StrongerBible

yare

יָרֵא

HebrewH3372“fear, revere, ...”

Appears 315 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 15:1Gen 19:30Gen 20:8Gen 26:7Gen 26:24Gen 28:17 (2×)Gen 32:7(8)Gen 42:35Gen 43:18Gen 43:23Gen 46:3Gen 50:19Gen 50:21Exo 2:14Exo 3:6Exo 9:30Exo 14:10Exo 14:13Exo 14:31Exo 15:11Exo 20:20Exo 34:10Exo 34:30Lev 19:3Lev 19:30Lev 26:2Num 14:9 (2×)Num 21:34Deu 1:19Deu 1:21Deu 1:29Deu 2:4Deu 3:2Deu 3:22Deu 4:10Deu 5:29Deu 6:2Deu 6:24Deu 7:21Deu 8:6Deu 8:15Deu 10:12Deu 10:17Deu 13:4(5)Deu 14:23Deu 17:19Deu 20:3Deu 25:18Deu 28:58 (2×)Deu 31:6
Root family
Word studyyah-REHverb

What yare means

1

to be afraid, to feel fear in the face of danger or threat.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the everyday sense of fear: dread in the face of a person, an army, an enemy, or a frightening situation. The one who fears is smaller, weaker, or outnumbered, and the body knows it. The word appears most often in the pattern "do not be afraid", soldiers told not to fear the enemy, Israel told not to fear the nations of Canaan, individuals reassured when an angel appears. The reassurance only makes sense if the fear is real fright, not reverence.

This fear can be appropriate or not. Soldiers were sometimes told their fear was right (1 Samuel 17:11, the whole army recoiled from Goliath, and the narrator does not condemn them); they were also told to set it aside and fight. What distinguishes this sense from the reverence sense is the object: here the thing feared is a threat, never a holy person or place deserving honor.

Nuances

1ato be afraid of a person, army, or threatening situation.
Gen 3:10Gen 19:30Gen 26:7Gen 31:31Gen 32:7(8)Exo 2:14Num 14:9 (2×)Deu 1:29Deu 7:18Deu 20:1Jos 9:24Jdg 6:27
1bto fear people's reaction, to be afraid of what others will do or think.
Gen 18:15Gen 43:181Sa 14:261Sa 15:241Sa 31:41Ki 1:501Ki 1:511Ch 10:4Neh 6:9Neh 6:13Neh 6:14Neh 6:19
2

to revere, to hold in awe; the posture of loyal devotion toward God or toward a legitimate authority.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

When this word takes God as its object, or the sanctuary, or a parent: it describes a posture, not a panic. The one who fears in this sense is not cowering from a threat; they are orienting their whole life toward a higher authority. In Deuteronomy the phrase "fear the LORD your God" sits next to "walk in all his ways" and "serve him", the trio shows that the fear is the root of a covenant life, not a momentary terror.

This is the register most often called "the fear of the LORD" (where the noun yirah, H3374, also lives). The wisdom books treat it as the beginning of wisdom, and the prophets treat it as the mark of a faithful person. It is reverence with teeth: it shapes behavior, governs loyalty, and defines who belongs to God's people. A person described as God-fearing is not someone who trembles perpetually; they are someone who takes God seriously enough to live accordingly.

The same word applies to honoring parents (Leviticus 19:3) and the sanctuary (Leviticus 19:30; 26:2), which shows the field: not terror but the respect owed to genuine authority. Those passages use the same form (the imperfect, "you shall fear") as the commandments about God, the parallelism is intentional.

Nuances

2ato revere God, to stand in awe of him as the one to whom all loyalty is owed.
Gen 20:8Exo 3:6Exo 9:30Exo 14:31Deu 4:10Deu 5:29Deu 6:2Deu 6:13Deu 6:24Deu 8:6Deu 10:12Deu 10:20
2bto revere a parent, a ruler, or the sanctuary, the same posture directed toward a legitimate human authority or sacred place.
Lev 19:3Lev 19:14Lev 19:30Lev 19:32Lev 25:17Lev 25:36Lev 25:43Lev 26:22Sa 9:71Ki 8:401Ki 8:432Ch 6:31
3

to be awesome, dreadful, or terrifying, said of the person, place, or act that inspires awe rather than the person who feels it.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

The forms in this meaning are mostly the words nora ("the awesome one") and nora'ot ("awesome things"). Where the other meanings describe what happens inside a person who fears, this use describes what a person, a place, or a deed is: the kind of thing that stops you in your tracks, that makes the ground feel holy underfoot, that a whole army dreads before a battle.

God is the one described this way most often. He is called "awesome" in the same breath as "great and mighty" and "faithful to his covenant." His deeds in history, the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Law at Sinai, are called "awesome things," implying that what God has done is not ordinary and demands a response of awe.

