מַדּוּעַ
why
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Particle
- A short function word — article, negation, interrogative, the sign of the direct object, and the like.
Grammatical forms
- Particle, Interrogative 71 times (99%)
- Adverb 1 time (1%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 72 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H4069 appears — 71 distinct verses across 19 books. 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.
Genesis 2 verses
Exodus 5 verses
- Exodus 1:18 מַדּ֥וּעַ ptcl inter The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?"
- Exodus 2:18 מַדּ֛וּעַ ptcl inter When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"
- Exodus 3:3 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
- Exodus 5:14 מַדּ֡וּעַ ptcl inter The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, "Why haven't you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?"
- Exodus 18:14 מַדּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, "What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?"
Leviticus 1 verse
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 12:8 וּ/מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ conj + ptcl inter with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Yahweh shall he see: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?
- Numbers 16:3 וּ/מַדּ֥וּעַ conj + ptcl inter and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much on you, seeing all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them: why then lift yourselves up above the assembly of Yahweh?
Joshua 1 verse
Judges 5 verses
- Judges 5:28 מַדּ֗וּעַ מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter ptcl inter Through the window she looked forth, and cried, The mother of Sisera [cried] through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?
- Judges 9:28 וּ/מַדּ֖וּעַ conj + ptcl inter Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn't he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve you the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him?
- Judges 11:7 וּ/מַדּ֜וּעַ conj + adv Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress?
- Judges 11:26 וּ/מַדּ֥וּעַ conj + ptcl inter While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time?
- Judges 12:1 מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire.
Ruth 1 verse
1 Samuel 3 verses
- 1 Samuel 20:2 וּ/מַדּוּעַ֩ conj + ptcl inter He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."
- 1 Samuel 20:27 מַדּ֜וּעַ ptcl inter It happened on the next day after the new moon, [which was] the second [day], that David's place was empty: and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today?
- 1 Samuel 21:1 מַדּ֤וּעַ ptcl inter Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?
2 Samuel 10 verses
- 2 Samuel 3:7 מַדּ֥וּעַ ptcl inter Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and [Ish-bosheth] said to Abner, Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?
- 2 Samuel 11:10 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter When they had told David, saying, Uriah didn't go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Haven't you come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house?
- 2 Samuel 11:20 מַדּ֛וּעַ ptcl inter it shall be that, if the king's wrath arise, and he tells you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the wall?
- 2 Samuel 12:9 מַדּ֜וּעַ ptcl inter Why have you despised the word of Yahweh, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
- 2 Samuel 13:4 מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter He said to him, Why, son of the king, are you thus lean from day to day? Won't you tell me? Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.
- 2 Samuel 16:10 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter The king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, Curse David; who then shall say, Why have you done so?
- 2 Samuel 18:11 וּ/מַדּ֛וּעַ conj + ptcl inter Joab said to the man who told him, Behold, you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? and I would have given you ten [pieces of] silver, and a sash.
- 2 Samuel 19:41 מַדּוּעַ֩ ptcl inter Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?
- 2 Samuel 19:43 וּ/מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ conj + ptcl inter The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more [right] in David than you: why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.
- 2 Samuel 24:21 מַדּ֛וּעַ ptcl inter Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor of you, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
1 Kings 4 verses
- 1 Kings 1:6 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why have you done so? and he was also a very goodly man; and he was born after Absalom.
- 1 Kings 1:13 וּ/מַדּ֖וּעַ conj + ptcl inter Go and get you in to king David, and tell him, Didn't you, my lord, king, swear to your handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne? why then does Adonijah reign?
- 1 Kings 1:41 מַדּ֥וּעַ ptcl inter Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?
- 1 Kings 2:43 וּ/מַדּ֕וּעַ conj + ptcl inter Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I have charged you with?
2 Kings 4 verses
- 2 Kings 4:23 מַ֠דּוּעַ ptcl inter He said, Why will you go to him today? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath. She said, It shall be well.
- 2 Kings 8:12 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter Hazael said, Why weeps my lord? He answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: their strongholds will you set on fire, and their young men will you kill with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child.
- 2 Kings 9:11 מַדּ֛וּעַ ptcl inter Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? He said to them, You know the man and what his talk was.
- 2 Kings 12:7 מַדּ֛וּעַ ptcl inter Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said to them, Why don't you repair the breaches of the house? now therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Nehemiah 4 verses
- Nehemiah 2:2 מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter The king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid.
- Nehemiah 2:3 מַדּ֜וּעַ ptcl inter I said to the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and the gates of it are consumed with fire?
- Nehemiah 13:11 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? I gathered them together, and set them in their place.
- Nehemiah 13:21 מַדּ֜וּעַ ptcl inter Then I testified against them, and said to them, Why lodge you about the wall? if you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.
Esther 1 verse
Job 6 verses
- Job 3:12 מַ֭דּוּעַ ptcl inter Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?
- Job 18:3 מַ֭דּוּעַ ptcl inter Why are we counted as animals, Which have become unclean in your sight?
- Job 21:4 מַ֝דּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?
- Job 21:7 מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter "Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
- Job 24:1 מַדּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter "Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?
- Job 33:13 מַ֭דּוּעַ ptcl inter Why do you strive against him, Because he doesn't give account of any of his matters?
Isaiah 3 verses
- Isaiah 5:4 מַדּ֧וּעַ ptcl inter What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
- Isaiah 50:2 מַדּ֨וּעַ ptcl inter Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
- Isaiah 63:2 מַדּ֥וּעַ ptcl inter Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?
Jeremiah 16 verses
- Jeremiah 2:14 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born [slave]? why is he become a prey?
