StrongerBible

matsa

מָצָא

HebrewH4672find, be found, ...

Appears 455 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:20Gen 6:8Gen 11:2Gen 16:7Gen 18:3Gen 19:19Gen 26:12Gen 26:19Gen 30:14Gen 30:27Gen 31:33Gen 31:34Gen 31:35Gen 33:10Gen 36:24Gen 37:15Gen 37:17Gen 38:20Gen 38:22Gen 39:4Gen 44:9Gen 44:10Gen 44:16 (2×)Gen 44:17Gen 44:34Gen 47:14Gen 47:29Gen 50:4Exo 9:19Exo 12:19Exo 15:22Exo 16:27Exo 22:2(1)Exo 22:7(6)Exo 22:8(7)Exo 33:13Exo 33:16Exo 34:9Exo 35:23Exo 35:24Lev 6:3(5:22)Lev 6:4(5:23)Num 11:11Num 11:15Num 15:32Num 31:50Deu 17:2Deu 18:10Deu 20:11Deu 21:1
Names & words formed with this
Word studymah-TSAHverb

What matsa means

to find: to come upon or get hold of something, whether by searching for it or by stumbling onto it.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its core this word covers the whole arc of getting hold of something. At one end is the deliberate search that succeeds: you look for a thing and you find it. At the other end is the chance encounter: you were not looking, but there it was. The same word does both, which is why the surrounding story has to tell you whether the finding was hunted for or happened by surprise.

From that center the word stretches in natural directions. To find what you wanted is to get it or attain it, so the word slides into reaching a goal, securing a wife, gaining wisdom. To catch up with someone who is fleeing is to find them in the sense of overtaking them, and that is how trouble, judgment, or an enemy is said to find a person: it tracks them down and reaches them. The word can also simply mean that a thing is there to be found, that it exists or is available, which is why so often it is put the other way around, that something was found, turned up, or proved to be present.

One idiom deserves its own note. To find favor in someone's eyes is the standard biblical way of saying you won their goodwill or acceptance. It is not that favor was lying somewhere waiting to be discovered; the phrase has set into a fixed expression for being looked on kindly, and it runs from Noah through the whole Old Testament.

The senses below are shades of this one idea, not different words. Hebrew uses one verb where English reaches for several (find, come upon, catch, obtain, be present), and the right English word depends entirely on what is being found and how.

Nuances

1ato find what you were looking for, to locate something by searching.
Gen 18:26Gen 19:11Gen 31:32Gen 31:33Gen 31:34Gen 31:35Gen 37:32Gen 44:8Gen 44:121Sa 9:4 (2×)1Sa 9:111Sa 20:21
1bto come upon something without looking for it, to chance upon or encounter it.
Gen 4:14Gen 4:15Gen 11:2Gen 16:7Gen 30:14Gen 37:15Gen 37:17Num 15:32Jdg 15:151Sa 30:111Ki 13:141Ki 19:19
1cto get, obtain, or attain what one sought after, to secure something good.
Gen 26:12Pro 3:13Pro 4:22Pro 8:9Pro 8:35Pro 18:22Pro 19:8Pro 21:21Pro 31:10Ecc 7:24Ecc 7:27Ecc 8:17
1dto catch up with, overtake, or reach someone, especially of trouble or judgment that tracks a person down.
Gen 44:34Deu 4:30Deu 31:17Deu 31:211Sa 31:31Ki 21:201Ch 10:3Job 31:29Psa 116:3Psa 119:143
1eto win goodwill or acceptance, in the set phrase to find favor in someone's eyes.
Gen 6:8Gen 18:3Gen 19:19Gen 30:27Gen 33:8Gen 33:10Gen 33:15Gen 34:11Gen 47:25Gen 47:29Gen 50:4Exo 33:12
1fto be found, to be present, available, or discovered, said of the thing rather than of the one who finds it.
Gen 18:29Gen 18:30Gen 18:31Gen 18:32Gen 44:9Gen 44:10Gen 44:16 (2×)Gen 44:17Exo 12:19Exo 22:2(1)Exo 35:23Exo 35:24
1gto be enough, to suffice or be sufficient for a need.
Num 11:22Jos 17:16Zec 10:10

Uncategorized

Awaiting AI sense categorization.

