold it back so that it comes only rarely
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
The other side of this word is not being valuable but making something valuable, and the practical result of that is scarcity. Worth and rarity are two sides of one coin: what there is little of is what costs a lot, so to raise a thing's value is to make it hard to come by.
That is why the same wording can be a threat in one place and ordinary good manners in another. Isaiah announces a judgment so heavy that survivors will be harder to find than gold, which is a grim way of saying almost nobody will be left. Proverbs tells a visitor to make his footsteps at a neighbor's door rare, because a welcome wears out. In both places the instruction is to reduce the supply.
English has no single verb for this, which is why older versions read the line in Isaiah as making people "more precious" while newer ones read it as making people fewer. Both are reaching for the same Hebrew idea from opposite ends, and the words for worth from this root, such as the adjective "precious" (יָקָר), sit in the middle of it.
Nuances
2ato make people scarce: to leave so few of them that they become hard to find
Isa 13:12*
2bto hold something back so that it comes only rarely: to use it sparingly
the same verb also reports what something costs, so a price nobody can pay and a person held dear share one wordPsa 49:8Zec 11:13
in the phrase about a life being precious in someone's eyes, the word is doing the work of a plea to be spared2Ki 1:131Sa 26:21
Both
both say that something is held in high worth by someone who will not give it upIsa 43:4Psa 139:17
Only precious
English "precious" has drifted toward sentiment and delicacy, so it can sound like fondness for a keepsake rather than a judgment that something is worth a great deal
the same word is used of a people who are dear to God, so the high figure and the high regard are one idea in HebrewIsa 43:4
Both
both say the price is high enough to be out of reachPsa 49:8
Only costly
English "costly" points only at money or loss, and often carries the flavor of a mistake that cost someone dearly
“esteemed”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“valued”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“rare”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How yaqar differs from similar Hebrew words
יָקָרthe adjective from the same root, which describes a thing as precious or costly, as with precious stones or costly wisdom. That word labels what something is worth; this verb reports that something has come to count as valuable in someone's judgment, or that its price is high.
It is the word people reach for when a life hangs in the balance, asking that it be counted too valuable to destroy: an officer on his knees begs Elijah to let his life and his men's lives be worth something in his sight.2Ki 1:132Ki 1:14
It alone names the actual money a person was reckoned at, or says the sum needed to buy a life back is more than anyone can pay.Zec 11:13Psa 49:8
It can tell someone to ration what they have so it stays welcome, holding it back rather than spending it freely: keep your visits to a neighbor few.Pro 25:17
It can report that a person's standing has risen, so that their name now counts for a great deal among others.1Sa 18:30
Both
Both state worth as a judgment made in someone's eyes rather than as a market rate, and both can put that judgment in God's eyes.Psa 116:15Isa 43:4Psa 72:14
For both, being worth much and being hard to come by are the same idea, so either can speak of short supply: a time when the LORD's word almost never came, and a judgment that would leave people scarcer than fine gold.1Sa 3:1Isa 13:12
Both can rate what is said or thought as worth a great deal, not only what can be handled or sold.Jer 15:19Psa 139:17
It is the ordinary label for expensive things: gems, gold, quarried building stone, tribute, and stored treasure. Most of its uses sit in this world of goods and their price.1Ki 10:21Ki 7:9Job 28:16Ezk 27:22Pro 24:4
It reaches past price into visible splendor, describing the moon as it moves in brightness across the sky.Job 31:26
יְקָרthe noun from the same root, naming worth or honor as a thing you can display or collect: the splendor a king shows off, or the price something fetches. It stands right beside this verb in Zechariah 11:13, where the noun names the price and the verb says the speaker was rated at it.
