מַצָּה
strife
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
- 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.
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H4683 appears — 3 distinct verses across 2 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.
Proverbs 2 verses
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.
At its core, מצה (matstsâh) means “strife.” With only 3 verses it sits in the long tail of Hebrew Bible vocabulary. The word gravitates to Proverbs (67%), then Isaiah. First canonically at Proverbs 13:10, it enters the text early. It shares a root with נצה, מצות and נוצה. 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 H4683 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 →
- 3
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 3 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,179
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,179 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 3 occurrences in the concordance →
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 3 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 67%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 1 verse · 33%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Contention 1×, Debate 1×, Strife 1×
- American Standard Version†: Only contention 1×, Strife 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Strife 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Contention 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4683 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4683 across 2† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4683 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4683 across 3† 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 0 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.
מצה I unleavened bread, or cake(s)
מצה II strife, contention
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
III. n.f. unleavened bread, or cake(s);—abs. מ׳ Lv 2:5; 8:26 (חַלַּת מ׳ אַחַת), Nu 6:19 (id.), v 19; usually pl. מַצּוֹת Ex 12:15 + 44 times; מַצֹּת Ex 12:18 + 3 times;—unleavened bread, prepared in form of לֶחֶם Ex 29:2; חַלָּה Ex 29:2 + 4 times P; רקיקים Ex 29:2 1 Ch 23:29 + 4 times P; עגה Ex 12:39; used at ordinary meals (prepared hastily): אפה מ׳ Gn 19:3 (J), Ex 12:39 (J), 1 S 28:24; prob. also Ju 6:19, 20, 21(×2); elsewhere at sacrificial meals, e.g. ritual peace-offerings Lv 2:4(×2), 5; 6:9; 7:12(×2); 10:12; consecration of priesthood Ex 29:2(×3), 23 Lv 8:2, 26(×2); at peace-offering of Nazairite Nu 6:15(×2) 17, 19(×2); at Passover Ex 12:8 Nu 9:11 (all P); especially at feast of unleavened bread [cakes] for 7 days after Passover שׁמר חג המ׳ Ex 23:15 (E), 34:18 (J); שׁמר מ׳ Ex 12:17 (P), עשׂה חג (ה)מ׳ 2 Ch 30:13, 21; 35:17 Ezr 6:22; בחג המ׳ Dt 16:16 2 Ch 8:13; חג המ׳ לי׳ Lv 23:6. During these seven days all Israel ate מצות Ex 12:15, 18, 20 (P), 23:15 (E), 13:6, 7; 34:18 (J), Lv 23:6 Nu 28:17 (P), Dt 16:3, 8 Jos 5:11 Ez 45:21.—2 K 23:6 read prob. מִצְוֹת or מְנָיוֹת for MT (אכל) מ׳; so Gei Kue Kmp Bu.
IV. n.f. strife, contention;—abs. מ׳ Is 58:4; Pr 13:10; 17:19.—i. מַצָּה v. מצץ.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נצה (nâtsâh) (H5327) — to struggle.
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.
מָצָה
- , v. מצי II
מַצָּה
- 1. [dry, pressed bread,] unleavened bread, esp. the bread served at the Passover meal. Pes. X, 3. Ib. 5 כל שלא אמר … פסח מ׳ וכ׳ whoever does not explain, at the meal, the following three ceremonies, has not done his duty, and these they are: the Passover sacrifice, the eating of matsah and the bitter herbs. Men. V, 1 כל המנחות באות מ׳ all meal offerings are offered in an unleavened condition, opp. חָמֵץ. Pes. 35ᵃ דברים הבאים … אדם יוצא בהן ידי חובתו במ׳ one performs his duty of eating matsah (on the first Passover night) with such things only as are capable of leavening (the five species of grain); a. fr.—Pl. מַצּוֹת. Mekh. Bo, s. 8 שומע אני כל מ׳ במשמע I might think anything unleavened is included (may be used for eating on the first Passover night); a. fr.
