Hebrew word · H2959
טָרַח
yatriach
to burden
To burden, weigh down, load. This causative form ('he makes heavy') is found only here. The related noun ṭōraḥ means a burden or load (Deut 1:12, 'your burden'; Isa 1:14, 'they have become a burden to me').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Hiphil) to burden, toil, be burdened
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
To burden, weigh down, load. This causative form ('he makes heavy') is found only here. The related noun ṭōraḥ means a burden or load (Deut 1:12, 'your burden'; Isa 1:14, 'they have become a burden to me').
- Against the English
KJV has 'wearieth'. In 1611 that kept the sense of a heavy load, but today it sounds like 'makes tired'. Modern versions have 'loads' or 'burdens'.
- How it drifted
In older English 'weary' kept the sense of being weighed down or over-burdened. Today it mainly means 'tired' or 'bored', so the KJV now suggests a tired cloud rather than one heavy with water.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The noun ṭōraḥ in Deuteronomy and Isaiah means a load that someone carries. A related root in later Hebrew and Aramaic means trouble or effort. The physical sense of weight comes first.
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 37:11 יַטְרִ֣יחַ he burdens
He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.
Here: 'He loads' or 'he weighs down'. God makes the cloud heavy with its cargo of water. The related noun means a burden that someone carries.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.