Hebrew word · H3504

יִתְרוֹן

yitron

advantage

From the root y-t-r, 'to remain, be left over' (compare yeter, 'remainder', and yôtēr, 'more, excess'). The core idea is surplus: what remains after a transaction or a life's effort has been tallied.

Appears 10 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

advantage, profit, excellency

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

From the study of Ecclesiastes 1:3

Range of meaning

From the root y-t-r, 'to remain, be left over' (compare yeter, 'remainder', and yôtēr, 'more, excess'). The core idea is surplus: what remains after a transaction or a life's effort has been tallied. From that comes 'profit', 'net gain', and, in comparisons, 'advantage' (2:13: wisdom has an advantage over folly, as light over darkness).

Against the English

KJV 'profit' and YLT 'advantage' both catch part of it. BSB/WEB/NIV/ESV 'gain' is accurate but loses the picture of a balance sheet with something left in the credit column. 'Profit' can suggest money only. The question is wider than money, though it borrows the language of the marketplace.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Bible it is found only in Ecclesiastes (1:3; 2:11, 13 twice; 3:9; 5:9[Eng. 5:8]; 5:16[5:15]; 7:12; 10:10, 11). It became common in later (Mishnaic) Hebrew and Aramaic for 'advantage, profit'. The Greek translation (LXX) uses perisseia, 'abundance, surplus'. The Latin Vulgate has 'quid habet amplius', 'what more does he have?' C. L. Seow (Anchor Bible) argues that Qohelet deliberately uses commercial terms (yitrôn, ḥēleq 'portion', ʿinyān 'business', 'counting'). M. V. Fox notes that in several places the word means simply 'advantage', not literal profit.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 10:10

Range of meaning

Surplus, profit, advantage, gain. It comes from the root ytr, 'to remain, be left over', so its basic picture is what is left in your hands after the costs.

Against the English

KJV 'profitable', YLT 'advantageous', NASB 'advantage'. BSB, WEB and NIV fold it into 'produces / brings success' and lose the word. English readers then miss that this is Qoheleth's key term.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Hebrew Bible it occurs only in Ecclesiastes (about ten times), starting with the book's opening question, 'What yitron does a person have for all his toil?' (1:3). It has a commercial flavour, and in later Hebrew it means 'surplus, profit'.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 2:11

Range of meaning

Surplus, what remains over, net gain, advantage. It comes from the root meaning to be left over (compare yeter, "remainder"). It found only in Ecclesiastes (1:3; 2:11, 13; 3:9; 5:9 [Eng], 16; 7:12; 10:10, 11), where it can mean commercial profit or a relative advantage (wisdom has a yitron over folly, 2:13).

Against the English

KJV and WEB: "profit". YLT: "advantage". ESV and BSB: "nothing to be gained". The NIV and NLT wordings are smoother and lose the bookkeeping image to some degree.

Used elsewhere in the period

Its business flavor fits other money words in the book, such as "portion" (cheleq) and "business" ('inyan). Some scholars connect it to the commercial vocabulary of the Persian or early Hellenistic economy. Jerome's Latin renders it "nihil permanere", "nothing remains", which catches the "left over" sense.

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 10

  1. Ecclesiastes 1:3 יִּתְר֖וֹן profit

    What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?

    Here: What is left over once everything is added up: the net gain, the remainder that stays in your hands. The word occurs only in Ecclesiastes, and this is its first appearance. It sets the question the whole book goes on to work through.

  2. Ecclesiastes 2:11 יִתְר֖וֹן [was] profit

    Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

    Here: "Surplus, net gain": what is left over after the books are balanced. It answers the book's opening question (1:3), and the answer is none.

  3. Ecclesiastes 2:13 יִתְר֛וֹן כִּֽיתְר֥וֹן [is] advantage, like [the] advantage of

    And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

    Here: What is left over, a net gain. It is the same word as the opening question of 1:3 ("What yitron does a person have in all his toil?"). Here Qohelet grants that a real surplus does exist, in wisdom compared with folly.

  4. Ecclesiastes 3:9 יִּתְרוֹן֙ [is] [the] profit of

    What does the worker gain from his toil?

  5. Ecclesiastes 5:9 וְיִתְר֥וֹן and [the] profit of

    The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.

  6. Ecclesiastes 5:16 יִּתְר֣וֹן [is the] profit

    This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?

  7. Ecclesiastes 7:12 וְיִתְר֣וֹן and [the] advantage of

    For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

    Here: 'And the surplus of': what is left over, the net gain. This is Qoheleth's signature question word ('What profit has a man…?' 1:3). The waw can be read 'and' or 'but'.

  8. Ecclesiastes 10:10 וְיִתְר֥וֹן and [is] advantage

    If the axe is dull and the blade unsharpened, more strength must be exerted, but skill produces success.

    Here: Qoheleth's signature word for 'net gain', meaning what is left over at the end. Here he names a real, if modest, advantage.

  9. Ecclesiastes 10:11 יִתְר֔וֹן [is] profit

    If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

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