מַעְצוֹר

From the study of 1 Samuel 14:6

Range of meaning

A noun formed from the root 'atsar, 'to restrain, hold back, shut up, detain'. Elsewhere the root is used for a womb that is 'shut' (Gen 16:2; 20:18), skies 'shut up' so no rain falls (Deut 11:17), a plague being 'held back' (Num 16:48–50), and people being detained or confined. So the noun means 'something that holds back': an obstacle, a check, a constraint.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT keep 'no restraint to the LORD'. That is literal but slightly awkward English. BSB and most modern versions turn it into a verb: 'Nothing can hinder the LORD'. That reads well and keeps the sense. What it loses is the concrete picture of something physically holding God back, as a shut womb or shut sky holds back life or rain.

Used elsewhere in the period

This exact form occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. A close relative, ma'tsar, appears in Proverbs 25:28 for a man 'without restraint' over his own spirit. The idea is echoed in 1 Maccabees 3:18–19, where Judas Maccabeus tells his outnumbered troops that 'in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between saving by many or by few'. As best I recall, the Greek Septuagint renders the phrase with a participle meaning 'held back, constrained', and the Latin Vulgate says it is 'not difficult' for the Lord.