Hebrew word · Strong's H6862

צַר

tsar · tsar · adjective · “narrow, distress”

In a sentence

Tsar means narrow, tight — and so distress, trouble. «Trouble» in the Old Testament is often pictured as being in a tight place; «deliverance» is being brought to wide open space.

Tsar pictures squeezed-in space, a tight place. Psalm 31 cries, «be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in tsar.» Trouble in the Hebrew imagination is constriction.

Salvation answers it. Psalm 18:19 says God «brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.» Deliverance is room to breathe.

Strong's reference

Definition: narrow; (as a noun) a tight place (usually figuratively, i.e. trouble); also a pebble ; (transitive) an opponent (as crowding)

KJV usage: adversary, afflicted(-tion), anguish, close, distress, enemy, flint, foe, narrow, small, sorrow, strait, tribulation, trouble.

Reference gloss from Strong's Concordance (1890, public domain).

Key verses BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

Psalms 31:9 “Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.” Psalms 18:19 “He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.”

Original BibleDawn word study. Original-language data and the public-domain Strong's (1890) gloss are referenced; see sources.