StrongerBible

maḥmad

מַחְמָד

HebrewH4261“precious things, desire, ...”

Appears 13 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Ki 20:62Ch 36:19Sng 5:16Isa 64:11(10)Lam 1:10Lam 1:11Lam 2:4Ezk 24:16Ezk 24:21Ezk 24:25Hos 9:6Hos 9:16Jol 3:5(4:5)
Root family
Word studymakh-MAHDnoun

What maḥmad means

a treasure: what or whom someone holds dear, valued for the longing it draws rather than for any price it would fetch

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

Hebrew forms this noun from a verb that means to find something desirable and want it (חָמַד). The noun names the far end of that wanting: not the ache, but the thing the ache settles on. So the word measures worth from the inside, from the point of view of whoever cannot bear to lose it.

That is why almost every occurrence stands inside a lament or a threat. The word surfaces just as a treasure is about to be taken away:

  • an enemy king promising to strip a palace of whatever its owner's eyes rest on
  • the temple's silver carried off into foreign shrines
  • starving people handing over their heirlooms for bread
  • a prophet told that his wife will die and that he must not mourn her
  • children killed before they are grown

Because the value sits in the attachment rather than in the object, the word runs freely between things and people. Temple furnishings, a homeland, a wife, the young of a city, and children still unborn are all named with it, and the Song of Songs uses it in the plural to say of a lover that everything about him is delight. Translators have to keep switching words: "precious things", "pleasant things", "the desire of your eyes", "altogether lovely".

One close relative, חֶמְדָּה, can name either the longing or the thing longed for. This word stays on the thing.

Nuances

1atreasured possessions: the valuables and finery a household, a city, or a temple prizes
TranslatabilityApproximate
2Ch 36:19Isa 64:11(10)Lam 1:7Lam 1:10Lam 1:11Hos 9:6Jol 3:5(4:5)
1bthe desire of the eyes: the one thing or person a gaze keeps returning to and could not bear to lose
1Ki 20:6Lam 2:4Ezk 24:16Ezk 24:21Ezk 24:25
1cbeloved children: the dearest ones a womb has borne
Hos 9:16
1dsheer loveliness: everything about someone that draws delight
Sng 5:16
Variants

The same word in another spelling or form.

מַחְמֹד“desirable”מַחְמֻד (machmud) is the same word as מַחְמָד (machmad), differing only in its vowels, and it means exactly the same thing: a treasured thing, something held precious. Scribes wrote it this way in just one line, Lamentations 1:7, where ruined Jerusalem remembers "all her precious things" from days gone by. Three verses later, at Lamentations 1:10, the identical phrase appears with the usual מַחְמָד vowels, which is the clearest sign that the two are one word. Read the entry for מַחְמָד for the full picture.

What scholars say about maḥmad

The standard lexica are unanimous on the sense. BDB, HALOT, and DCH all gloss מַחְמָד as a desirable or precious thing, an object of desire derived from the root חמד, and all treat מַחְמֻד at Lamentations 1:7 as a vowel variant of the same noun rather than a separate word; the identical phrase at Lamentations 1:10 with the usual vowels is the standing argument for that judgment. In his TDOT treatment of חמד, Wallis observes that the nominal derivatives of the root, unlike some uses of the verb, carry no pejorative force: they denote what is legitimately treasured, which is why the word never appears as an indictment of the one who holds the treasure. Lexica and commentators alike isolate two fixed phrases: מַחְמַד עֵינַיִם, the desire of the eyes (1 Kings 20:6; Ezekiel 24:16, 21, 25; compare מַחְמַדֵּי עַיִן at Lamentations 2:4), and מַחְמַדֵּי בֶטֶן, the darlings of the womb (Hosea 9:16). Zimmerli, on Ezekiel 24:15-27, stresses that the first phrase designates Ezekiel's wife without erotic coloring and is then deliberately transferred within the same oracle to the sanctuary, so that the prophet's private bereavement becomes a sign of the nation's. The clustering of the word in Lamentations, Isaiah 64, Joel, and 2 Chronicles 36 is widely recognized as part of a shared lament vocabulary for the plundered temple and its furnishings, which Hillers documents for Lamentations. The one acknowledged crux is Hosea 9:6, מַחְמַד לְכַסְפָּם, whose syntax Wolff discusses without reaching a settled solution; proposals run from treasures consisting of silver, to the places where silver was stored, to textual emendation. The plural at Song of Songs 5:16, וְכֻלּוֹ מַחֲמַדִּים, is generally read as an intensive plural of quality rather than as a set of separate objects.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. מַחְמָדlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. מַחְמָדlexicon
  • DCH, vol. 5, s.v. מחמדlexicon
  • G. Wallis, "חמד ḥāmad," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT)theological-dictionary
  • NIDOTTE, s.v. חמדtheological-dictionary
  • Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1 (Hermeneia), on 24:15-27commentary
  • Delbert R. Hillers, Lamentations (Anchor Bible), on 1:7-11commentary
  • Hans Walter Wolff, Hosea (Hermeneia), on 9:6 and 9:16commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מַחְמָד

m s construct

מַחְמַד

1Ki 20:6, Ezk 24:16, Ezk 24:21, Ezk 24:25

m p construct

מַחֲמַדֵּי

Lam 2:4, Hos 9:16

m p construct

מַחֲמַדֶּיהָ

2Ch 36:19, Lam 1:10

m p absolute

מַחֲמַדִּים

Sng 5:16

m p construct

מַחֲמַדֵּינוּ

Isa 64:11

m p construct

מַחֲמַדַּי

Jol 3:5

m p construct

מַחֲמַדֵּיהֶם

Lam 1:11

m s absolute

מַחְמַד

Hos 9:6