מָשַׁל
to liken
‘to liken’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Hiphil verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘human subj.’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
1 verse where H4911 appears in the Hiphil stem in the Book of Isaiah. 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.
Isaiah
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.
משל — transliterated mâshal — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to liken.” As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 5 stems (Niphal, Hiphil, and more). The Hebrew Bible uses it across 15 verses — uncommon. More than a third of its appearances fall in Ezekiel. Debuting at Numbers 21:27, it then recurs through the corpus. 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 H4911 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 →
- 15
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 15 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 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 15 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 15 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 9 verses · 60%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 33%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 7%
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†: Behold every one that useth proverbs 1×, Compare 1×, Doth he not speak 1×
- American Standard Version†: Me 2×, Not 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Byword 1×, He is like 1×, I have become 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: As 2×, He is likened 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4911 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4911 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4911 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4911 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
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 10 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.
משל I represent, be like (Arabic مَثَلَ stand erect (cf. FlDe Pr 1
Niphal
- Pf. 3 ms. נִמְשַׁל ψ 49:13, 21; 2 ms. נִמְשָׁ֑לְתָּ Is 14:10; 1 s. נִמְשַׁלְתִּי ψ 28:1; 143:7:—be like, similar, c. אֶל Is 14:10; עִם ψ 28:1 = 143:7; כְּ ψ 49:13, 21. e.g. Psalms 49:13
Hiphil
- Impf. 2 mpl. sf. וְתַמְשִׁלוּנִי compare Is 46:5. e.g. Isaiah 46:5
Hithpael
- Impf. 1 s. וָאֶתְמַשֵּׁל Jb 30:19 (c. כְּ) and I have become like dust. e.g. Job 30:19
משל II denom. use a proverb, speak in parables or sentences of poetry, especially Ezek.
Qal
- Impf. יִמְשֹׁל Ez 16:44; 3 mpl. יִּמְשְׁלוּ 12:23; Imv. מְשֹׁל 17:2; 24:3; Inf. cstr. מְשֹׁל 18:3; Pt. מֹשֵׁל 16:44, pl. מֹשְׁלִים 18:2 Nu 21:27;—use a proverb: מ׳ מָשָׁל Ez 12:23; 18:3 + ב loc.; a parable c. אֶל־ 17:2 (‖ חוד), 24:3; c. עַל־ 18:2, and (מָשָׁל appar. om.) הִנֵּה כָּל־הַמּשֵׁל עָלַיִךְ יִמְשֹׁל 16:44 (but this is awkward; point הִנֵּה כֹּל הַמָּשָׁל); מֹשְׁלִים Nu 21:27 (JE). e.g. Ezekiel 16:44
Piel
- Pt. הֲלֹא מְמַשֵּׁל מְשַׁלִים הוּא Ez 20:49 is he not a maker of parables? e.g. Ezekiel 21:5
משל III rule, have dominion, reign (NH Pt. id.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. וּמָשַׁל consec. Zc 6:13 + 2 times, מָשָׁ֑ל Dn 11:4, וּמָשָׁ֑ל consec. v 5; 3 fs. מָשָׁ֑לָה ψ 103:19; 2 ms. מָשַׁלְתָּ Is 63:19, וּמָשַׁלְתָּ֫ Dt 15:16; 3 pl. מָֽשְׁלוּ Is 3:5 La 5:8; Impf. 3 ms. יִמְשֹׁל Ex 21:8 + 3 times, יִמְשׁוֹל Pr 22:7; יִמְשָׁל־ Gn 3:16, etc.; Imv. מְשָׁל־ Ju 8:22; Inf. abs. מָשׁוֹל Gn 37:8; cstr. מְשֹׁל Ju 9:2 +, לִמְשָׁל־ Jo 2:17, etc.; Pt. מֹשֵׁל Gn 45:26 +, etc.;— e.g. Zechariah 6:13
