To be ashamed , confused or disappointed ; also (as failing) to dry up (as water) or wither (as herbage)
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H3001 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can mean dry up or wither and can also describe being ashamed, confounded, or disappointed when a trust or work fails. First Kings 17:7 reports that Elijah's brook dried up because no rain had fallen, creating a concrete crisis of provision.
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Full entry for יָבֵשׁ (H3001) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3001 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can mean dry up or wither and can also describe being ashamed, confounded, or disappointed when a trust or work fails. First Kings 17:7 reports that Elijah's brook dried up because no rain had fallen, creating a concrete crisis of provision.
The BSB source-word alignment has 61 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dried up (5), is dried up (3), will wither (3), withers (3), . . . (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 8:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (10), Ezekiel (9), Joshua (6), Psalms (6).
H3001 is a Hebrew verb whose forms can mean dry up or wither and can also describe being ashamed, confounded, or disappointed when a trust or work fails. First Kings 17:7 reports that Elijah's brook dried up because no rain had fallen, creating a concrete crisis of provision. Ezekiel 37:11 gives Israel's lament that their bones are dried up, their hope has perished, and they are cut off, before God promises life.
Jeremiah 10:14 says idol makers are put to shame because their images are fraudulent and breathless. Other passages describe receding floodwaters, withered vegetation, drought, bodily distress, disappointed enemies, and proud powers brought low. H3001 opens ecological loss, grief, failed hope, exposure, shame, and divine reversal. It corrects moralizing every drought or illness as a person's punishment and simplistic encouragement that skips the real experience of depletion before announcing restoration.
H3001 covers drying, withering, and the failure or exposure expressed as shame, confusion, or disappointment. Physical subjects include water, plants, bodies, and land; personal subjects experience hopes, idols, or hostile plans failing. Grammar and subject distinguish the branches.
Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
During the announced drought, the brook supplying Elijah eventually dries up because no rain has fallen.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
The exiled house of Israel describes its bones as dried, its hope as lost, and itself as cut off before God's promise of restoration.
Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
Craftsmen are put to shame by fraudulent, breathless idols that cannot bear the trust placed in them.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Shame and drying converge: social humiliation mirrors physical withering, both mark failure and depletion
Shame and drying converge: social humiliation mirrors physical withering, both mark failure and depletion
to be ashamed, confused or disappointed; also (as failing) to dry up (as water) or wither (as herbage) BDB: be dry Usage: be ashamed, clean, be confounded, (make) dry (up), (do) shame(-fully), × utterly, wither (away).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 73 lexical occurrence verses.
יָבֵשׁ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The verb underscores the total loss of sustaining life.Isaiah 19:5-10
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3001 gives language to the failure of what once seemed sustaining. A brook can dry because rain has stopped, fields can wither, a body can feel depleted, and a people in exile can say that their bones and hope are gone. Ezekiel does not rebuke that lament as bad faith. God names the speakers and answers their perceived finality with promised breath, life, and return.
Elsewhere shame belongs not to every sufferer but to idols, makers, or enemies whose false confidence is exposed. That distinction protects pastoral care. A grieving or exhausted person should not be told that dryness proves idolatry. Communities should ask about water, food, health, workload, trauma, and material support. They can pray for renewal without manufacturing optimism.
At the same time, H3001 warns that objects of trust lacking life will eventually disappoint. Institutions and leaders may appear green while their integrity is already failing. God's word stands when grass withers, but that confession calls for truthful endurance, concrete provision, and hope rooted in God rather than denial of environmental or human limits.
Ezek.37.11
H3001 is a verb with a physical branch for drying or withering and an experiential branch for shame, confusion, or disappointment through failure. Subject, stem, and result clauses indicate whether moisture, vitality, hope, reputation, or hostile intent is failing.
New Testament texts use withering for human transience, fruitless growth, healing, and judgment, while resurrection hope answers mortality's apparent finality. Those connections do not make every drought or bodily condition a direct moral allegory.