נָצַר nâtsar — to guard, in a good sense (to protect, maintain, obey, etc.) or a bad one (to conceal, etc.)
Translated in the KJV as besieged, hidden thing, keep(-er, -ing), monument, observe, preserve, subtil, watcher.
a primitive root; to guard, in a good sense (to protect, maintain, obey, etc.) or a bad one (to conceal, etc.).
nâtsar in each stem
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 23Participle (active) 16Imperative 6Perfect (qatal) 5Participle (passive) 5Cohortative 3Jussive 2Infinitive construct 1Infinitive absolute 1
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.
What the stems mean
A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›