מַטֶּה
staff
also: branch, tribe fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
21 verses where H4294 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Numbers. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Numbers
- Numbers 1:4 לַ/מַּטֶּ֑ה prep det + n c ms With you there shall be a man of every tribe; everyone head of his fathers' house.
- Numbers 7:2 הַ/מַּטֹּ֔ת ptcl def.art + n c mp that the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes. These are they who were over those who were numbered:
- Numbers 17:2 מַטֶּ֣ה מַטֶּה֩ מַטּ֑וֹת מַטֵּֽ/הוּ n c ms n c ms n c mp n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Speak to the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods: write you every man's name on his rod.
- Numbers 17:3 מַטֵּ֣ה מַטֶּ֣ה n c ms cs n c ms You shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi; for there shall be one rod for each head of their fathers' houses.
- Numbers 17:6 מַטֶּה֩ מַטֶּ֨ה מַטּ֑וֹת וּ/מַטֵּ֥ה מַטּוֹתָֽ/ם n c ms n c ms n c mp conj + n c ms cs n c mp cs + sfx pers 3mp Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and all their princes gave him rods, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
- Numbers 17:7 הַ/מַּטֹּ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c mp Moses laid up the rods before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.
- Numbers 17:9 הַ/מַּטֹּת֙ מַטֵּֽ/הוּ ptcl def.art + n c mp n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Moses brought out all the rods from before Yahweh to all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.
- Numbers 20:8 הַ/מַּטֶּ֗ה ptcl def.art + n c ms Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak you to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their cattle drink.
- Numbers 20:9 הַ/מַּטֶּ֖ה ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him.
- Numbers 30:1 הַ/מַּטּ֔וֹת ptcl def.art + n c mp Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded.
- Numbers 31:4 לַ/מַּטֶּ֔ה לַ/מַּטֶּ֑ה מַטּ֣וֹת prep det + n c ms prep det + n c ms n c mp cs Of every tribe one thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall you send to the war.
- Numbers 31:5 לַ/מַּטֶּ֑ה prep det + n c ms So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
- Numbers 31:6 לַ/מַּטֶּ֖ה prep det + n c ms Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.
- Numbers 32:28 הַ/מַּטּ֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c mp So Moses gave charge concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.
- Numbers 34:13 הַ/מַּטּ֖וֹת הַ/מַּטֶּֽה ptcl def.art + n c mp ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe;
- Numbers 34:15 הַ/מַּטּ֖וֹת הַ/מַּטֶּ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c mp ptcl def.art + n c ms the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.
- Numbers 34:18 מִ/מַּטֶּ֑ה prep + n c ms You shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.
- Numbers 36:3 הַ/מַּטֶּ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c ms If they be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
- Numbers 36:4 הַ/מַּטֶּ֔ה מַטֵּ֣ה ptcl def.art + n c ms n c ms cs When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
- Numbers 36:7 מִ/מַּטֶּ֖ה מַטֶּ֑ה מַטֵּ֣ה prep + n c ms n c ms n c ms cs So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
- Numbers 36:9 מִ/מַּטֶּ֖ה לְ/מַטֶּ֣ה מַטּ֖וֹת prep + n c ms prep + n c ms n c mp cs So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to his own inheritance.
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, מטה (maṭṭeh) means “staff.” Where the King James Version says “tribe,” newer translations reach for “tribe of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text); the renderings breakdown has the detail. It appears 205 verses across 15 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. The word gravitates to Numbers (43%), then Joshua and Exodus. Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “branch” and “tribe”. 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 H4294 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 →
- 205
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 205 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #189
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 189 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 205 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 205 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 118 verses · 58%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 69 verses · 34%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 18 verses · 9%
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: Tribe 144×, Rod 38×, Tribes 17×
- American Standard Version: Tribe 118×, Rod 31×, Tribes 14×
