נָצַב (nāṣab) is a Hebrew verb for standing, taking a position, being stationed, or setting something in place. It can describe people standing nearby, before the Lord, around a ruler, or at a place of work.
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Full entry for נָצַב (H5324) · Open the biblical lexicon
נָצַב (nāṣab) is a Hebrew verb for standing, taking a position, being stationed, or setting something in place. It can describe people standing nearby, before the LORD, around a ruler, or at a place of work.
The BSB source-word alignment has 74 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include standing (8), set up (3), stood (3), was standing (3), and set me (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 18:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (12), 1 Samuel (9), Exodus (8), 1 Kings (7).
H5324, nāṣab, is a Hebrew verb for standing, taking a position, being stationed, or setting something in place. It can describe people standing nearby, before the Lord, around a ruler, or at a place of work. In causative forms it can describe setting boundaries, markers, traps, gates, or objects in position. Participles can even function like titles for stationed officials. The word therefore covers posture, presence, appointment, and establishment; it does not by itself identify courage, righteousness, authority, or permanence.
Several passages make standing a scene of accountability. Israel stands before the Lord to enter covenant. The Lord stands to judge in Isaiah and beside the plumb line or altar in Amos. Psalm 82 portrays God presiding in judgment over unjust powers. Yet human stations can serve very different ends: officials organize provision, Samuel leads prophets, Saul's servants surround an increasingly violent king, and wicked people set traps. A place, title, or visible posture receives its moral meaning from the one before whom a person stands and from what that person does there.
The verb also exposes institutional strain. Exodus 18 shows people standing from morning to evening while Moses judges alone, and Jethro's counsel leads toward shared responsibility. Jeremiah commands road markers for return, whereas Jericho's gate-setting belongs to a solemn curse whose later fulfillment never licenses harming children. Physical standing must not become a metaphor that excludes people who sit, use mobility aids, live with pain, or cannot hold a conventional posture. Biblical steadfastness concerns faithful presence and accountable action, not bodily ability or unquestioning loyalty to a leader.
H5324 moves through ordinary presence, established objects, covenant assembly, military and royal stations, administrative office, wisdom's public invitation, divine judgment, predatory traps, return markers, and prophetic visions.
And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
The three visitors stand near Abraham's tent, and his response turns their presence into a scene of urgent hospitality.
And Abimelech asked him, “Why have you set apart these seven ewe lambs?”
Abraham sets seven ewe lambs apart as a visible witness within a dispute-resolution covenant with Abimelech.
And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.
The dream's stairway is set on earth and reaches heaven, locating the object within Jacob's vision rather than offering a human construction plan.
And there at the top the Lord was standing and saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
The Lord stands above or beside the stairway and speaks covenant promise, so the vision's center is divine presence and word.
We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”
Joseph's sheaf stands upright while the others bow, and the dream contributes to family conflict before its meaning unfolds through the narrative.
When they left Pharaoh, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them.
Moses and Aaron stand to meet the foremen after Pharaoh increases oppression, placing leadership before the anger of harmed workers.
So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.”
Moses takes his position with God's staff while Joshua leads the battle, distributing roles within Israel's defense.
When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone as judge, with all the people standing around you from morning till evening?”
The people stand all day before a single judge, and Jethro recognizes an unsustainable structure that harms both leader and community.
All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel,
All levels of Israel stand before the Lord in covenant assembly, including leaders, families, resident foreigners, and workers named in the following verse.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
The Most High sets peoples' boundaries within a poetic account of the nations, a divine act that cannot be mapped directly onto modern territorial claims.
He sent messengers to seize him. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came upon them, and Saul’s messengers also began to prophesy.
Samuel stands as leader of the prophetic company when the Spirit interrupts Saul's agents sent to seize David.
Soon Saul learned that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with his spear in hand and all his servants standing around him.
Saul's servants stand around an armed king whose fear and accusation will soon issue in murderous commands.
Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,
Stationed governors organize monthly provision for Solomon's household, showing the participle functioning as an administrative office.
God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods:
God presides in the assembly and judges unjust powers, making His verdict the measure of every subordinate authority.
On the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand.
Wisdom takes her stand at visible public crossroads, offering instruction rather than hiding knowledge within an elite circle.
The Lord arises to contend; He stands to judge the people.
The Lord stands to judge amid an oracle against leaders who crush the poor, joining divine presence to concrete social accountability.
For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
Wicked people set a trap for others, proving that establishing a position or device can serve predatory harm.
“Set up the road markers, put up the signposts. Keep the highway in mind, the road you have traveled. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.
Road markers are set to help returning Israel remember the way home, turning fixed signs toward restoration.
This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.
The Lord stands by a plumb wall with a plumb line, a vision of measured judgment on Israel's distortion.
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape.
The Lord stands beside the altar and announces inescapable judgment, stripping sacred location of immunity from accountability.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItSeparate English wording is recorded for 69 of 74 aligned rows. Rows without separate wording remain in the aligned-row total.
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. To take a firm, visible stand—whether physically stationed or figuratively positioned with authority or permanence.
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.
נָצַב 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.
H5324 opens teaching on presence, covenant assembly, public office, established boundaries, shared leadership, public wisdom, return, and judgment. It also asks what authority and action give a position its moral meaning.
H5324 gives no automatic virtue to standing. Abraham's visitors stand nearby, Israel stands in covenant, wisdom stands at the crossroads, officials occupy assigned posts, and the Lord stands in judgment. But Saul's servants also stand around a violent king, wicked people set traps, and a sacred altar cannot shield Amos's hearers from God's verdict. The word directs attention to position and presence, while the narrative asks whom that position serves.
Exodus 18 is especially important for institutions: people remain standing all day because responsibility has narrowed around one exhausted judge, and faithful reform distributes the work. Churches should therefore examine lines of authority, waiting burdens, access, and accountability rather than celebrating leaders who make every decision. Spiritual steadiness is not physical performance.
A person may sit, tremble, use a wheelchair, or need assistance and still remain faithfully present before God.
It corrects equating visible posture with courage, title with righteousness, proximity to power with faithfulness, centralized overload with devotion, and physical standing with spiritual worth.
Identify the verb's stem, who or what stands or is set, before whom, and for what purpose. Distinguish bodily posture, assigned station, installed object, boundary, marker, office, and moral steadfastness.
H5324 occurs chiefly in Niphal forms for standing or being stationed, with Hiphil forms for causing something to stand or setting it up and Hophal forms for something established in position. Context can turn a participle into an office description.
The New Testament continues the language of standing before God, remaining firm in faith, and giving account before Christ. Those uses deepen covenant presence and endurance without making a bodily posture, office, nationality, or institutional station the basis of acceptance.