Belongs to appeals for a life. A hunted king admits that his life counted for something with the man who spared him, an officer on his knees asks that his own life and his fifty men's be worth too much to burn, and the ideal king refuses to let a poor man's blood be spilled as though it were worth nothing. In these places the word is doing the work of a plea for mercy, not a compliment.1Sa 26:212Ki 1:132Ki 1:14Psa 72:14
Reaches the far side of worth, which is scarcity: a judgment so heavy that a surviving human being will be harder to come by than gold, and an instruction to keep visits to a neighbor few so the welcome lasts. The word for worth as a possession never travels that far and never means "rare" or "sparing".Isa 13:12Pro 25:17
Works in both directions between God and a person: God calls a people dear in his own sight, and the one praying counts God's thoughts toward him as worth more than he can number. Worth as a possession is never turned toward God's regard like this.Isa 43:4Psa 139:17
Both
Both put a figure in silver on a person, and they meet in one sentence to do it: the noun names the sum, thirty pieces of silver, and the verb says that is what the speaker was priced at.Zec 11:13
Both can raise a person's standing in other people's eyes: a soldier's name climbing in the army's regard, and a servant singled out for recognition by his king.1Sa 18:30Est 6:3
Both are put to work in Psalm 49's argument that money cannot buy off death: the price of a life runs too high for anyone to pay it, and the splendor of the wealthy does not survive the night.Psa 49:8Psa 49:12
Reaches actual costly goods: the gold a miner's eye uncovers in the rock, one jewel outweighing a pile of cheap talk, the stored wealth of a city hauled off by an enemy, the treasure a city's leaders seize. The verb for being worth a great deal is never used of goods you can carry away.Job 28:10Pro 20:15Jer 20:5Ezk 22:25
Carries honor as something a king stages and hands out, and can therefore also be taken back: the king asking what has been done for the man who saved him, the servant paraded through the city square, a decree meant to make wives give their husbands standing, a people who get their good name back and are glad.Est 6:3Est 6:11Est 1:20Est 8:16
Names wealth on display, the show rather than the reckoning: a king spreading out his riches for months on end, and the rich man who for all his pomp will not last the night. This is worth you can look at, which the verb never describes.Est 1:4Psa 49:12Psa 49:20
כָּבֵדthe other main verb for standing high in regard, built on the idea of weight: to be heavy, and so to be honored or glorified. That word leans toward public honor and glory, while this one leans toward worth and price, and Isaiah 43:4 uses the two in a single breath.
It can put an actual price on something, saying what it costs or what sum a person was rated at, which the weight word never does.Psa 49:8Zec 11:13
It is the word for a life or its lifeblood counting as too valuable to destroy, so it turns up in pleas to be spared and in promises that God will not let blood be shed cheaply.1Sa 26:212Ki 1:132Ki 1:14Psa 72:14
It carries a second line of meaning about scarcity, making people or visits rare and hard to come by, a sense the weight word never has.Isa 13:12Pro 25:17
Both
Both can say that a person counts for much in God's eyes, and Isaiah 43:4 sets them side by side, one rendered "precious" and the other "honored", of the same people held dear by God.Isa 43:4
Both can report that someone's standing has risen in public regard, so a name or a person is spoken of as highly valued or as a man of weight.1Sa 18:301Sa 9:61Sa 22:14
It starts from plain physical weight and keeps that literal use, of a workload piled higher, a hand pressing down, or trouble that outweighs the sand.Exo 5:91Sa 5:6Job 6:31Ki 12:10
From that weight it moves to dullness, of eyes and ears too heavy to work and of a heart made so heavy it will not yield, which is how it becomes the language of a hardened heart.Gen 48:10Exo 9:34Isa 6:10Isa 59:1
It names the act of giving honor, including the command to honor parents and the worship owed to God, whereas the other word only reports that something has come to count as valuable and is never used to tell anyone to treat a person that way.Exo 20:12Deu 5:16Pro 3:9Isa 29:13Mal 1:6
It is the word for God himself being shown to be glorious, gaining the weight rightfully his through what he does, a use the other word never takes.Exo 14:4Lev 10:3Ezk 28:22Hag 1:8
yaqar in the other biblical languages
ἔντιμοςGreek“valued/honored”the Greek word for held in honor or precious, which the ancient Greek translation of Isaiah 43:4 used for this verb. It is a description of the standing a person or thing has, while the Hebrew is a verb reporting that something has come to count as valuable.