- Berean Standard Bible: Tribe 119×, Staff 39×, Tribes 22×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Tribe of 103×, Tribe 56×, Staff 38×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4294 across 248 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4294 across 245 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 28 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4294 across 219 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 33 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4294 across 264 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 12 renderings that appear 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 3 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. (cf. מַקֵּל, שֵׁבֶט) staff of traveller Gn 38:18, 25 (J); in gen. Is 10:15 (sim.; ‖ שֵׁבֶט); from staff as support comes fig. מַטֵּה־לֶחֶם staff of bread (food supply) Ez 4:16; 5:16; 14:13; Lv 26:26 ψ 105:16; of staff or rod, Moses as shepherd Ex 4:2, 4; 7:15 (J), 4:17; 7:17, 20; 9:23; 10:13; 17:5 (all E); cf. also Is 10:26; Ex 14:16; Nu 20:8, 9, 11 (all P); called מ׳ הָאֱלֹהִים Ex 4:20; 17:9 (both E), because of miraculous power connected with it; cf. mirac. rod of Aaron 7:9, 10, 12, 19; 8:1, 12, 13 (all P), and of Egyptian magicians 7:12(×2) (P); cf. Aaron’s rod that budded Nu 17:18, 21, 23, 25 (cf. RSSem. i. 180; 2d ed. 197); carried even by warrior 1 S 14:27, 43; מַטֵּה שִׁכְמוֹ Is 9:3 i.e. rod that strikes his shoulder, task-master’s rod (‖ שֵׁבֶט הַנֹּגֵשׂ בּוֹ), cf. 10:5 and v 24 14:5 (‖ שֵׁבֶט), all fig. of oppression; מַטֵּה מוּסָדָה 30:32 appointed rod (of punishment); cf. מ׳ Ez 7:10, 11 (but text obscure, Co—q.v.—sceptre), also Mi 6:9 according to MT, but v. sub 3; used in beating out (חבט) fennel Is 28:27; staff as badge of leader or ruler מַטֵּה־עֹז Je 48:17 (‖ מַקֵּל), cf. ψ 110:2; so Nu 17:17(×4) + 10 times Nu 17; appar. shafts, i.e. arrows or spears, Hb 3:9, 14 (cf. Now Da GASm). e.g. Genesis 38:18
- 2. branch of vine Ez 19:11, 12, 14(×2). e.g. Ezekiel 19:11
- 3. tribe (183 times), orig. company led by chief with staff: specif. of tribes of Isr. in both sg. and pl., 1 K 7:14; 8:1 = 2 Ch 5:2, Ex 31:2 + 5 times Ex; Lv 24:11; Nu 1:4 + 89 times Nu; Jos 7:1 + 56 times Jos (all P); 1 Ch 6:45 + 21 times 1 Ch 6, 12:31; prob. also Mi 6:9 (vocative; so 𝔊 We Now GASm).—Cf. שֵׁבֶט, and on relation of these two words for tribe in Hebr. usage Dr JPh. xi. (1882), 213 f. e.g. 1 Kings 7:14
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.m. Ex 4:17 (f. Mi 6:9 according to MT, but dub., v. infr.) 1. staff, rod, shaft. 2. branch. 3. tribe (Ecclus 48:2 staff, 45:6, 25 tribe);—abs. מ׳ Gn 38:25 +; cstr. מַטֵּה Ex 4:20 +; sf. מַטְּךָ Gn 38:18 + 5 times, מַטֶּ֑ךָ Ex 8:1, מַטֵּ֫הוּ Is 10:24 + 10 times; pl. מַטּוֹת 1 K 8:1 +, etc.; sf. מַטּוֹתָם Ex 7:12 Nu 17:21; also מַטָּיו Hb 3:14 (but read מַטֶּיךָ, or—Gr—מַטֹּתֶיךָ);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נטה (nâṭâh) (H5186) — to stretch out.
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.
מְטָה
- , v. מְטֵי
מִטָּה
- couch, bed, frame, bier. Ned. VII, 5, v. דַּרְגֵּשׁ. Ib. 56ᵃ, a. fr. הכופה את מִטָּתוֹ, v. כָּפָה. Ib. 56ᵇ מ׳ המיוחדת לכלים a bed designated for the exhibit of garments (not slept upon); Snh. 20ᵃ. Ber. III, 1 נושאי המ׳ those carrying the bier; a. fr.—מ׳של גילה, מ׳ גלילתא, v. גִּלָּה, גְּלִילְתָּא.—Sabb. 47ᵃ, v. טרְסִי I.—Pl. מִטּוֹת, מִי׳. Ned. 56ᵃ; a. fr.—Trnsf. family, offspring. Lev. R. s. 36 שהיתה מִטָּתוֹ שלימה his bed was perfect, his children were all righteous; Sifra B’ḥuck., Par. 2, ch. VIII. Ber. 60ᵇ. Pes. 56ᵃ שמא … יש במִיטָּתִי פסול perhaps there is a blemish in my family; a. e.
מַטֶּה
- 1. staff. Ab. V, 6 המ׳ the staff of Moses. Ex. R. s. 3 המ׳ שתייסרנו בו the staff with which thou shalt chastise him. Ib. ‘the signs which I placed in thy hands’ (Ex. IV, 21) זה המ׳ that means the staff; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 4:21
- 2. tribe. Tosef. R. Hash. III (II), 3 שלש על כל מ׳ ומ׳ three notes for each tribe; Y. Succ. V, 55ᶜ
מֹטָה
- , v. מוֹטָה
מַטָּה
- adv. (b. h.; downward, (used as a noun) below. Tanḥ. B’shall. 23 מחמת אש של מעלה … של מ׳ through the fire from above were his wheels below ignited; (Yalk. Ex. 235 שלמעלן … שלמַטָּן, v. infra). Ḥag. II, 1 (11ᵇ) מה למעלה ומה למ׳ what is above (in heaven) and what is below (in the nether world, Rashi: above the Ḥayoth, below the Ḥayoth, v. חַיָּה). Tosef. Ber. V, 5 שלישי לו למ׳ הימנו he who is the third in rank reclines below him (v. Sm. Ant. s. v. Triclinium); a. fr.—Euphem. for מעלה in order to avoid a blasphemous expression: B. Kam. 79ᵇ כביכול עשה עין של מ׳ … ואוזן של מ׳ וכ׳ he treated, if one may say so, the divine eye as if did not see, and the divine ear as if did not hear.—Frequ. מַטָּן. Y. Yoma VII, 44ᵇ כשירות של מעלן … של מ׳ as the service in heaven, so is that on earth; Lev. R. s. 21, end (not שורות). Y. R. Hash. II, 58ᵇ ב"ד שלמ׳ the court on earth; a. fr.