The same word applies to a place (Genesis 28:17, "how awesome is this place!") and to a human warrior who is terrifying on the battlefield (Habakkuk 1:7). In every case the core is the same: something whose power and presence overwhelms and demands a response.

This meaning grows from the same root as the others: the one who causes fear is, seen from the other side, the fearsome one. There is no sharp break in origin, but its role is distinct enough to warrant its own category.

Nuances

3aawesome, dreadful, said of God himself or of the divine name.
Exo 15:11Deu 7:21Deu 10:17Deu 28:58 (2×)Neh 1:5Neh 4:14(8) (2×)Neh 9:32Psa 47:2(3)Psa 76:7(8)Psa 76:12(13)Psa 89:7(8)Psa 96:4
3bawesome, terrible, said of God's acts in history or of great deeds that overwhelm the observer.
Exo 34:10Deu 1:19Deu 8:15Deu 10:212Sa 7:231Ch 17:21Psa 45:4Psa 65:5Psa 66:3Psa 66:5Psa 68:35(36)Psa 106:22
3cterrible, fearsome, said of a place that inspires dread, or of a human power that terrifies.
Gen 28:17 (2×)Jdg 13:6Isa 21:1Ezk 1:22Hab 1:7

What scholars say about yare

The standard lexicons (HALOT, BDB, DCH) agree on three semantic fields for this root: (1) to be afraid of a danger or threat; (2) to revere or stand in awe of a legitimate authority, especially God; (3) the niphal participle "nora" used adjectivally to mean awesome or dreadful. HALOT and BDB treat these as one root with distinct ranges; DCH similarly groups them. The theological significance of the reverence sense is developed at length in the major dictionaries: TWOT (Elmer Smick), TDOT (Fuhs), and NIDOTTE (Eugene Merrill and others). The consensus in critical scholarship is that the "fear of the LORD" is not primarily emotional terror but a covenant posture of loyalty, obedience, and worship, the comprehensive term for Israel's proper orientation toward God. This reading is standard in commentaries on Deuteronomy (Craigie, McConville, Tigay) and in studies of wisdom literature (Crenshaw, Longman). A minority reading, associated with some existentialist and phenomenological readings, stresses the trembling-before-the-numinous character (Rudolf Otto's "mysterium tremendum" framework), but the mainstream lexicographical tradition declines to reduce the word to that register alone.

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. יראlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. יראlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. יראlexicon
  • H. F. Fuhs, "ירא," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 6:290-315dictionary
  • Elmer B. Smick, "ירא," in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) 1:399-401dictionary
  • Eugene H. Merrill, "ירא," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE) 2:527-533dictionary
  • Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, NICOT (1976)commentary
  • J. G. McConville, Deuteronomy, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (2002)commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (1996)commentary
  • James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction, rev. ed. (1998)monograph
  • Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, trans. John W. Harvey (1923)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of יָרֵא

qal jussive 2ms

תִּירָא

Gen 15:1, Gen 26:24, Gen 46:3, Num 21:34, Deu 1:21, Deu 3:2, Deu 6:2, Jos 8:1

niphal participle m s absolute

נוֹרָא, וְהַנּוֹרָא, וְנוֹרָא, נּוֹרָא, הַנּוֹרָא

Exo 15:11, Exo 34:10, Jdg 13:6, Psa 47:2, Psa 68:35, Psa 76:7, Psa 76:12, Psa 96:4

qal jussive 2mp

תִּירְאוּ, תִּירָאוּ, תִּירָאֻ

Num 14:9, Deu 20:3, Deu 31:6, Jos 10:25, 2Ki 25:24, 2Ch 20:15, 2Ch 20:17, 2Ch 32:7

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּירְאוּ, וַיִּרְאוּ, וַיִּירָאוּ

Gen 20:8, Gen 43:18, Exo 14:10, Exo 14:31, Exo 34:30, Jos 10:2, 1Sa 17:24, 2Ki 17:7

qal infinitive-construct construct

יִרְאָה, יְרֹא, יִּרְאָת, רֹא

Deu 4:10, Deu 5:29, Deu 6:24, Deu 8:6, Deu 10:12, Deu 14:23, Deu 17:19, Deu 28:58

qal imperfect 2mp

תִּירְאוּ, תִּירָאוּ, תְִּירָאוּ

Exo 9:30, Deu 1:29, Jdg 6:10, 1Sa 12:14, 2Ki 17:35, 2Ki 17:37, 2Ki 17:38, Isa 8:12

qal perfect 3ms

יָרֵא

Gen 19:30, Gen 26:7, Exo 3:6, Deu 25:18, Jdg 6:27, Jdg 8:20, 1Sa 3:15, 1Sa 14:26

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּרָא, וַיִּירָא, וַיִּירָאֵ

1Sa 18:12, 1Sa 21:12, 1Sa 28:5, 1Sa 28:20, 2Sa 6:9, 2Ch 20:3, Jer 26:21, Gen 28:17

