Hebrew word · H3287

יָעֵף

ya'ef

weary

Worn out, exhausted, spent. The weariness of someone who has been travelling, fighting, or going without food and water.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 22, 2026

What it means

faint, weary, fatigued

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Worn out, exhausted, spent. The weariness of someone who has been travelling, fighting, or going without food and water. The verb from the same root (yāʿap) means 'to grow tired.' The word is about a drained body (and, by extension, a drained person), not about being morally weak or lacking willpower.
Against the English: KJV, ESV and BSB say 'the faint,' NIV and NASB 'the weary,' and WEB and NLT 'the weak.' 'Weary' is closest. 'Faint' now suggests passing out, and 'weak' suggests a permanent frailty rather than strength that has run out.
How it drifted: In older English 'faint' meant 'exhausted, lacking strength' (as in 'faint with hunger'). Today it mostly means losing consciousness.
Used elsewhere in the period: 2 Sam 16:2: wine 'for those who are exhausted (hayyāʿēp) in the wilderness to drink.' Judg 8:15: Gideon's 'exhausted men.' Isa 50:4: the Servant is given a tongue 'to sustain the weary (yāʿēp) with a word.' In Isa 40:28–31 the root appears four times as a deliberate thread. The Greek Septuagint usually renders it here with peinaō, 'to be hungry,' which shows that ancient readers linked this tiredness with hunger and hard travel.

Range of meaning: Worn out and faint, especially from effort such as marching, travel, or going without food and water. Used of exhausted troops (Judges 8:15), travelers fainting in the wilderness (2 Samuel 16:2), and a land without water.
Against the English: 'Weary' is accurate, but in modern English it can sound like mild tiredness. The Hebrew picture is closer to someone who has nothing left and is about to drop.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isaiah 40:28–31 is the key parallel: YHWH 'does not grow faint or weary', he 'gives power to the faint (ya'ef)', and those who wait for him 'shall walk and not faint'. Also Isaiah 44:12, the idol-maker who 'grows faint' with no water.

Judges · 1

Judges 8:15 הַיְּעֵפִ֖ים <the> weary

And Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your weary men?’”

2 Samuel · 1

2 Samuel 16:2 הַיָּעֵ֖ף the weary [person]

“Why do you have these?” asked the king. Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride, the bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who become exhausted in the wilderness.”

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 40:29 לַיָּעֵ֖ף to the weary [person]

He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.

Here: 'To the worn-out one.' The adjective describes someone drained by effort, travel, hunger or thirst. It picks up 40:28 on purpose, where the LORD 'does not grow weary' (the verb from the same root), and the root comes back in 40:30–31.
Isaiah 50:4 יָעֵ֖ף [the] weary

The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

Here: Someone worn out and drained of strength, like a marcher or traveler at the end of his endurance. In Isaiah 40–55 this points back to the exhausted exiles of 40:29–31.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.