12 verses
Gen 8:9Gen 18:28Gen 19:15Gen 26:19Gen 26:32Gen 27:20Gen 31:37Gen 32:5Gen 32:19Gen 38:23Gen 39:4Gen 41:38

What scholars say about matsa

The standard lexicons (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat this as a single verb with a unified core, to find or come upon, that fans out into a connected range: finding by searching, encountering by chance, attaining or obtaining, overtaking or reaching (often of disaster), and, in the passive, being found, present, or available. The same lexicons recognize a derived sense of being sufficient or enough (Numbers 11:22; Joshua 17:16), which BDB and HALOT note under the same root rather than as a homonym. The fixed idiom find favor in the eyes of is a recognized set expression for gaining goodwill (TDOT, s.v.). There is no significant proposal to split this verb into unrelated homonyms; its breadth is treated as the natural extension of one idea. S. Wagner's article in TDOT surveys the theological weight of the word, especially the language of seeking and finding God (Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:13; Proverbs 8:17).

Sources

  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. מצאlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. מצאlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. מצאlexicon
  • S. Wagner, "מצא," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 8:465-483dictionary
  • Robert L. Hubbard Jr., "מצא," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE) 2:1062-1064dictionary

All attested forms of מָצָא

qal perfect 1cs

מָצָאתִי, מְצָאתִי, מָּצָאתִי, מָצָתִי

Gen 18:3, Gen 30:27, Gen 33:10, Gen 47:29, Gen 50:4, Exo 33:13, Exo 33:16, Exo 34:9

qal perfect 3ms

מָצָא, מְצָאָ, מְצָא

Gen 2:20, Gen 6:8, Gen 19:19, Gen 31:33, Gen 31:34, Gen 31:35, Gen 36:24, Gen 44:16

niphal imperfect 3ms

יִמָּצֵא

Gen 44:9, Gen 44:10, Exo 9:19, Exo 12:19, Exo 22:2, Exo 22:7, Exo 22:8, Deu 17:2

niphal participle m s absolute

נִּמְצָא, נִמְצָא

Gen 47:14, Deu 20:11, Jdg 20:48, 1Sa 13:16, 1Sa 21:3, 2Ki 12:10, 2Ki 12:18, 2Ki 16:8

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּמְצָא, וַיִּמְצָאֵ, וַיִּמְצָאָ

Gen 26:12, Gen 30:14, Gen 39:4, Jdg 15:15, 1Ki 11:19, 1Ki 11:29, 1Ki 13:28, 1Ki 19:19

qal perfect 3cp

מָצְאוּ, מָצָאוּ, מְצָאוּ, מְצָאֻ, מָּצְאוּ

Exo 15:22, Jdg 21:14, 1Sa 9:11, 2Ki 9:35, 2Ch 29:16, Neh 5:8, Job 32:3, Psa 76:5

niphal perfect 3ms

נִמְצָא

Gen 44:16, Gen 44:17, Exo 35:23, Exo 35:24, 1Sa 9:8, 1Sa 10:21, 1Sa 13:22, 2Sa 17:12

qal imperfect 3ms

יִמְצָא, יִמְצָאֶ, יִמְצָאֲ, יִמְצָאֵ

Gen 44:34, Deu 22:25, Deu 22:28, Jdg 17:8, 1Sa 24:19, Est 8:6, Job 33:10, Pro 6:33

niphal perfect 3cp

נִמְצְאוּ, נִמְצָאוּ, נִּמְצְאוּ

Deu 22:20, Jos 10:17, 1Sa 10:2, 1Sa 10:16, 2Ki 25:19, 1Ch 4:41, 2Ch 19:3, Jer 2:34

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּמְצְאוּ, וַיִּמְצָאֻ

Gen 11:2, Gen 26:19, Num 15:32, Jdg 1:5, Jdg 21:12, 1Sa 30:11, 1Sa 31:8, 1Ki 1:3

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶמְצָא, אֶמְצָאֲ

Gen 18:26, Gen 18:28, Gen 18:30, Gen 33:15, Gen 34:11, Jdg 17:9, Rut 2:2, Rut 2:13

niphal participle m p absolute

נִּמְצְאִים, נִּמְצָאִים

1Sa 13:15, 2Ki 14:14, 2Ki 25:19, 2Ch 5:11, 2Ch 25:24, 2Ch 29:29, 2Ch 30:21, 2Ch 31:1