Slides from "valuable" over into plain scarcity, with no admiration involved: keep your visits to a neighbor's house rare so he does not grow tired of you, and expect judgment to leave people harder to find than fine gold.Pro 25:17Isa 13:12
States a price in money: what it would cost to buy a life back is more than anyone can pay, and the thirty pieces of silver are the sum the shepherd was rated at.Psa 49:8Zec 11:13
Because it reports something happening rather than describing a fixed quality, it can be a plea: an officer sent to seize Elijah asks that his own life come to count as precious in the prophet's eyes.2Ki 1:132Ki 1:14
The valuing can run from a person toward God, not only from God or a superior downward: the psalmist finds God's thoughts toward him precious beyond counting.Psa 139:17
Both
Both say a life is treasured by someone who could dispose of it, and that the valuing is why it is spared or cared for: Saul admits his life counted as precious to David, a king holds the lifeblood of the poor precious, and an officer's slave was so valued that his master sent for help.1Sa 26:21Psa 72:14Luk 7:2
Both are used for what God himself holds precious, which is why the Greek word is the natural way to render the Hebrew statement that someone is precious in God's sight: God tells Israel they are precious to him, and Peter calls Christ the living stone God chose and holds precious though people threw him away.Isa 43:41Pe 2:4
Both cover the regard a community pays a person for what they have done: David's name became highly regarded once he outdid Saul's other officers, and Paul tells the church to hold people like Epaphroditus in exactly that regard.1Sa 18:30Php 2:29
Sorts people by standing on one occasion, so a guest can be more honored than the person already seated and has the better claim to the top place.Luk 14:8
Works as a settled label for what something is, so the stone God lays in Zion can simply be called "chosen and precious": the worth belongs to it rather than being worth it came to acquire.1Pe 2:6
τιμάωGreek“to honor”the Greek verb to honor, which also means to set a price on something, and the word Matthew 27:9 uses when retelling Zechariah 11:13. It covers both sides of this Hebrew verb, being held in esteem and being priced in money.
Describes worth as a condition rather than an act: something simply is costly, with nobody performing an act of honor at all. The ransom for a life costs more than anyone can pay (Psalm 49:8), and the blood of the helpless counts as costly in the eyes of the king who rescues them (Psalm 72:14).Psa 49:8Psa 72:14
Reaches the idea of being scarce, and can even mean making something scarce, because rarity is one reason a thing is valued. A visitor is told to keep his calls on a neighbor infrequent (Proverbs 25:17), and God warns that he will leave survivors so few that finding one is harder than finding gold (Isaiah 13:12).Pro 25:17Isa 13:12
Serves as a plea for a life to be spared, asking that it be counted too valuable to destroy. David reminds Saul that his life was worth something in Saul's eyes that day (1 Samuel 26:21), and an officer begs Elijah to treat his life as worth sparing (2 Kings 1:13).1Sa 26:212Ki 1:13
Both
Both can be used flatly of putting a price on a person, and the same episode links them. Zechariah weighs out the handsome sum he was priced at, thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:13), and Matthew takes up that prophetic line for the thirty pieces paid as the price of the one they had priced (Matthew 27:9), using this Greek verb where the prophet used the Hebrew one.Zec 11:13Mat 27:9
Both belong to the world of public standing, the worth a person carries in other people's eyes. David's name rises high once his success is plain (1 Samuel 18:30), and believers are told to give the emperor and everyone else the regard that is properly theirs (1 Peter 2:17).1Sa 18:301Pe 2:17
Both can have God himself as the one doing the valuing. God tells his people they were costly in his sight and loved (Isaiah 43:4), and Jesus promises that the Father will honor whoever serves him (John 12:26).Isa 43:4Jhn 12:26
Names something one person actively does toward another, which means it can be commanded and it can also be faked. The charge to honor father and mother stands as a plain duty (Matthew 15:4;Ephesians 6:2), and Jesus turns the same word against people who honor God with their lips while their heart stays far away (Matthew 15:8).Mat 15:4Eph 6:2Mat 15:8
Regularly takes God or Christ as its object, so it becomes the word for worship itself: honoring the Son is made the measure of honoring the Father (John 5:23), and Jesus says his own life is spent honoring his Father (John 8:49). The Hebrew verb never names homage paid to God this way.Jhn 5:23Jhn 8:49
Covers honor that arrives as practical provision rather than words. The islanders load Paul and his companions with what they need for the voyage (Acts 28:10), and the instruction about widows in the church carries their material support with it (1 Timothy 5:3).Act 28:101Ti 5:3
יְקָרAramaic“honor”the Aramaic noun for honor or glory from the same root, used in Daniel of the majesty granted to a king. It names honor as a possession handed over, while the Hebrew word here is a verb about coming to count as valuable to someone.
