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מטה

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Etymology and origin of the Biblical Hebrew word מטה

Three common words of the Bible are spelled מטה: maṭṭeh “staff, tribe”, miṭṭâ “bed” and the adverb maṭṭâ “downward”.[1] The lexica derive all three from the verb נָטָה (nāṭâ, “to stretch out, incline”).[2][3][4][5]

מטה1 staff, rod; tribe

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Hebrew Bible
Ultimate origin
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Etymology tree of מטה1
inherited borrowed derived
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Biblical Hebrew מטה

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: maṭṭeh, construct maṭṭēh[1][6]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: måṭṭi, plural måṭṭot[7]

Forms

מַטֶּה (maṭṭeh) noun, masculine, plural מַטּוֹת[1][6] Construct מַטֵּה, with suffixes מַטְּךָ, מַטֵּהוּ, plural מַטּוֹת, construct plural with suffix מַטֹּתָם; masculine, perhaps feminine in Micah 6:9.[6][2] The Great Isaiah Scroll writes מטו for מַטֵּהוּ in Isaiah 10:24.[2]

Etymology

The staff is formed with the instrumental prefix /ma-/, from Biblical Hebrew נָטָה (nāṭâ, “to stretch out, incline”), the same verb that lies behind מִטָּה (miṭṭâ, “bed”) and מַטָּה (maṭṭâ, “downward”).[5][2][6] The noun Ugaritic mṭ (“rod, staff, riding crop”) is compared with it, and so is Akkadian miṭṭu (“a divine weapon, mace”).[8][9] HALOT also reports Janssen's view that it is a loan from Egyptian mdw (“staff”);[2] Gesenius–Buhl had already judged an Egyptian source unlikely, because the Egyptian form does not match.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two of the occurrences are in the psalm of Habakkuk 3, one of the poems that Sáenz-Badillos counts among the archaic Hebrew texts:[11][1] šəḇuʿôṯ maṭṭôṯ ʾōmer (Habakkuk 3:9) and nāqaḇtā ḇəmaṭṭāyw rōʾš pərāzāyw “you pierced with his shafts the head of his warriors” (3:14). HALOT takes the word there as “shaft, arrow”, and both verses are textually difficult.[2][6] In the prose the first use in the canon is Judah's pledge to Tamar: ḥōṯāmḵā ūp̄əṯîleḵā ūmaṭṭəḵā ʾăšer bəyāḏeḵā “your seal, your cord and the staff in your hand” (Genesis 38:18).[1][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a stick or staff, carried as a support or held as a sign of authority: the staffs of Moses and Aaron in the plague and wilderness stories, the “staff of God”, the twelve staffs of the tribal leaders in Numbers 17, and the rod used for beating out cumin (Isaiah 28:27).[2][6] From the rod of punishment comes the figure of Assyria as “the rod of my anger” (Isaiah 10:5).[2] In Ezekiel 19 it is the stem or branch of a vine, an image of the ruler,[2][10] and maṭṭēh leḥem “the staff of bread” (Leviticus 26:26, Ezekiel 4:16) is the food supply that God threatens to break;[12] HALOT explains it as the rod on which ring-shaped loaves were hung.[2]

The second sense, “tribe”, is the commonest.[2][1] HALOT calls it characteristic of the Priestly narrative, where maṭṭeh stands beside the older שֵׁבֶט (šēḇeṭ, “rod; tribe”), which also means both “rod” and “tribe”.[2][12] The Septuagint matches the two senses: it renders the word by Ancient Greek φυλή (phulḗ, “tribe”) more than 150 times and by Ancient Greek ῥάβδος (rhábdos, “rod”) about 20 times.[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 186 times.[13] In Modern Hebrew מטה (maté) also means a military staff, a sense first used by Nahum Sokolow.[5]