qal imperfect 3fs

תִּמְצָא, תִמְצָאֲ

Lev 12:8, Num 32:23, Deu 24:1, Jdg 9:33, 1Sa 1:18, 1Sa 10:7, 1Sa 25:8, Psa 21:8

qal infinitive-construct construct

מְצֹא, מֹצַאֲ, מְצוֹא, מְּצוֹא

Gen 19:11, Gen 27:20, Gen 32:5, Gen 33:8, Psa 32:6, Psa 36:2, Pro 19:8, Ecc 7:27

qal imperfect 2ms

תִּמְצָא, תִמְצָאֵ, תִּמְצָאֶ

Gen 31:32, 2Ki 4:29, Job 11:7, Job 11:7, Psa 10:15, Psa 17:3, Pro 2:5, Ezk 3:1

qal perfect 3fs

מָצְאָה, מְצָאַתְ, מְצָאָתְ, מְצָאָתַ

Gen 8:9, Lev 25:28, Job 31:25, Psa 84:3, Isa 10:10, Lam 1:3, Jdg 6:13, Neh 9:32

qal imperfect 3mp

יִמְצָאוּ, יִמְצְאוּ, יִמְצָאֻ

Job 20:8, Jer 2:24, Hos 5:6, Amo 8:12, Jdg 5:30, Job 3:22, Hos 12:8, Pro 1:28

niphal imperfect 3fs

תִּמָּצֵא

Exo 22:4, 1Sa 25:28, 1Ki 1:52, Job 28:12, Job 28:13, Pro 10:13, Pro 16:31, Isa 35:9

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וּמָצָא, וּמְצָאָ

Lev 25:26, Num 11:22, Num 11:22, Num 35:27, Deu 19:5, Ecc 9:15, Deu 22:23, 2Ki 7:9

qal perfect 1cp

מָצָאנוּ, מְצָאנֻ, מְצָאנוּ

Gen 26:32, Gen 37:32, Gen 44:8, Num 32:5, Job 32:13, Lam 2:16, Job 37:23, Psa 132:6

qal perfect 2ms

מָצָאתָ, מָּצָאתָ, מְצָאתַ, מְצָאתָ

Exo 33:12, Exo 33:17, Pro 24:14, Pro 25:16, Gen 31:37, 1Sa 29:8, 1Ki 21:20, Gen 38:23

niphal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּמָּצֵא

Gen 44:12, 1Ch 26:31, 2Ch 15:4, 2Ch 15:15, Ezr 10:18, Est 2:23, Est 6:2

qal imperfect 2mp

תִּמְצְאוּ, תִמְצָאֻ, תִּמְצָאוּ

1Sa 9:13, 1Sa 9:13, Sng 5:8, Isa 58:3, Jer 5:1, Exo 16:25, Exo 5:11

niphal imperfect 3mp

יִמָּצְאוּ

Gen 18:29, Gen 18:30, Gen 18:31, Gen 18:32

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וּמָצָאתָ, וּמְצָאתָ

Deu 4:29, 1Sa 10:2, Neh 9:8, Deu 22:3

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וּמְצָאוּ, וּמְצָאֻ, וּמָצְאוּ

Deu 4:30, 1Sa 10:3, Deu 31:17, 2Ch 32:4

qal imperfect 1cp

נִמְצָא

Gen 41:38, Gen 47:25, 1Ki 18:5, Pro 1:13

qal participle m s construct

מֹצְאִ, כְּמוֹצֵא, מֹצְא

Gen 4:14, Pro 8:35, Psa 119:162, Gen 4:15

qal consecutive-imperfect 1cs

וָאֶמְצָא, וָאֶמְצָאֶ

Neh 7:5, Neh 7:5, Pro 7:15

qal consecutive-perfect 2mp

וּמְצָאתֶם

Jdg 14:12, 2Ch 20:16, Jer 29:13

qal imperative 2ms

מְצָא

1Sa 20:21, 1Sa 20:36, Pro 3:4

qal participle m p construct

מֹצְאֵי, מוֹצְאֵי

Pro 4:22, Pro 8:9, Jer 50:7

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיַּמְצִאוּ

Lev 9:12, Lev 9:18

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַמְצִאֵ, יַמְצִאֶ

Job 37:13, Job 34:11

hiphil participle f s absolute

כְּמוֹצְאֵת, מֹצֵאת

Sng 8:10, 2Sa 18:22

niphal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּמָּצְאוּ

1Ch 24:4, 2Ch 2:17

niphal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְנִמְצָא

Exo 21:16, Neh 13:1

niphal infinitive-construct construct

הִמָּצְא, הִמָּצֵא

Isa 55:6, Exo 22:4

niphal participle f p absolute

נִּמְצָאוֹת, נִּמְצָאֹת

Jdg 20:48, Gen 19:15

niphal participle f s absolute

נִּמְצָאָה

2Ki 19:4, Isa 37:4

25 further parsings are listed under Syntax.