עֶ֫צֶב (e.tsev)
e.tsev
toil; vessel
H:N-MQuick Reference
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
- Testament
- Old Testament
- Occurrences
- 7 verses
- Root
- —
- Part of speech
- H:N-M
Word Overview
The Hebrew noun etsev carries a dual meaning that shifts between abstract suffering and concrete form. In most contexts, it describes the heavy burden of toil, pain, or sorrow. This is the weariness that comes from labor, often implying a sense of hardship or even offense that causes hurt.
Yet in Jeremiah 22:28, the word takes on a physical sense, referring to a vessel or object as something fashioned or created. Here, the connection lies in the idea of shaping; just as clay is worked into a pot, human life is shaped through experience, which can be either painful toil or purposeful creation.
This range reflects how ancient Hebrew thought did not strictly separate the emotional weight of suffering from the physical reality of being made. The same root that describes the ache of labor also points to the object produced by it, linking the process of enduring with the result of existence.
Based on public-domain lexicons (Strong's, Thayer, Gesenius, Brown-Driver-Briggs and others).
What This Word Means for Your Faith
The word etsev reminds us that our labor is real, but so is God’s care for us. In Genesis 3:16, it describes the heavy pain and toil that mark life after the fall. This isn’t just physical tiredness; it’s the deep weariness of a world working against us. Yet even in this hardness, we are not abandoned. God sees the effort behind every task and the sorrow behind every struggle.
Psalm 127:2 offers a gentle correction to our anxiety. It tells us that rising early and staying up late, eating the bread of toil, is vain if we forget who gives rest. God does not demand our exhaustion as proof of worth. Instead, He gives sleep to those He loves. This means your value isn’t tied to how much you suffer or produce.
In Jeremiah 22:28, etsev takes a different shape, referring to a broken vessel. Even when we feel shattered by life’s pressures, God remembers His creative purpose. You are not merely a tool used up and discarded. You are being shaped, even through pain, into something that can still hold meaning. Trust in the One who forms you.
How it's translated
How this word is rendered word-by-word in the 7 verses where it appears, by frequency.
- ¿/ a pot1×
- with/ pain1×
- sorrow1×
- hurt1×
- hard labor1×
- and/ labor/ your1×
- <the>/ labors1×
Forms in the text
The inflected forms of this word as they appear in Scripture, by frequency.
- עֶ֭צֶב1×
- עֶ֣צֶב1×
- עֶ֝֗צֶב1×
- וַ֝/עֲצָבֶ֗י/ךָ1×
- הָ/עֲצָבִ֑ים1×
- הַ/עֶ֨צֶב1×
- בְּ/עֶ֖צֶב1×
Key Verses
-
Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
This verse uses etsev to describe the profound pain and toil introduced into human experience, grounding the word in the reality of post-fall suffering.
-
Psalms 127:2
It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.
Here, the 'bread of toil' highlights the futility of anxious labor when disconnected from God’s gift of rest and provision.
-
Jeremiah 22:28
Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his offspring, and cast into a land which they don’t know?
The word shifts to mean a physical vessel, using the metaphor of a broken pot to illustrate rejection and loss of purpose.