- 1. human subj., rule, have dominion over (בְּ) Gn 3:16; 4:7; 24:2 (all J), 45:8, 26 (E), מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל ב׳ 37:8 (E); Dt 15:6(×2) Jos 12:5 (D); Ju 8:22, 23(×2); 9:2(×2); 14:4; 15:11 2 S 23:3 (Pt. abs. = when one ruleth, cf. Dr), 1 K 5:1; 2 Ch 7:18; 9:26; 23:20; Is 3:4, 12; 19:4; Mi 5:1 Hb 1:14; Je 22:30; La 5:8; Jo 2:17; Pr 16:32 (משֵׁל בְּרוּחוֹ), 17:2; 19:20; 22:7 ψ 19:14; 105:21; 106:41 Dn 11:43; Ec 9:17; rarely other preps.: ל (c. inf.) Ex 21:8 (E); עַל־ Pr 28:15; Ne 9:37, אֶל־ Je 33:26; c. sf. Is 52:5 Je 30:21; c. acc. cogn. מ׳ מִמְשָׁל רָ֑ב Dn 11:3, 4; מָשַׁל מִן … וְעַד Jos 12:2 (D); abs. 2 S 23:3 (cf. Dr), Ez 19:14; Zc 6:13 (עַל loc.), Pr 12:24; 29:2; Dn 11:5; especially Pt. as subst. = ruler, משֵׁל־אֶרֶץ Is 16:1, משֵׁל עַמִּים ψ 105:20; abs. Is 14:5; 49:7; Je 51:46(×2) Ez 19:11; Pr 6:7; 23:1; 29:12, 26; Ec 10:4; משְׁלֵי הָעָם הַזֶּה Is 28:14. e.g. Genesis 3:16
- 2. of heavenly bodies, c. בְּ Gn 1:18. e.g. Genesis 1:18
- 3. of God, c. בְּ Ju 8:23; Is 63:19 ψ 22:29; 59:14; 89:10; 103:19 1 Ch 29:12; 2 Ch 20:6; abs. ψ 66:7; וּזְרֹעוֹ מ׳ לוֹ Is 40:10 his arm ruling for him. e.g. Judges 8:23
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. sf. consec. וְהִמְשִׁילָם Dn 11:39; Impf. 2 ms. sf. תַּמְשִׁילֵהוּ ψ 8:7; Inf. abs. הַמְשֵׁל Jb 25:2;—cause to rule, sq. acc. pers. + בְּ ψ 8:7 (subj. י׳), Dn 11:39; exercise dominion, only inf. abs. as n. abstr. the exercise of dominion Jb 25:2 (attrib. of God). e.g. Daniel 11:39
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
I. vb. represent, be like (Arabic مَثَلَ stand erect (cf. FlDe Pr 1:1), ii. effigiavit, representavit (rem alicui), v. imitate, use a verse as a proverb; مَثَلٌ description by way of comparison; Assyrian mašâlu, DlHWB 431 f.; Ethiopic መሰለ become like; Aramaic מְתַל be like, ܡܬܰܠ compare).
II. vb.denom. use a proverb, speak in parables or sentences of poetry, especially Ezek.;—
III. vb. rule, have dominion, reign (NH Pt. id.; Ph. משל);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from משל (mâshâl) (H4912) — proverb.
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.
מָשַׁל I
- (b. h.)
- 1. to handle, to touch. Yoma 46ᵃ מָשְׁלָה בהן האור the flames had attacked them.
- 2. to attend, manage, control. B. Mets. 75ᵇ מי שאשתו מוֹשֶׁלֶת עליו he whom his wife rules. Ḥull. 60ᵇ לכי ומְשׁוֹלִי ביום וכ׳ (not ומשול; Rashi לך ומְשׁוֹל) go thou and attend by day and by night.—B. Bath. 78ᵇ (ref. to Num. XXI, 27) המוֹשְׁלִים ביצרם who control their inclinations; a. e.—מוֹשֵׁל governor, consul. Yad. IV, 8 אתם כותבים את המושל וכ׳ you write the governor’s name and year together with the name of Moses in a document. [B. Kam. 38ᵃ מוֹשְׁלֵי, מוֹשְׁלִים, censorial emendations for מַלְכוּת, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. notes.] e.g. Numbers 21:27
- to handle, dispose of, use. Gen. R. s. 20 יכול מְמַשְּׁלָהּ מכל צד you might think, he may use her in whatever way he pleases; Yalk. ib. 32.
- to make a ruler. Sot. 36ᵇ עבד … תַּמְשִׁילֵהוּ עלינו a slave whom his master bought for twenty pieces of silver,—wilt thou make him a ruler over us?; a. e.
מָשַׁל II
- denom. of next w.)
- 1. to speak metaphorically. Nidd. V, 7 מָשָׁל מָשְׁלוּ וכ׳ the scholars introduced metaphors for designating the stages of female puberty.
- 2. to compare, to give an illustration. Tosef. Ber. I, 11 משלו משל למה וכ׳ they made a comparison: what is this to be compared to? To &c. R. Hash. 17ᵇ אֶמְשׁוֹל לך משל למה וכ׳ let me tell thee a parable: what is this like to? To &c. Cant. R. to II, 15 כשחוא מוֹשֵׁל את המלכיות אינו מוֹשְׁלָן אלא באש when one wants to find a simile for hostile governments, one compares them to fire; a. v. fr.—Part. pass. מָשׁוּל; f. מְשׁוּלָה; pl. מְשׁוּלִים, מְשׁוּלִין; מְשׁוּלוֹת. Meg. 16ᵃ אומה זו מ׳ לעפר ומ׳ וכ׳ that nation (Israel) is compared now to dust and now to the stars; a. v. fr.