מְטֵי
- (= h. מָצָא)
- 1. to stretch, reach; to arrive at; to obtain; to happen to. Targ. Gen. XI, 4 (Y. II מַמְטֵי). Targ. O. ib. X, 19 (h. text באכה). Targ. II Kings XIX, 26. Targ. Koh. VIII, 14; a. fr.—Targ. Esth. V, 2 [read:] ומְטָת לִידָהּ and it (the scepter) reached her hand (v. Meg. 15ᵇ).—Snh. 109ᵃ כי מ׳ להאי וכ׳ when he arrived at a certain inn. Keth. 63ᵃ כי מַטְיָא לגביה when she came near him. Ib. מ׳ מעלי וכ׳ the eve of the Day of Atonement came. R. Hash. 12ᵇ א"ר אסי א"ר יוחנן ומָטוּ בה משמיה וכ׳ said R. A. in the name of R. Joh., and they arrived in the chain of tradition up to ‘in the name of R. J. the Galilean’ (an editorial gloss). Y. Ber. III, 6ᵃ top, a. fr. מַטְתֵיה אונס an accident (mourning) befell him. Y. Peah VIII, end, 21ᵇ ומטתיה כן and so it happened to him (as he had wished). Ib. ולא מ׳ מיכול וכ׳ and he had no chance to dine with him. Y. Snh. VI, 23ᶜ; Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵈ bot. בעי מַמְטֵי מיא ולא מ׳ wanted to fetch water but could not. Ib. 78ᵃ top כל דמָטֵי וכ׳, v. זוֹגָא. [Ib. כל מטי יעבוד וכ׳, read: כל חד מינן וכ׳ let each of us do &c.] Y. Keth. IV, 28ᵇ top מְטִינְתָּה להאי דאמר וכ׳ thou hast found that which R … said; ib. מְטִינְתָּא.—Ḥag. 5ᵃ כי מ׳ להאי קרא when he came to this verse. Snh. 100ᵃ כי מָטוּ מגלת וכ׳ when (in preparing wrappers for the scrolls) they came to the roll of Esther; a. v. fr.—[Ḥull. 132ᵃ top מָטוּנָךְ we or they (the words of the text) have reached thee, agree with thee, Rashi; v. טוּנָא I.]
- 2. (sub. בישולא or זימנא) to be ripe, ready. Ḥag. l. c. שביק הנך דמָטוּ וֹכ׳ he left those (figs) which were ripe and plucked those which were not. Ḥull. 112ᵃ תיתאה מטא the lower portion was ready (roasted).
- to cause to reach; to fetch, bring, offer. [Targ. Y. II, Gen. XI, 4 מַמְטֵי part. pass., v. supra.] Targ. Y. ib. XXVII, 25. Targ. O. Lev. IX, 12; a. fr.—B. Kam. 117ᵃ דרי ואַמְטֵי בהדן take it up and hand it over (to the King’s treasury) in our presence; דרא וא׳ וכ׳ he did take it up &c. Ib. 119ᵇ, a. e. אַמְטוּיֵי ואתויי חד (not אמטוי) is leading the needle forth and bringing it home one stitch (= h. הוליך והביא)? B. Bath. 21ᵃ לא מַמְטִינָן וכ׳, v. יָנוּקָא I. Keth. 103ᵇ sq. אַמְטְיוּהִי לצ׳ וכ׳ they took him to Sepphoris which lies high. Gen. R. s. 14, beg.; ib. 20 מן דידכון אנא מַמְטֵי לכון from your own language I will offer (proof) to you; a. fr.
- to repair to. Targ. O. Num. XXIII, 15; a. fr.
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 96 distinct written forms H4294 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 36 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4294, 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
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 6 — 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 196 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 205 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 38:18
- Exodus 4:2
- Leviticus 24:11
- Numbers 1:4
- Joshua 7:1
- 1 Samuel 14:27
- 1 Kings 7:14
- 1 Chronicles 6:60
- 2 Chronicles 5:2
- Psalms 105:16
- Isaiah 9:4
- Jeremiah 48:17
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.
