to constrain
tsa.rar describes binding or holding something together, and also the pressure of being hemmed in or distressed.
The attested uses most often concern things being bound, bundled, sealed, or held in place; other contexts describe being pressed in by an enemy, a spirit, or imposed trouble, while several Qal perfect forms occur in statements of personal distress.
Senses in use
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Binding, bundling, or holding fast · dominant
Qal passive participles describe dough bowls “bound up” on shoulders in Exodus 12:34, a life “bound in the bundle of the living” in 1 Samuel 25:29, and Ephraim's iniquity as “bound up” in Hosea 13:12. The Qal imperative in Isaiah 8:16 calls for the testimony to be bound, while Job 26:8 and Proverbs 26:8 picture waters in clouds and a stone in a sling as held fast.
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Pressing in through siege or trouble · common
The two Hiphil sequential perfect forms in Deuteronomy 28:52 occur in the warning that an enemy action will constrain the people in all their gates; 1 Kings 8:37 likewise names an enemy besieging them in the land of their gates. In Hosea 4:19 a spirit constrains her in its wings, and the Hiphil clauses in Jeremiah 10:18 and Zephaniah 1:17 describe imposed distress or constraint upon inhabitants and humankind.
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Being in personal distress · occasional
Qal perfect forms occur where Saul says he is in great distress as the Philistines fight him and God no longer answers in 1 Samuel 28:15, and where David laments Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:26. Psalm 31:10 places the form in a complaint of life spent with sorrow, while Psalm 69:18 asks for rescue because of enemies.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the contexts with “bound,” “bind,” “tied up,” “constrain,” “distress,” and “besieges.” Because the English is a whole-verse translation, these renderings indicate the clauses' settings rather than a fixed English equivalent.