Timeline

  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – maṭṭôṯ, probably “shafts”, in the psalm of Habakkuk 3:9 and 3:14.[11][2][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – 167 of the 252 biblical occurrences are in Genesis to Kings; the sense “tribe” is typical of the Priestly narrative.[1][2]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek φυλή (phulḗ) and Ancient Greek ῥάβδος (rhábdos).[14][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 186 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[15][13]
  • Modern Hebrew – also a military staff, after Nahum Sokolow.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a staff, stick or rod carried as a support or as a sign of authority.[2][6]
  2. a rod used for beating or punishing;[12] (figurative) an instrument of punishment.[2][12]
  3. the stem or branch of a vine.[2][6]
  4. (poetic) a shaft or arrow (Habakkuk 3:9, 14).[2]
  5. maṭṭēh leḥem, “staff of bread”: the supply of food.[2][6]
  6. a tribe of Israel.[2][6]

Word family

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew מטה (maté)[16]

מטה2 bed, couch

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Hebrew Bible
Ultimate origin
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Etymology tree of מטה2
inherited borrowed derived
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Biblical Hebrew מטה

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: miṭṭâ[1]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: mēṭå[7][3]

Forms

מִטָּה (miṭṭâ) noun, feminine, plural מִטּוֹת[17] Construct מִטַּת, with suffixes מִטָּתִי, מִטָּתוֹ, plural מִטּוֹת.[17][3]

Etymology

The bed is from Biblical Hebrew נָטָה (nāṭâ, “to stretch out, incline”), the place where one stretches out or reclines.[3][18] HALOT, Gesenius–Buhl and Klein compare the way Ancient Greek κλίνη (klínē, “couch, bed”) comes from κλίνω (klínō, “to make to slope, incline”).[3][19][18] The same noun is Ugaritic mṭt (“bed”), where DULAT derives it from the root ⟨n-ṭ-h⟩ and names the Hebrew word.[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first use in the canon is the dying Jacob, who wayyištaḥû yiśrāʾēl ʿal-rōʾš hammiṭṭâ “Israel bowed down at the head of the bed” (Genesis 47:31); 19 of the 29 occurrences are in Genesis to Kings.[1][3]

Semantic evolution

The bed served for sleeping, for the sick and the dying (Genesis 48:2, 49:33; 2 Kings 1:4), and for sitting or reclining by day; at a feast one lay on it, and Amos condemns those who lie on beds of ivory (Amos 6:4).[3][17] It could be carried: Michal lays the household image in David's bed (1 Samuel 19:13–16), Abner's body is carried on a bier (2 Samuel 3:31), and Solomon's miṭṭâ in Song of Songs 3:7 is a litter.[3][17][21] Esther 1:6 describes couches of gold and silver.[3]

The Septuagint renders it mostly by Ancient Greek κλίνη (klínē).[1] In the Mishnah it is a bed, a frame and a bier, and the “bearers of the miṭṭâ” are those who carry the dead.[22] Huehnergard suggests that English mat, from Late Latin matta, may come from a Punic form akin to miṭṭâ.[23] Modern Hebrew מיטה (mitá) is the ordinary word for a bed.[16]

Timeline

  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – 19 of the 29 occurrences are in Genesis to Kings, for the bed of the sick and the dying, the couch and the bier.[1][3]
  • Late Biblical Hebrew – the gold and silver couches of the Persian court in Esther 1:6.[3][1]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek κλίνη (klínē).[14][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 15 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, mostly biblical.[15][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a bed or couch, for sleeping or for the sick.[3][17]
  2. a couch for sitting or reclining by day and at meals.[3]
  3. a litter for carrying a person; a bier.[3][17][21]

Word family

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew מיטה (mitá)[16]

מטה3 downward, below

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Hebrew Bible
Ultimate origin
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Etymology tree of מטה3
inherited borrowed derived
Biblical Hebrew נטה
Biblical Hebrew מטה

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: maṭṭâ, pausal māṭṭâ[1][24]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: mēṭå[7][4]

