חָסֵרchâçêr

lack, need, be lacking, decrease

Pronunciation: khaw-sare' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H2637

Meanings

Qal: absolute (1 Kings 17:16; Deuteronomy 2:7; Nehemiah 9:21)

1. lack

a. perchance the fifty righteous lack five, thou hast not lacked anything (Genesis 18:28; Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 8:9)

b. be in want, want (Psalms 23:1; Proverbs 13:25; Nehemiah 9:21)

2. be lacking (Deuteronomy 15:8; Ecclesiastes 9:8; Isaiah 51:14)

3. diminish, decrease (Genesis 8:3; Genesis 8:5)

Pi`el: cause to lack (Psalms 8:6; Ecclesiastes 4:8)

Hiph`il: cause to be lacking, fail (Exodus 16:18; Isaiah 32:6)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 23 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 8:3 So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days,
  • Genesis 8:5 Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.
  • Genesis 18:28 Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five righteous people there.”
  • Exodus 16:18 But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.
  • Deuteronomy 2:7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.”’
  • Deuteronomy 8:9 It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).