Precious or valuable identifies something regarded as weighty or worth attention, and the passage names the object and reason. Proverbs says wisdom is more precious than rubies, distinguishing it from things someone can merely desire or buy.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָקָר (H3368) · Open the biblical lexicon
Precious or valuable identifies something regarded as weighty or worth attention, and the passage names the object and reason. Proverbs says wisdom is more precious than rubies, distinguishing it from things someone can merely desire or buy.
The BSB source-word alignment has 35 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and precious (6), precious (6), of precious (3), costly (2), with precious (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Samuel 3:1. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Kings (7), 2 Chronicles (5), Proverbs (5), Psalms (4).
Precious or valuable identifies something regarded as weighty or worth attention, and the passage names the object and reason. Proverbs says wisdom is more precious than rubies, distinguishing it from things someone can merely desire or buy. Samuel's opening account says the Lord's word was rare in those days and visions were scarce. Psalm 116 calls the death of the Lord's faithful ones precious in His sight within thanksgiving for rescue from death and a commitment to walk in the land of the living.
These uses must not be reduced to one market price or a command to seek death. Follow what is valued and how the passage directs attention toward it. The psalm's seriousness about faithful people's death does not cancel its gratitude for preserved life or authorize harm, while the scarcity statement does not make a new private message automatically authoritative.
Wisdom beyond rubies, scarce divine speech in Samuel's named setting and faithful people's death regarded before the Lord have different objects. Value, rarity in that translation and costly materials must be explained through their actual contexts rather than one universal price.
She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies and incomparable with desired things within the teaching about finding wisdom and understanding, not a claim that wealth establishes spiritual worth.
And the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. Now in those days the word of the Lord was rare, and visions were scarce.
The BSB describes the Lord's word as rare and visions as scarce in those days before Samuel's calling account, supplying a named historical setting rather than authenticating every later claim of revelation.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
The precious-death statement belongs to a thanksgiving that names rescue from death and walking before the Lord in the land of the living, so it must not be turned into an instruction to pursue death.
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. Denotes objective worth or subjective esteem; ranges from material preciousness to honor and reputation.
Denotes objective worth or subjective esteem; ranges from material preciousness to honor and reputation.
valuable (objectively or subjectively) BDB: precious Usage: brightness, clear, costly, excellent, fat, honourable women, precious, reputation.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 36 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Psalm 116 says the death of the Lord's faithful ones is precious in His sight, but the same speaker thanks Him for delivering his soul from death, his eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling. He intends to walk before the Lord in the land of the living and offer thanksgiving. Those words prevent precious death from being read as a command to desire, hasten or inflict death.
The term directs attention to what matters before the Lord rather than making the suffering person expendable. Proverbs likewise places wisdom's value beyond precious stones, while Samuel's opening scene uses the tagged word in its statement that divine speech was rare. Teaching should attend to the actual valued object and response. It can honor wisdom, the Lord's speech and faithful people's lives without equating spiritual worth with wealth, inventing new revelation credentials or dismissing grief and the preservation of life.
Ps.116.15
The licensed Hebrew adjective concerns what is valuable or precious, including costly objects. The BSB renders it rare in Samuel's scarce-word setting; that rendering belongs to its context rather than replacing precious in every other passage. Different objects and comparisons show how value is expressed, and market cost is not the same measure as the Lord's regard.
First Peter 1:18-21 contrasts perishable silver and gold with the precious blood of Christ in its account of redemption and hope in God. The Greek value language supplies a separately stated comparison; it does not merge lexical identities, price one person's life against another or make Psalm 116 an instruction to seek death.