- 2. עו̇ר המ׳, or מ׳ a hide not tanned by a process of fermentation, untanned hide. Kel. XVII, 15. Gitt. 22ᵃ; Sabb. 79ᵃ שלשה עורות הן מ׳ וכ׳ there are three kinds of hides, matsah &c., v. דִּיפְתְּרָא. Ib. מ׳ כמשמעו וכ׳ m. is what its name implies, not salted and floured nor tanned with gall-nut.
מצי ²
- (b. h.) to squeeze, wring, esp. to wring out the blood of the bird sacrifice. Sifra Vayikra, N’dab., ch. VIII, Par. 7 הוא מוֹצֶה he wrings it; a. fr.
- 1. same. Zeb. VI, 5, sq.; a. fr.—2) same.
- to pour out to the last drop, to drain. Ib. 64ᵇ מי כתיב יְמַצֶּה יִמָּצֵה וכ׳ (ed. punctuate יַמְצֶה, Hif.) it does not say (Lev. V, 9), ‘he shall pour out (the remainder) at the bottom &c.’, but ‘it shall be wrung out’, which means, that it will run out to the bottom of itself. Ter. XI, 8 הִרְכִּינָהּ ומִיצָּה (Y. ed. ומִיצֵּת; Ms. M. ומִצֵּת) if he bent the vessel and drained it; B. Bath. 87ᵇ (Ms. H. a. R. ומיצת); ib. V, 8 (87ᵃ) הרכינה ומיצה (Y. ed. ומצת; Bab. ed. ומִיצֵּית, Ms. M. ומִיצֵּת; Ms. R. ומִיצְּתָהּ). Gen. R. s. 85; s. 92 (play on מצא, Gen. XLIV, 16) כזה שהוא מְמַצֶּה וכ׳ as one drains a vessel and leaves nothing but the lees. Midr. Till. to Ps. LIX (play on מצא, Prov. XVIII, 22) כשהאשה רעה היא מְמַצָּה (כל) הטובות כולן מביתו וכ׳ ed. Bub. (oth. ed. ממַצֶּאֶת, a. oth. variants) when the wife is bad, she drains all the good things out of his house and makes him poor; Yalk. Prov. 957 ממציא (read: מְמַצֵּית); a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 5:9
- 3. (cmp. מָצַע) מ׳ מידות to measure exactly. Erub. IV, 11 (52ᵇ) אין המשוחות מְמַצִּין וכ׳ the surveyors (in marking distances for Sabbath limits) do not measure exactly (but mark within the limits), in order to allow for mistakes.—Trnsf. to sound one’s learning. Men. 18ᵃ למַצֹּות מידותי to have my own learning examined; למ׳ מידותיו וכ׳ to sound the learning of &c.
- to be wrung out; to be emptied, drained Sifra Vayikra, Ḥob., Par. 10, ch. XVIII; Zeb. 64ᵇ שהשירין מִתְמַצִּים ליסוד where the remainder is poured out towards the bottom of the altar; a. fr. [Ib. VI, 4 (64ᵇ) היה מתמצה, read מְמַצֶּה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 50.]—Y. R. Hash. I, 56ᵈ top; Y. Shek. III, beg. 47ᵇ עד כאן הן מִתְמַצּוֹת לילד וכ׳ up to that time (the first of Elul) the latest births of the old year (of those conceived before the first of Nisan) take place &c.—Trnsf. (with חשבון) to be exactly counted, to be finally settled. Y. Sot. I, 17ᵃ (he suffers a loss by the death of his ox &c.) והחשבון מִתְמַצֶּה and the account (of his sins) is settled; ib.; Num. R. s. 9 אחת מתארעא וכ׳, v. אָרַע I; Koh. R. to VII, 27.
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 2 distinct written forms H4683 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| מַצָּ֑ה | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 13:10 | 2 |
| וּ/מַצָּה֙ | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 58:4 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4683, 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 → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 3 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 3 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.