Weighs how much a life counts when someone decides whether to spare it, so it belongs to pleas for mercy: because my life mattered to you, let mine matter to you.1Sa 26:212Ki 1:132Ki 1:14
Reaches all the way to price, what a thing would actually cost to buy, and so can say that a purchase is beyond anyone's means or that a fee was insultingly small.Psa 49:8Zec 11:13
Stretches to scarcity, since what is hard to come by is worth more: people made as rare as fine gold, or a visit kept infrequent so the welcome is not worn out.Isa 13:12Pro 25:17
Both
Both put high worth in the hands of someone above: it is granted by a superior who chooses to reckon a person valuable, not claimed by right.Isa 43:4Psa 72:14Dan 2:37Dan 5:18
Both track a standing others can see, which rises when a person is held in high regard and falls when that regard is taken away.1Sa 18:30Dan 4:36Dan 5:20
Names honor as one of the goods that come with a throne, listed alongside the kingdom, the power, and the might a ruler receives.Dan 2:37Dan 5:18Dan 7:14
Is a splendor a ruler can be stripped of and then have handed back, so it functions as a possession that changes hands rather than an estimate of worth.Dan 5:20Dan 4:36
Can be the goal someone builds toward or the payment promised for a service rendered, something aimed at and awarded in public.Dan 4:30Dan 2:6
What scholars say about yaqar
The standard lexicons treat this as one root with a stative core: the qal is glossed "be valuable, precious, costly, highly esteemed" and the hiphil "make rare, make scarce, make sparing use of" (BDB, s.v. יָקַר; HALOT, s.v. יקר I; DCH, s.v. יקר). Within the qal, BDB separates being prized or esteemed (1 Samuel 18:30; 26:21; 2 Kings 1:13, 14; Psalm 72:14; 139:17; Isaiah 43:4) from being appraised at a price (Zechariah 11:13) and from costing much (Psalm 49:8 in English numbering, 49:9 in Hebrew). The idiom with נֶפֶשׁ plus בְּעֵינֵי is regularly read as a request or verdict about sparing a life rather than a statement of affection. NIDOTTE discusses the word group under the root יקר, where the pairing with כבד in Isaiah 43:4 and the shared field of honor, worth, and price are treated together, alongside the Aramaic noun of royal honor in Daniel. For the hiphil in Isaiah 13:12 the commentaries read a statement of depopulation, survivors scarcer than the gold of Ophir (Wildberger, Isaiah 13-27), and older renderings such as "more precious" reflect the value side of the same root rather than a competing lexical analysis. For Zechariah 11:13 Meyers and Meyers link the verb to the noun הַיְקָר in the same clause and to the ironic weighing of thirty shekels, the passage taken up in Matthew 27:9.
Sources
BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. יָקַרlexicon