- Jeremiah 2:31 מַדּ֜וּעַ ptcl inter Generation, see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why say my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more to you?
- Jeremiah 8:5 מַדּ֨וּעַ ptcl inter Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
- Jeremiah 8:19 מַדּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?
- Jeremiah 8:22 מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ ptcl inter Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Jeremiah 12:1 מַדּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?
- Jeremiah 13:22 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter If you say in your heart, Why are these things come on me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.
- Jeremiah 14:19 מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ ptcl inter Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!
- Jeremiah 22:28 מַדּ֤וּעַ ptcl inter Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel in which none delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they don't know?
- Jeremiah 26:9 מַדּוּעַ֩ ptcl inter Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? All the people were gathered to Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 30:6 מַדּוּעַ֩ ptcl inter Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
- Jeremiah 32:3 מַדּוּעַ֩ ptcl inter For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
- Jeremiah 36:29 מַדּוּעַ֩ ptcl inter Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says Yahweh: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and animal?
- Jeremiah 46:5 מַדּ֣וּעַ ptcl inter Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 46:15 מַדּ֖וּעַ ptcl inter Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh did drive them.
- Jeremiah 49:1 מַדּ֗וּעַ ptcl inter Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in the cities of it?
Ezekiel 1 verse
Malachi 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.
“why” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb מדוע (maddûwaʻ). Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 26:27. It turns up in 71 verses across 19 books, a moderately common footprint. It clusters with מה, מא and מדי under a shared root. See the sense tree, 71-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4069 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 →
- 71
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 71 distinct verses.
- 19 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 19 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #550
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 550 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 71 occurrences in the concordance →
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 71 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 48 verses · 68%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 13 verses · 18%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 10 verses · 14%
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: Wherefore 2×, Why 2×
- American Standard Version: Them 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Why 63×, Why then 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Why 61×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4069 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4069 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4069 across 72 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4069 across 68 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- why?, on what account?, wherefore?
Word origin
and (Ez 18, 19) מַדֻּעַ adv. wherefore? (prob. contr. from מַה־יָּדוּעַ what being known? i.e. from what motive? so Ges Ew§ 325 c Ol§ 222 f, cf. in Gk. τί μαθών;)—wherefore? on what account? Gn 26:27 מַדּוּעַ בָּאתֶם אֵלָ֑י, 40:7 Ex 1:18; 2:18; 3:3 (in an indirect question), 5:14; 18:14 Lv 10:17 Jos 17:14 (all in Hex), Ju 5:28(×28) 2 S 3:7; 11:10 etc., Is 5:4; 50:2; 63:2 (all in Is.); in Jer. 16 times, often rhetorically, after a double question introduced by הֲ … אִם, expressing affected surprise: †2:14 (v. Gf) is Israel a slave (unable to defend himself)? wherefore, then, is he become a prey? (some other cause must therefore be found for Israel’s misfortune), v 31; 8:5, 19, 22; 14:19; 22:28; 49:1, cf. 30:6; Jb 3:12; 18:3 (never in ψ).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from מה (mâh) (H4100) — what.
Forms in the corpus
The 23 distinct written forms H4069 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| מַדּ֖וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Exodus 3:3 | 10 |
| מַדּ֗וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Exodus 18:14 | 8 |
| מַדּוּעַ֩ | Particle, Interrogative | 2 Samuel 19:41 | 7 |
| מַדּ֛וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Exodus 2:18 | 6 |
| מַדּ֣וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 2 Samuel 13:4 | 6 |
| מַדּ֜וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 1 Samuel 20:27 | 5 |
| מַדּ֥וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Exodus 1:18 | 4 |
| מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ | Particle, Interrogative | Esther 3:3 | 4 |
| מַ֭דּוּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Job 3:12 | 3 |
| וּ/מַדּ֖וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 1 Kings 1:13 | 2 |
| וּ/מַדּ֥וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Judges 11:26 | 2 |
| וּ/מַדּ֨וּעַ֙ | Particle, Interrogative | 2 Samuel 19:43 | 2 |
| מַדּ֤וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 1 Samuel 21:1 | 2 |
| מַדּ֨וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Isaiah 50:2 | 2 |
| וּ/מַדּ֕וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 1 Kings 2:43 | 1 |
| וּ/מַדּ֛וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 2 Samuel 18:11 | 1 |
| וּ/מַדּ֜וּעַ | Adverb | Judges 11:7 | 1 |
| וּ/מַדּוּעַ֩ | Particle, Interrogative | 1 Samuel 20:2 | 1 |
| מַ֝דּ֗וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Job 21:4 | 1 |
| מַ֠דּוּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | 2 Kings 4:23 | 1 |
| מַדּ֡וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Exodus 5:14 | 1 |
| מַדּ֧וּעַ | Particle, Interrogative | Isaiah 5:4 | 1 |
| מַדֻּ֛עַ | Particle, Interrogative | Ezekiel 18:19 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4069, 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
- מא mâʼ H3964 what
- מדי madday H4078 what is enough, sufficiency, enough
- מה mâh H4101 whatever
- מהה mâhahh H4102 to delay
- מי mîy H4310 who
- מן mân H4478 manna
- מתלאה mattᵉlâʼâh H4972 weariness
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 65 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 71 Hebrew verses 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
- Genesis 26:27
- Exodus 1:18
- Leviticus 10:17
- Numbers 12:8
- Joshua 17:14
- Judges 5:28
- Ruth 2:10
- 1 Samuel 20:2
- 2 Samuel 3:7
- 1 Kings 1:6
- 2 Kings 4:23
- 2 Chronicles 24:6
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.