Forms

מַטָּה (maṭṭâ) adverb[1][24] Mostly with prepositions: לְמַטָּה ləmaṭṭâ “downward”, מִלְּמַטָּה milləmaṭṭâ “from below”.[4][24]

Etymology

The adverb is formed with the locative ending /-â/, from Biblical Hebrew נָטָה (nāṭâ, “to stretch out, bend down”), as its opposite מַעְלָה (maʿlâ, “upward”) is formed on עָלָה (ʿālâ, “to go up”).[25][24] BDB explains it as a noun *maṭ, “a place of bending down”, with the same ending.[24] Phoenician has lmṭ (“downwards”), in an inscription that wishes on an enemy “no root below and no fruit above”.[24][4][26]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adverb is found from the curses of Deuteronomy, wəʾattâ ṯērēḏ maṭṭâ māṭṭâ “and you shall go down lower and lower” (Deuteronomy 28:43), to the Priestly description of the tabernacle, where milləmaṭṭâ “from below” marks the lower part of the frames and the altar (Exodus 26:24, 27:5).[4][24][1]

Semantic evolution

Besides the plain sense “downward”, it marks lower rank or degree: in Deuteronomy 28:13 Israel will be ləmaʿlâ and not ləmaṭṭâ, “above” and not “below”, and in Ezra 9:13 God has punished ləmaṭṭâ mēʿăwōnēnû “less than our iniquities”.[4][24][27] In 1 Chronicles 27:23 it counts ages “from twenty years old and under”.[4][26] The Septuagint renders it mostly by Ancient Greek κάτω (kátō, “below”).[1] HALOT notes that Mishnaic Hebrew uses only ləmaṭṭâ and ləmaṭṭān.[4]

Timeline

  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – Deuteronomy 28 and the Priestly tabernacle chapters of Exodus.[1][4]
  • Late Biblical Hebrew – Ezra 9:13, 1 Chronicles 27:23 and 2 Chronicles 32:30, and Qohelet 3:21.[4][1]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek κάτω (kátō).[14][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 17 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[15][13]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. below, beneath;[16] maṭṭâ maṭṭâ “lower and lower”.[4][24]
  2. ləmaṭṭâ: downward; under, of lower rank;[16] ləmaṭṭâ min “less than”.[4][24]
  3. milləmaṭṭâ: from below, at the lower part.[4][24]

Word family

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew מטה (máta)[16]

Usage notes

Three rarer words have the same consonants.[1] muṭṭeh (Ezekiel 9:9, “the city is full of muṭṭeh”) is perverted justice, also from nāṭâ.[28][29] muṭṭôṯ kənāp̄āyw “the spreading of his wings” (Isaiah 8:8) is the plural of muṭṭâ.[30] māṭîm in Proverbs 24:11 (“those staggering to the slaughter”) is the participle of מוֹט (môṭ, “to totter”).[31]

Davies's concordance lists a noun mṭh in the phrase lmṭh on two jar inscriptions from Ḥorvat ʿUza of the late 7th or early 6th century BC.[32][33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מַטֶּה
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מַטָּה
  5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. מַטֶּה
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מַטֶּה
  7. ^ a b c Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  8. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. mṭ
  9. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 206
  10. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. מַטֶּה
  11. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
  12. ^ a b c d de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. מַטֶּה
  13. ^ a b c d Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
  14. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  15. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
  16. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  17. ^ a b c d e f Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  18. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  19. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  20. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. mṭt
  21. ^ a b de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  22. ^ Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. מִטָּה
  23. ^ Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מַטָּה
  25. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. מַטָּה
  26. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. מַטָּה
  27. ^ de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. מַטָּה
  28. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מֻטֶּה
  29. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מֻטֶּה
  30. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מֻטָּה
  31. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מוֹט
  32. ^ Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 37.004
  33. ^ Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 37.005
Cite this entry

“מטה.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/hbo/%D7%9E%D7%98%D7%94. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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