מִצְפֶּה
Mizpeh
BDB lists 6 entries for ‘Mizpeh’ 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 H4708 appears — 9 distinct verses across 4 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.
Joshua 3 verses
- Joshua 11:8 מִצְפֶּ֖ה n Proper Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth Maim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they struck them, until they left them none remaining.
- Joshua 15:38 וְ/הַ/מִּצְפֶּ֖ה conj + ptcl def.art + n Proper and Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel,
- Joshua 18:26 וְ/הַ/מִּצְפֶּ֥ה conj + ptcl def.art + n Proper and Mizpeh, and Chephirah, and Mozah,
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 40:6 הַ/מִּצְפָּ֑תָ/ה ptcl def.art + n Proper + sfx dem Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.
- Jeremiah 40:8 הַ/מִּצְפָּ֑תָ/ה ptcl def.art + n Proper + sfx dem then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, [to wit], Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
- Jeremiah 40:12 הַ/מִּצְפָּ֑תָ/ה ptcl def.art + n Proper + sfx dem then all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits very much.
- Jeremiah 40:13 הַ/מִּצְפָּֽתָ/ה ptcl def.art + n Proper + sfx dem Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,
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, מצפה (Mitspeh) means “Mizpeh.” First canonically at Joshua 11:8, it enters the text early. With 9 verses in 4 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Jeremiah (44% of all occurrences). 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 H4708 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 →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 4 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,342
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,342 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 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 9 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 9 verses · 100%
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: Mizpeh 8×, Mizpah 5×
- American Standard Version: Mizpah 8×, Mizpeh 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Mizpeh 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Mizpah of 3×, Mizpah 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4708 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4708 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4708 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4708 across 6 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 5 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. watch-tower, Is 21:8. e.g. Isaiah 21:8
- 2. outlook-point, 2 Ch 20:24 on high ground. e.g. 2 Chronicles 20:24
- 1. הַמּ׳ in Shephelah of Judah Jos 15:38, Μασ(σ)ηφα. e.g. Joshua 15:38
- 2. מִצְפֵּה־מוֹאָב 1 S 22:3, Μασσηφα. e.g. 1 Samuel 22:3
- 3. מִצְפֵּה גִלְעָד Ju 11:29(×2) (ἡ σκοπιά) prob. = רָמַת הַמּ׳ Jos 13:26 Μασ(ση)φα and perhaps מִצְפָּה 2.—Jos 11:8; 18:26 v. מִצְפָּה 3, 4. e.g. Judges 11:29
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
Derived from מצפה (mitspeh) (H4707) — watchtower.
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.
מִצְפֶּה
- (b. h.) pr. n. pl. Mizpeh or Mizpah (Watch-Tower). Peah II, 6 איש המ׳ the man of M. (or the governor of the Watch-Tower of the Temple).
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 7 distinct written forms H4708 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַ/מִּצְפָּ֑תָ/ה | Noun, Proper | Jeremiah 40:6 | 3 |
| מִצְפֵּ֣ה | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 22:3 | 2 |
| הַ/מִּצְפָּֽתָ/ה | Noun, Proper | Jeremiah 40:13 | 1 |
| וְ/הַ/מִּצְפֶּ֖ה | Noun, Proper | Joshua 15:38 | 1 |
| וְ/הַ/מִּצְפֶּ֥ה | Noun, Proper | Joshua 18:26 | 1 |
| וּ/מִ/מִּצְפֵּ֣ה | Noun, Proper | Judges 11:29 | 1 |
| מִצְפֶּ֖ה | Noun, Proper | Joshua 11:8 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4708, 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
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 → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Mizpeh). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
[Mizpah]
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 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.