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִירְאוּ, וְיִרָאוּ, וְיִירָאוּ, וְיִרְאוּ

Deu 2:4, Psa 67:7, Psa 102:15, Isa 59:19, Deu 13:11, Deu 17:13, Deu 19:20, Deu 21:21

qal jussive 2fs

תִּירְאִי, תִּירָאִי

Gen 21:17, Gen 35:17, Rut 3:11, 1Sa 4:20, 1Sa 28:13, 1Ki 17:13, Isa 41:14, Isa 54:4

qal perfect 3cp

יָרְאוּ, יְרֵאוּ

Exo 1:21, Jos 4:14, 2Ki 17:25, 2Ki 25:26, Psa 55:19, Jer 41:18, Jer 44:10, Job 37:24

qal imperfect 1cs

אִירָא, אִירָאֶ

Psa 3:6, Psa 23:4, Psa 27:1, Psa 49:5, Psa 56:3, Psa 56:4, Psa 56:11, Psa 118:6

qal imperfect 2ms

תִּירָא

Deu 6:13, Deu 7:18, Deu 10:20, Deu 20:1, Deu 31:8, Job 5:21, Job 11:15, Psa 91:5

qal imperfect 3mp

יִירְאוּ, יִירָאוּ, יִרָאוּ, יִּרְאוּ

2Ki 17:28, Psa 33:8, Ecc 8:12, Jer 23:4, Psa 64:4, Psa 72:5, Isa 25:3, Ecc 12:5

niphal participle f p absolute

נוֹרָאוֹת, נֹרָאוֹת, הַנּוֹרָאֹת

Psa 45:4, Psa 65:5, Psa 106:22, Psa 139:14, Isa 64:3, 2Sa 7:23, 1Ch 17:21, Deu 10:21

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְיָרֵאתָ

Lev 19:14, Lev 19:32, Lev 25:17, Lev 25:36, Lev 25:43

qal imperfect 3ms

יִירָא, יִרָאֲ

Psa 27:3, Psa 112:7, Psa 112:8, Amo 3:8, Jer 10:7

qal imperative 2ms

יְרָא

Pro 3:7, Pro 24:21, Ecc 5:7, Ecc 12:13

qal imperfect 2fs

תִירָאִי, תִּירְאִי

Isa 54:14, Isa 57:11, Zep 3:7, Zep 3:15

qal perfect 1cs

יָרֵאתִי

Gen 31:31, 1Sa 15:24, Psa 119:120, Hab 3:2

qal perfect 2mp

יְרֵאתֶם, יְרָאתֶם

Num 12:8, Deu 5:5, Ezk 11:8, Jos 4:24

qal consecutive-imperfect 1cs

וָאִירָא

Gen 3:10, Neh 2:2, Job 32:6

qal imperative 2mp

יְראוּ

Jos 24:14, 1Sa 12:24, Psa 34:9

qal perfect 3fs

יָרְאָה, יָרֵאָה

Psa 76:8, Jer 3:8, Gen 18:15

niphal participle m s construct

נוֹרָא

Job 37:22, Psa 66:5

piel infinitive-construct construct

יָרְאֵ, יָרְאָ

Neh 6:19, 2Ch 32:18

piel participle m p absolute

מְיָרְאִים

Neh 6:9, Neh 6:14

qal consecutive-imperfect 2fs

וַתִּירְאִי

Isa 51:12, Isa 57:11

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְיָרְאוּ

Deu 28:10, Deu 31:12

qal imperfect 1cp

נִירָא

Psa 46:2, Jer 5:24

qal jussive 3mp

יִירָאוּ, יִרָאוּ

2Ch 6:31, 1Ki 8:40

niphal jussive 2ms

תִּוָּרֵא

Psa 130:4

niphal participle f p construct

נוֹרְאֹתֶי

Psa 145:6

niphal participle f s absolute

נוֹרָאָה

Isa 21:1

piel perfect 3cp

יֵרְאֻ

2Sa 14:15

qal conjunctive-imperfect 2mp

וְתִירְאוּ

Jer 51:46

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3fs

וְתִירָא

Zec 9:5

qal consecutive-imperfect 1cp

וַנִּירָא

Jos 9:24

qal consecutive-imperfect 2mp

וַתִּירָאוּ

Job 6:21

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fp

וַתִּירֶאןָ

Exo 1:17

5 further parsings are listed under Syntax.