מַצֶּבֶת
pillar
also: mastaba, stump 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
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 3 times (50%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 3 times (50%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 6 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H4678 appears — 4 distinct verses across 3 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
2 Samuel 1 verse
Isaiah 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.
מצבת (matstsebeth) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “pillar.” A scarce word — 4 verses in all of the Hebrew Bible. Genesis dominates its distribution — 2 of 4 verses. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 35:14. Beyond its headline sense, its full sense range takes in “mastaba” and “stump”. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4678 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 →
- 4
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 4 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,040
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,040 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 4 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 4 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 50%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 50%
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: Pillar 2×
- American Standard Version: Him 1×, Himself the pillar 1×, Is the stock thereof 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Pillar 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Pillar 2×, Pillar of 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4678 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4678 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4678 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4678 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.
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 4 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.
- a. pillar, as monument, personal memorial 2 S 18:18(×2). e.g. 2 Samuel 18:18
- b. a stone, set up (שׂים, הציב), and anointed as memorial of divine appearance Gn 28:18, 22; 31:13 (all E), 35:14(×2) (J); so also 33:20 (E), where ins. מ׳, or read מ׳ for MT מִזְבֵּחַ (We Di NowArch. ii. 18), set up (שׂים, הרים, חציב), in token of an agreement 31:45, 51, 52(×2) (all E); over grave 35:20(×2) (E). e.g. Genesis 28:18
- c. especially of sacred stones or pillars in connexion with altar, erected (בנה) by Moses Ex 24:4 (E; 12 pillars), Ho 3:4; 10:1, 2 Is 19:19; conj. also 2 K 12:10 for MT מִזְבֵּחַ Sta ZAW v (1885), 296 NowArch. l.c., but dub., v. Benzad loc.; (usually + אֲשֵׁרִים etc.): of Canaanites Ex 23:24 (E), 34:13 (J), Dt 7:5; 12:3, cf. מ׳ הַבַּעַל 2 K 3:2; 10:26, 27; Tyre, מ׳ עֻזֵּךְ, Ez 26:11, of obelisks of Heliopolis in Egypt Je 43:13; condemned for Isr. by Deut. code, and Deut. redaction of K: Dt 16:22; 1 K 14:23; 2 K 17:10; 18:4; 23:14;, 2 Ch 14:2; 31:1; cf. Mi 5:12; Lv 26:1 (H).—On maṣṣēbā v. further NowArch. ii. 18 f. BenzArch. 380 f. Dr Dt. 16:21 f. WeSkizzen iii. 99, 165 RSSem. i. 184 ff. 437 f.; 2d ed. 204 ff. 456 f.; K. 50.—Ju 9:6 v. [נָצַב] Hoph. e.g. Exodus 24:4
- 2. stock, stump of tree Is 6:13a (in sim.), so v 13b (fig.; but prob. del. as gloss). e.g. Isaiah 6:13
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.f. pillar, maṣṣēbā, stump; on this v. also Lagrange Études Bibl. 197 ff. and review by BauZMG lvii (1903), 830; also GFMEB massebah Sta Bib. Theol. i. § 55 OC WhitehouseHastDB pillar—abs. מַצֵּבָה Ho 3:4 +, מַצֶּ֫בֶת 2 S 18:18a (read הַמּ׳ 𝔊 Dr Bu Kit), v 18b Is 6:13, cstr. מַצְּבַת 2 K 3:2; 10:27, מַצֶּ֫בֶת Gn 35:14, 20; sf. מַצַּבְתָּהּ Is 6:13; pl. abs. מַצֵּבוֹת 1 K 14:23, cstr. מַצְּבוֹת 2 K 10:26, etc.;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נצב (nâtsab) (H5324) — to stand.
Forms in the corpus
The 5 distinct written forms H4678 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| מַצֶּ֣בֶת | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 6:13 | 2 |
| לַ/מַּצֶּ֨בֶת֙ | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | 2 Samuel 18:18 | 1 |
| מַצֶּ֥בֶת | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct | Genesis 35:20 | 1 |
| מַצֶּ֨בֶת֙ | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | 2 Samuel 18:18 | 1 |
| מַצַּבְתָּֽ/הּ | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct | Isaiah 6:13 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4678, 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
- מצב matstsâb H4673 station
- מצב mutstsâb H4674 entrenchment
- מצבה matstsêbâh H4676 pillar
- נצב nitstsâb H5325 hilt
- נצבה nitsbâh H5326 firmness
- נציב nᵉtsîyb H5333 garrison
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 4 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 4 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.