- to be compared (followed by ל־, כ־ or ב־). Taan. 7ᵃ נִמְשְׁלוּ דברי תורה לאש Ms. M. (ed. כאש, באש. v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) the words of the Law are compared to fire. Gen. R. s. 41 התורה שנִמְשְׁלָה למים the Law which is compared to water; a. v. fr.
מָשָׁל
- v. מָשַׁל I) [something tangible, substantial, plausible; cmp. אֲמַתְלָא,] a truth substantiated by an illustration, wise saying; fable, allegory; example; mashal. Cant. R. introd. אל יהי המ׳ הזח קל וכ׳ do not esteem the mashal lightly, for through it man gets at the basis of &c. Ib. יש לו מקרא ויש לו מ׳ וכ׳, v. מְלִיצָה. Ex. R. s. 40, beg. צריך אדם לחיות נוטל מ׳ man should take an example (of the Lord). Pes. 49ᵃ bot. מ׳ לענבי וכ׳ it is like mixing grapes with &c.—מ׳ למה הדבר דומה, v. דָּמָה a. preced.—B. Bath. 15ᵃ איוב לא היה … אלא מ׳ היה the story of Job never occurred, but was invented merely as a parable. Snh. 92ᵇ אמת מ׳ היה (the vision of the valley of the dead) was the truth of a mashal, (emended:) באמת מ׳ היה in the truth (the fact of resurrection) there was a symbol (for the redemption of Israel from captivity; Ez. XXXVII, 11).—Y. Keth. IV, 28ᶜ top; Y. Snh. VIII, 26ᶜ top זה … שנאמרו בתורה במ׳ this is one of the three verses in which the Law uses metaphorical expressions (Ex. XXI, 19; XXII, 2; Deut. XXII, 17); Mekh. Mishp. 6; a. fr.—Pl. מְשָׁלִים, מְשָׁלוֹת. Sot. IX, 15 (49ᵃ) משמת ר"מ בטלו מושלי מ׳ with the death of R. M. ceased the composers of fables. Cant. R. l. c. מִשְׁלוֹתָיו של וכ׳ the wise sayings of Solomon. Ib. דברי מ׳ didactic literature, opp. זמר. Ib. שלש מ׳ three collections of sayings (Prov. I to IX; X to XXIV; XXV to XXXI). Num. R. s. 14, end ועם בלעם … כי אם במ׳ God spoke to Balaam only through allegories (visions).—Succ. 28ᵃ מִשְׁלוֹת שועלין (Ms. M. מִמְשְׁלוֹת, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) fox-fables; מ׳ כובסין washers’ fables; B. Bath. 134ᵃ. Snh. 38ᵇ (Ms. M. ממשלת); Yalk. Prov. 947.—Gitt. 35ᵃ bot. ספר איוב ומִמְשָׁלוֹת copies of the Books of Job and Proverbs (v. infra).—מִשְׁלֵי (sub. שלמה) Mishlé, the Book of Proverbs (commencing with the word mishlé). Cant. R. l. c. B. Bath. 14ᵇ. Y. Yoma I, end, 39ᵇ; a. e. e.g. Ezekiel 37:11
שַׁל
- v. שַׁלְוָה) carelessness, negligence. Sot. 35ᵃ (expl. II Sam. VII, 7) על עיסקי שַׁלּוֹ for his careless handling (of the Ark); Num. R. s. 420; Yalk. Sam. 142; Num. R. s. 2112 על השל מפני ששגגת וכ׳ ‘for the carelessness’, because an involuntary act of a scholar counts as a wilful act. e.g. 2 Samuel 7:7
שַׁל ²
- , v. שַׁלְצִיּוֹן
שֶׁל
- , v. שֶׁ־) belonging to, of. Ab. II, 2 בנו של ר׳ וכ׳ the son of &c. Ib. 12 יהי ממון … כשֶׁלְּךָ let thy neighbor’s property be as dear to thee as thine own. Ib. V, 10 האומר שֶׁלִּי שלי ושֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלָּךְ he who says, what is mine is mine, and what is thine is thine. B. Mets. I, 1 זה אומר כולה שלי וכ׳ one says, it belongs entirely to me &c. Ib. 30ᵃ שהיתה מלאכה שֶׁלּוֹ … משל חבירו when his own work is more valuable than that required for his neighbor, i.e. when by helping his neighbor he would lose more than he could save for his neighbor. Gen. R. s. 49 אמרו לו מה נאמר … שאכלנו מִשֶּׁלּוֹ they (the strangers entertained by Araham) said to him, what shall we say? Said he, say, blessed be the God of the world of whose belongings we have partaken; a. v. fr.—Kidd. 57ᵇ שחוט שלי בשלי וכ׳ (not לי) slaughter what is owing to me (the sacrifice) on what belongs to me (on Temple grounds), and what is for thee, on thy own ground.
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 14 distinct written forms H4911 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4911, 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
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 14 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 15 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.
