lacking
cha.ser describes deficiency, most often a person without heart or sense, and at times the absence of bread or other needed goods.
The term most often characterizes people as deficient in heart, sense, or understanding in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It also describes the absence of material provision, including bread, flour, oil, wealth’s enjoyment, or what a person needs.
Senses in use
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Deficient in heart, sense, or understanding · dominant
The construct adjective repeatedly marks a person in a wisdom setting: in Proverbs 10:13 the APB renders a rod as being for one “lacking sense,” while Proverbs 17:18 describes such a man striking hands in pledge. In Proverbs 7:7 and Proverbs 24:30, it identifies respectively a youth and a vineyard owner as “lacking heart”; Ecclesiastes 10:3 likewise says that the fool’s heart “lacks” as he walks.
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Without needed material provision · common
The term can concern what is absent from a person or household. In 1 Kings 11:22 Pharaoh asks what the man “lack[s],” 1 Kings 17:16 says the oil “did not lack,” and 2 Samuel 3:29 includes one who “lacks bread.” Ecclesiastes 6:2 frames the condition as lacking nothing desired, though the man is not empowered to eat from his wealth.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the term with “lacking sense” or “lacking heart” in the wisdom sayings, and with “lack,” “did not lack,” or “lacks bread” where provision is in view. These renderings confirm the clauses’ overall presentation rather than fixing a separate English equivalent in every verse.