קָצֵר

From the study of Proverbs 14:29

Range of meaning

"Short of breath/spirit": a person with no reserve under pressure. It covers impatience, exasperation and irritability, as well as quick anger. Related phrases: qotser ruach in Exod 6:9 (Israel could not listen to Moses "because of shortness of spirit and cruel bondage", meaning exhausted and discouraged); "why should my spirit not be short?" (Job 21:4, "why shouldn't I be impatient?"); "is the spirit of YHWH shortened?" (Mic 2:7). The opposite is ʾerekh ruach, "long of spirit" (Eccl 7:8, "the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit").

Against the English

"Quick-tempered" (BSB) and "quick temper" (WEB) capture the main point. KJV's "hasty of spirit" keeps ruach, but modern readers may hear "spirit" as soul or spirituality. YLT's "short in temper" stays closest to the image.

How it drifted

"Spirit" in English has narrowed toward the immaterial or religious. ruach began with breath and wind, the physical sign of a person's inner energy.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 6:9; Job 21:4; Mic 2:7; Prov 14:17 (qetsar ʾappayim). The LXX here translates it oligopsychos, "small-souled, faint-hearted", which reads the phrase as lack of inner resilience as much as anger.

From the study of Proverbs 14:17

Range of meaning

Literally 'short of nostrils.' ʼAf means 'nose' and, by extension, 'anger,' because anger was pictured as heat and breath at the nose. 'Short' and 'long' measure how fast the anger comes. ʼErek appayim ('long of nostrils') means slow to anger or patient. Qetsar appayim means quick to anger. A related phrase, qetsar ruach ('short of breath/spirit'), means impatient or hasty (14:29).

Against the English

'Quick-tempered,' 'soon angry' (KJV) and 'short of temper' (YLT) all catch the meaning. What they lose is the bodily picture of flaring nostrils and the link to the famous description of God as 'long of nostrils' (Exodus 34:6).

Used elsewhere in the period

The 'long' form is used of God in the self-description of Exodus 34:6, repeated across the Hebrew Bible (Numbers 14:18; Psalm 103:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). The 'short' form is rare and found in wisdom texts: here, and in the near-twin saying 14:29 ('long of nostrils = great understanding; short of spirit = exalts folly'). Egyptian teaching such as the Instruction of Amenemope sets the 'heated man' against the 'silent' (self-controlled) man, which is the same contrast between the hothead and the composed person.

From the study of Job 14:1

Range of meaning

qāṣēr means short or lacking. Bound to another noun it means 'short in X': qəṣar-rûaḥ is 'short of spirit', impatient or quick-tempered (Prov 14:29); qiṣrê-yād is 'short of hand', powerless (Isa 37:27; 2 Kgs 19:26). Joined to yāmîm (days), it means short-lived.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'of few days', BSB 'short of days', NASB 'short-lived', ESV 'few of days'. All are accurate. 'Short of days' keeps the Hebrew picture of a person who lacks days, as if under-supplied.

Used elsewhere in the period

The lament that a human lifespan is short runs through Hebrew poetry (Ps 39:5; 89:47; 90:10; 103:15–16) and wider Near Eastern wisdom. In the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, Gilgamesh says that mankind's days are numbered and whatever they do is but wind.