מָדַי
Media
BDB lists 3 entries for ‘Media’ fuller range ↓
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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H4074 appears in the Book of Genesis — 1 distinct verse. 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
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, מדי (Mâday) means “Media.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 10:2. It appears 16 verses across 7 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. The word gravitates to Esther (31%), then Jeremiah and 2 Kings. 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 H4074 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 →
- 16
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 16 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,752
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,752 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 16 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 16 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 8 verses · 50%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 44%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 6%
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: Medes 8×, Media 6×, Madai 2×
- American Standard Version: Medes 7×, Media 6×, Madai 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Media 8×, Medes 5×, Madai 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Media 11×, Madai 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4074 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4074 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4074 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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 H4074 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
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 2 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. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. people, as ‘son’ of Japhet Gn 10:2 (P) = 1 Ch 1:5; as hostile power Is 13:17; 21:2; זֶרַע מָדַי Dn 9:1; land and people, מַלְכֵי מָדַי Je 25:25 (+ מַלְכֵי עֵילָם), 51:11, 28; מַלְכֵי מ׳ וּפָרַס Est 10:2; Dn 8:20; cf. פָּרַס וּמָדַי Est 1:3, 14, 18, 19; 𝔊 Μαδαι. e.g. Genesis 10:2
- 2. of land alone = Media 2 K 17:6; 18:11 (both עָרֵי מָדָ֑י). e.g. 2 Kings 17:6
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
n.pr.gent. et terr. Medes, Media (OPers. Mâda SpAPK, Assyrian Madai COTGloss, and on Gn 10:2 DlPar. 247);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: of foreign derivation
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.
מָדַי
- (b. h.) pr. n. Media. Shek. III, 4 לשום מ׳ on behalf of the Median Jews. B. Kam. IX, 5 יוליכנו אחריו (אפי׳) למ׳ he must carry it (the unlawful property) after him even as far as Media. Kidd. 71ᵇ מ׳ חולה Media is sick (doubtful as to purity of descent), v. גּוֹסֵס; Gen. R. s. 37, end; Y. Yeb. I, end, 3ᵇ; Y. Kidd. IV, 65ᵈ top מדוי (read מדיי). Esth. R. to I, 3 תשעה במ׳ nine portions (of beauty) has Media; (different in Kidd. 49ᵇ). Ab. d’R. N. ch. XXVIII עושרה של מ׳ (ed. Schechter רומי) the wealth of Media (Rome); a. fr.
מָדִי
- (preced.) Median. Sabb. II, 1, a. e., v. נָחוּם. Yoma 11ᵇ שער המ׳ a Median gate (archway). Esth. R. to I, 22 לשון מ׳ the Median language; a. e.—Fem. מָדִית, מָדִיִּית. Ib. Kel. XXIII, 2, v. מְדוֹכָה; a. e.—Pl. מָדִיּוֹת. Esth. R. to I, 11. Sabb. VI, 6, v. פָּרַף. Y. ib. XII, 13ᶜ bot.; ib. IX, end, 12ᵇ חטים מ׳ Median wheat-grains; a. e.
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.
Forms in the corpus
The 6 distinct written forms H4074 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וּ/מָדַ֖י | Noun, Proper | Esther 1:19 | 3 |
| וּ/מָדַ֗י | Noun, Proper | Esther 1:3 | 3 |
| מָדַ֔י | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 21:2 | 3 |
| מָדָֽי | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:6 | 3 |
| מָדַ֥י | Noun, Proper | Daniel 8:20 | 2 |
| מָדָ֑י | Noun, Proper | Daniel 9:1 | 2 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4074, 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.
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 → 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Media). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Heb. Madai, which is rendered in the Authorized Version (1) "Madai," Gen. 10:2; (2) "Medes," 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; (3) "Media," Esther 1:3; 10:2; Isa. 21:2; Dan. 8:20; (4) "Mede," only in Dan. 11:1.
We first hear of this people in the Assyrian cuneiform records, under the name of Amada, about B.C. 840. They appear to have been a branch of the Aryans, who came from the east bank of the Indus, and were probably the predominant race for a while in the Mesopotamian valley. They consisted for three or four centuries of a number of tribes, each ruled by its own chief, who at length were brought under the Assyrian yoke (2 Kings 17:6). From this subjection they achieved deliverance, and formed themselves into an empire under Cyaxares (B.C. 633). This monarch entered into an alliance with the king of Babylon, and invaded Assyria, capturing and destroying the city of Nineveh (B.C. 625), thus putting an end to the Assyrian monarchy (Nah. 1:8; 2:5, 6; 3:13, 14).
Media now rose to a place of great power, vastly extending its boundaries. But it did not long exist as an independent kingdom. It rose with Cyaxares, its first king, and it passed away with him; for during the reign of his son and successor Astyages, the Persians waged war against the Medes and conquered them, the two nations being united under one monarch, Cyrus the Persian (B.C. 558).
The "cities of the Medes" are first mentioned in connection with the deportation of the Israelites on the destruction of Samaria (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11). Soon afterwards Isaiah (13:17; 21:2) speaks of the part taken by the Medes in the destruction of Babylon (comp. Jer. 51:11, 28). Daniel gives an account of the reign of Darius the Mede, who was made viceroy by Cyrus (Dan. 6:1-28). The decree of Cyrus, Ezra informs us (6:2-5), was found in "the palace that is in the province of the Medes," Achmetha or Ecbatana of the Greeks, which is the only Median city mentioned in Scripture.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
measure; habit; covering
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 15 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 16 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
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.
