To jut over or exceed ; by implication, to excel ; (intransitively) to remain or be left ; causatively to leave , cause to abound , preserve
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H3498 describes what remains or is left over, the act of leaving or preserving something, and in some contexts abundance, excess, or comparative advantage. The verb can identify leftover food, surviving people, reserved property, preserved life, remaining enemies, excess provision, no remainder after devastation, or what one thing has beyond another, so survival, surplus, and superiority must remain distinct.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָתַר (H3498) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3498 describes what remains or is left over, the act of leaving or preserving something, and in some contexts abundance, excess, or comparative advantage. The verb can identify leftover food, surviving people, reserved property, preserved life, remaining enemies, excess provision, no remainder after devastation, or what one thing has beyond another, so.
The BSB source-word alignment has 106 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include left (6), remained (5), the remainder (5), the rest (5), remaining (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 30:36. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (14), Exodus (10), Joshua (10), 1 Kings (9).
H3498 describes what remains or is left over, the act of leaving or preserving something, and in some contexts abundance, excess, or comparative advantage. The verb can identify leftover food, surviving people, reserved property, preserved life, remaining enemies, excess provision, no remainder after devastation, or what one thing has beyond another, so survival, surplus, and superiority must remain distinct.
In Ruth. 2. 14, boaz gives Ruth roasted grain, and she eats until satisfied and has some left over to carry back to Naomi. In Ezek. 6. 8, within an oracle of judgment, God says He will leave a remnant who escape the sword when scattered among the nations. H3498 opens teaching on what remains after need, judgment, violence, or generous provision, asking whether the remainder becomes care, testimony, responsibility, warning, or grounds for pride.
It corrects the belief that survivors are automatically more righteous, that abundance proves divine favor, or that biblical remnant language authorizes contempt for people displaced, conquered, poor, or outside a favored group. H3498 can describe provision, preservation, or devastation: Ruth eats until satisfied and has food left over, Ezekiel says God will leave a remnant who escape the sword, and Exodus reports that the locusts leave nothing green in Egypt.
What remains may nourish another person, bear witness after judgment, or reveal comprehensive loss. A remainder is not automatically proof of merit, and abundance is accountable to the God who preserves life and commands just stewardship. For H3498, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable.
H3498 does not teach that every survivor was divinely favored over those who died, guarantee prosperity, justify conquest or forced labor, make leftovers inherently holy, or allow remnant identity to become racial, national, or ecclesial superiority.
H3498 appears across passages that develop survival, remnant, preservation, leftovers, generous provision, devastation, conquest memory, scarcity, comparative advantage, stewardship, and hope. For H3498, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
Boaz gives Ruth roasted grain, and she eats until satisfied and has some left over to carry back to Naomi.
Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.
Within an oracle of judgment, God says He will leave a remnant who escape the sword when scattered among the nations.
They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.
The locusts consume what hail had left until nothing green remains on any tree or plant throughout Egypt.
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. Conveys both surplus abundance and preserved remnant—what persists after reduction or judgment.
Conveys both surplus abundance and preserved remnant—what persists after reduction or judgment.
to jut over or exceed; by implication, to excel; (intransitively) to remain or be left; causatively to leave, cause to abound, preserve BDB: remain over Usage: excel, leave (a remnant), left behind, too much, make plenteous, preserve, (be, let) remain(-der, -ing, -nant), reserve, residue, rest.
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 2 selected witnesses from 107 lexical occurrence verses.
יָתַר is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3498 can describe provision, preservation, or devastation: Ruth eats until satisfied and has food left over, Ezekiel says God will leave a remnant who escape the sword, and Exodus reports that the locusts leave nothing green in Egypt. What remains may nourish another person, bear witness after judgment, or reveal comprehensive loss. A remainder is not automatically proof of merit, and abundance is accountable to the God who preserves life and commands just stewardship.
H3498 describes what remains or is left over, the act of leaving or preserving something, and in some contexts abundance, excess, or comparative advantage. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Ruth. 2. 14 shows that boaz gives Ruth roasted grain, and she eats until satisfied and has some left over to carry back to Naomi, while Ezek. 6. 8 shows that within an oracle of judgment, God says He will leave a remnant who escape the sword when scattered among the nations.
Exod. 10. 15 adds that the locusts consume what hail had left until nothing green remains on any tree or plant throughout Egypt. H3498 opens teaching on what remains after need, judgment, violence, or generous provision, asking whether the remainder becomes care, testimony, responsibility, warning, or grounds for pride. It corrects the belief that survivors are automatically more righteous, that abundance proves divine favor, or that biblical remnant language authorizes contempt for people displaced, conquered, poor, or outside a favored group.
A church teaching H3498 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support. H3498 does not teach that every survivor was divinely favored over those who died, guarantee prosperity, justify conquest or forced labor, make leftovers inherently holy, or allow remnant identity to become racial, national, or ecclesial superiority.
Ruth.2.14
H3498 is a Hebrew verb for remaining, being left over, leaving something, preserving, exceeding, or having abundance; stem, subject, object, comparison, and narrative outcome determine whether the sense is survival, residue, causation, or excess.
Old Testament remnant language holds judgment and mercy together without romanticizing catastrophe. The New Testament speaks of grace-preserved people, gathered fragments, generous sufficiency, and resurrection life, while insisting that preservation produces humility, service, and hope rather than boasting over others.