יָשַׁר

Numbers 23:27 יִישַׁר֙ it will be pleasing

“Please come,” said Balak, “I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you curse them for me from there.”

Judges 14:3 יָשְׁרָ֥ה she is pleasing

But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”

Judges 14:7 וַתִּישַׁ֖ר and she was pleasing

Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.

Here: "And she was right/straight." The verb is the root behind yashar, "upright, right". It judges her as fitting or acceptable, not only as attractive. It repeats Samson's own words in 14:3 ("she is right in my eyes") and looks ahead to the book's closing refrain: "everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

1 Samuel 6:12 וַיִשַּׁ֨רְנָה and they were straight

And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

1 Samuel 18:20 וַיִּשַׁ֥ר and it was pleasing

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and when this was reported to Saul, it pleased him.

1 Samuel 18:26 וַיִּשַׁ֤ר and it was pleasing

When the servants reported these terms to David, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. Before the wedding day arrived,

2 Samuel 17:4 וַיִּישַׁ֥ר and it was pleasing

This proposal seemed good to Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

1 Kings 6:35 מְיֻשָּׁ֖ר made smooth

He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

1 Kings 9:12 יָשְׁר֖וּ they were pleasing

So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

1 Chronicles 13:4 יָשַׁ֥ר it was pleasing

And because this proposal seemed right to all the people, the whole assembly agreed to it.

2 Chronicles 30:4 וַיִּישַׁ֥ר and it was pleasing

This plan pleased the king and the whole assembly.

2 Chronicles 32:30 וַֽיַּישְּׁרֵ֥ם and he directed them

It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.

Psalm 5:8 הַיְשַׁ֖ר make straight

Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make straight Your way before me.

Here: A command from a verb meaning 'be straight, level, upright', in a form meaning 'make it so'. The picture is road-building: flatten the road, clear it, take out what would trip someone. The same root also describes moral uprightness, so both senses are heard here.

Psalm 119:128 יִשָּׁ֑רְתִּי I approve

Therefore I admire all Your precepts and hate every false way.

Here: 'I have held straight / declared right'. The root is the image of a straight, level road. In this verb form it can mean either 'I have judged them straight and right' or 'I have kept my course straight by them'. It sets up the contrast with the 'path' in the second half.

Proverbs 3:6 יְיַשֵּׁ֥ר he will make straight

in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Here: This verb form means to cause something to be straight or level. It pictures a road made direct and smooth, with no detours or obstacles, so the traveller gets where they are going. In Proverbs 'straight' also carries moral weight, as the opposite of crooked. The verb is a promise of result: he will straighten.

Proverbs 4:25 יַיְשִׁ֥רוּ let them look straight

Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

Here: "Let them make straight" or "keep straight." This is the root of the Bible's main word for "upright" (yāšār). Elsewhere this form is used for making a road straight (Ps 5:8 [5:9 Heb]; compare Prov 3:6). So the gaze is pictured as laying out a straight line for the path, which leads into v. 26: "make level the track of your feet."

Proverbs 9:15 הַֽ֝מְיַשְּׁרִ֗ים those [who] make straight

calling out to those who pass by, who make their paths straight.

Proverbs 11:5 תְּיַשֵּׁ֣ר it makes straight

The righteousness of the blameless directs their path, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness.

Here: The intensive (Piel) form, "makes straight / levels." It's road-builder language for clearing obstacles and evening out the surface. The verb is feminine to agree with "righteousness", which is what does the levelling. The tense describes what typically or always happens.

Proverbs 15:21 יְיַשֶׁר־ he makes straight

Folly is joy to one who lacks judgment, but a man of understanding walks a straight path.

Here: An intensive form of the verb 'be straight': he actively straightens or levels something. The tense marks a habit, what he regularly does.

Isaiah 40:3 יַשְּׁרוּ֙ make straight

A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

Here: A second plural command: to make a route straight and smooth, removing bends and rough ground. Verse 4 spells it out: valleys raised, mountains lowered.

Isaiah 45:2 אֲיַשֵּׁ֑ר I will make smooth

“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

Here: "I will make level" or "smooth": the road-building image of Isaiah 40:3–4, where a highway is made straight and the mountains are brought low. The road through the high ground becomes flat.

Isaiah 45:13 אֲיַשֵּׁ֑ר I will make smooth

I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for payment or reward, says the LORD of Hosts.”

Here: 'I will level' or 'make smooth': God takes away the obstacles on Cyrus's route. It echoes 40:3 ('make straight in the desert a highway') and 45:2 ('I will go before you and level the rough places').

Jeremiah 18:4 יָשַׁ֛ר it was pleasing

But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

Here: "It was right." The root means straight or level, and so fitting or proper.

Jeremiah 27:5 יָשַׁ֥ר it is pleasing

By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.

Here: 'Is straight / right.' It is part of an idiom for what someone judges fitting. It speaks of right judgment, not passing whim.

Habakkuk 2:4 יָשְׁרָ֥ה it is upright

Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—

Here: 'It is not straight.' The root first describes a level road or straight path, and from there honest, upright conduct. A swollen thing is by definition not level, so the two verbs build one picture: lumpy, crooked, out of true.