מָדַד
to extend
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘extend’
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H4059 appears — 1 distinct verse across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Job 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, מדד (middad) means “to extend.” With only 1 verse it sits in the long tail of Hebrew Bible vocabulary. Its uses cluster heavily in Job (100% of all occurrences). Scripture uses it exactly once, at Job 7:4. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 5 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4059 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 1
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 1 distinct verse.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #6,101
- by frequency
- Rank #6,101 (rank 6,101 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 1 occurrence in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Job 1 verse 100%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 1 distinct verse.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Be gone 1×
- American Standard Version: Be gone 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: But 1×, Extends 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4059 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4059 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4059 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
10 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses one or more reduplicated stems (the Pōlēl/Pilpēl type), which for hollow or geminate roots behave much like Piel — often intensive or iterative.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 10 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
Qal
- Pf. מ׳ (מָדָ֑ד) Is 40:12 + 9 times Ez; sf. מְדָדוֹ Ez 42:15, 20; 1 s. וּמַדֹּתִ֫י Is 65:7; וּמָֽדְדוּ consec. Dt 21:2; Ez 43:10; וּמַדֹּתֶם consec. Nu 35:5; Impf. וַיָּ֫מָד Ru 3:15 + 22 times Ez; 2 ms. תָּמוֹד Ez 45:3; וַיָּמֹ֫דּוּ Ex 16:18; תָּמֹ֫דּוּ Ez 47:18; Inf. לָמֹד Zc 2:6;—measure, chiefly lit. (usually sq.acc. rei; obj. om. Ex 16:18; Dt 21:2; Ez 40:35, cf. 47:18 (but v. Co); sq. acc. of measure Ru 3:15; Ez 42:19; 47:3, 4(×2), 5);— e.g. Isaiah 40:12
- 1. measure of length, distance Nu 35:5 (P), Dt 21:2 (D), Ez 40:5, 6, 8, 20 + 32 times Ez 40–47; Zc 2:6. e.g. Numbers 35:5
- 2. of dry measure Ex 16:18 (P), Ru 3:15. e.g. Exodus 16:18
- 3. fig. of measuring waters Is 40:12 (of י׳); of requital Is 65:7. e.g. Isaiah 40:12
Niphal
- Impf. יִמַּד Ho 2:1; Je 33:22; יִמַּדּוּ Je 31:37;—be measured, of sand of sea Ho 2:1 Je 33:22; of heavens Je 31:37. e.g. Hosea 2:1
Piel
- Pf. וּמִדַּד־ consec. Jb 7:4 (cf. Ges§52, 2. R. 1); Impf. וַיְמַדֵּד 2 S 8:2; וַיְמַדְּדֵם v 2; אֲמַדֵּד ψ 60:8; 108:8;— e.g. Job 7:4
- 1. extend, continue (= make extent or continuation), subj. עֶרֶב Jb 7:4. e.g. Job 7:4
- 2. measure, measure off, בַחֶבֶל, of apportioning Moabites to death and life, sq. sf. 8:2; also obj. חֲבָלִים v 2; metaph. of conquest, sq. acc., ψ 60:8 = 108:8 (‖ חִלֵּק). e.g. 2 Samuel 8:2
Po
- Impf. וַיְמֹ֫דֶד Hb 3:6 (subj. God, obj. אֶרֶץ), measured (viz. with eye) 𝔙 Hi AV RV, but dub.; 𝔊 ἐσαλεύθη, 𝔗 אֲזִיעַ, hence shook Ew Ke Or al. (from √ [מוֹד =] מוֹט, but read then rather וַיְמֹטֵט, although מוט not elsewhere in this conj.; We, plausibly, וַיְמֹגֵג √ מוג, cf. Na 1:5). e.g. Habakkuk 3:6
Hithpo
- וַיִּתְמֹדֵד sq. עַל־הַיֶּ֫לֶד; 1 K 17:21 measured (= extended, stretched) himself upon the boy. e.g. 1 Kings 17:21
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. measure (NH id.; Ph. מדד; Arabic مَدَّ extend, stretch, مُدٌّ a corn-measure, etc.; Assyrian madâdu, measure; Jew.-Aramaic n. מִידָּה measure, proportion, rule);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נדד (nâdad) (H5074) — to flee.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
מָדַד
- (b. h.) [to stretch,] to measure. Sabb. 149ᵇ sq. (play on מ̇ד̇ה̇ב̇ה, Is. XIV, 4) the nation that said מְ֗ד̇וד̇, וה̇ב̇א measure (the area of thy land) and bring (tribute); Lev. R. s. 15, end (Ar.: מוֹד והָבָה measure and give). Erub. V, 4 אין מוֹדְדִין וכ׳ Sabbath distances must be measured only with a rope of &c. Ib. 5 אין מודדין אלא מן המומחה the measuring must be done only by the best experts. Y. Succ. I, 51ᵈ אם יָמוֹד מן וכ׳ if he measures from &c. Maas. Sh. V, 9 עשור שאני עתיד לָמוֹֹד one tenth (as tithe) which I shall measure off (when I come home); a. fr.—Sot. I, 7 במדה שאדם מוֹדֵד בה מוֹדְדִין לו the measure with which man measures will be measured out to him, i.e. as man deals, he will be dealt with, v. אַכְרַעְתָּא; Tosef. ib. III, 1 מ׳ בסאה he measured by the S’ah (committed great wrong). Ber. IX, 5, v. next w.—Ib. 30ᵇ לעולם יָמוֹד אדם וכ׳ man must always measure himself (examine the disposition of his mind; cmp. אָמַד), if he feels that he can direct his mind, let him pray, if not &c. e.g. Isaiah 14:4
- to be measured. B. Bath. VII, 1 אינן נִמְדָּדִין עמה are not included in the measure. Arakh. VII, 1 נִמְדָּדִים עמה are included &c.; a. fr.
- same, to stretch. Gen. R. s. 3; Midr. Till. to Ps. XXIV, a. e. מְמַדֵּד, v. מָתַח.—[Cant. R. to VIII, 11 ממדדין, v. דָּדָה.]
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4059, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 1 verse that also exists in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 1 Hebrew verse it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
