Precious
יָקָרStrong’s H3368yaqar (ya-qar)
Appears in 36 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Yaqar is the Hebrew word usually translated “precious”, “costly” and “splendid”. It appears in 36 verses of the Old Testament.
“But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.”
Meaning
- Valuable, prized, weighty, precious, rare, splendidprecious · rare · glorious, splendid · weighty, influential
How it's translated
- precious 22
- costly 5
- splendid 2
- rare 1
- like a splendid of 1
- among noble your 1
- prized 1
- noble of 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- 1 Kings 7
- Proverbs 6
- 2 Chronicles 5
- Psalms 4
- 1 Chronicles 2
- Job 2
15 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Zechariah 14:6In contextAnd it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
- 1 Samuel 3:1And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
- 2 Samuel 12:30And he took their king’s crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.
- 1 Kings 5:17And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
- 1 Kings 7:9All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.
- 1 Kings 7:10And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
All 36 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
יָקָר yaqar · precious
1) valuable, prized, weighty, precious, rare, splendid 1a) precious 1a1) costly 1a2) precious, highly valued 1a3) precious stones or jewels 1b) rare 1c) glorious, splendid 1d) weighty, influential
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “precious” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
PRE'CIOUS, adjective
[Latin pretiosus, from pretium, price. See Praise.]
- Of great price; costly; as a precious stone.
- Of great value or worth; very valuable.“She is more precious than rubies” Proverbs 3:15
- Highly valued; much esteemed.“The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision” 1 Samuel 3:1
- Worthless; in irony and contempt.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.