StrongerBible

matsah

מָצָה

HebrewH4680“drain out, wring out, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 1:15Lev 5:9Jdg 6:38Psa 73:10Psa 75:8(9)Isa 51:17Ezk 23:34
Root family
Word studymah-TSAHverb

What matsah means

to drain out to the last drop: to squeeze, wring, or swallow something until nothing is left in it.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The picture behind this verb is the last drop. Hebrew already had words for tipping a liquid out and for emptying a container: שָׁפַךְ pours, רִיק empties. This word is about what happens at the end of that, when someone presses, wrings, or swallows until there is genuinely nothing more to come.

Only seven verses use it, and they fall into three settings:

  • a priest letting a bird's blood run out against the altar until the body is empty
  • Gideon twisting his soaked fleece and squeezing a whole bowl of dew out of it
  • a person tipping a cup back and swallowing even the sludge at the bottom

The third setting is where the word does its heaviest work. Prophets and psalm writers picture God's judgment as a cup handed to a person or a nation, and this verb insists that the cup gets finished. Jerusalem does not sip the cup that makes her stagger, she drains it (Isaiah 51:17). The wicked do not merely taste the wine of God's anger, they swallow the dregs (Psalm 75:8). In Ezekiel 23:34 the woman who stands for Jerusalem is told she will drink the cup, drain it, and then gnaw on its broken pieces.

Notice that the ordinary word for drinking (שָׁתָה) usually sits right beside it in those verses. The two are not saying the same thing twice. The first says the cup was drunk. This one says it was finished.

Nuances

1aof a bird offering: to have its blood drained out against the altar until the body is empty.
TranslatabilityDirect
Lev 1:15Lev 5:9
1bto squeeze or wring liquid out of something soaked.
TranslatabilityDirect
Jdg 6:38
1cto drink a cup right down, leaving not even the dregs.
Psa 73:10Psa 75:8(9)Isa 51:17Ezk 23:34

What scholars say about matsah

The lexica agree on the sense. BDB, HALOT, and DCH give מָצָה the core value "drain out, drain," with a passive form in Leviticus 1:15, Leviticus 5:9 and Psalm 73:10 and active forms elsewhere; the Judges 6:38 occurrence is regularly glossed "squeeze out, press out." The two Leviticus texts are the technical priestly usage: a bird's blood is too small in quantity for the normal dashing or pouring rite, so it is pressed out at the wall (Leviticus 1:15) or at the base (Leviticus 5:9) of the altar, a distinction Milgrom develops in his treatment of the bird offerings. In the prophetic and psalmic texts the verb regularly stands beside שָׁתָה as its intensification: the cup is not merely drunk but emptied down to the שְׁמָרִים, the lees. Psalm 73:10 is the one genuinely difficult occurrence: the Masoretic text (וּמֵי מָלֵא יִמָּצוּ לָמוֹ) supplies no explicit noun for the vessel, and commentators divide between construing the line as it stands and emending it, with the Greek and Syriac witnesses diverging. The lexical value of the verb is not in doubt under either construal. The traditional derivation of מַצָּה, "unleavened bread," from this root or from מָצַץ (bread whose moisture has been pressed out) is an etymological proposal the standard lexica treat as uncertain.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. מצה Ilexicon
  • BDB, s.v. מצהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. מצהlexicon
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible)commentary

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

All attested forms of מָצָה

niphal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְנִמְצָה

Lev 1:15

niphal imperfect 3mp

יִמָּצוּ

Psa 73:10

niphal imperfect 3ms

יִמָּצֵה

Lev 5:9

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּמֶץ

Jdg 6:38

qal consecutive-perfect 2fs

וּמָצִית

Ezk 23:34

qal imperfect 3mp

יִמְצוּ

Psa 75:8

qal perfect 2fs

מָצִית

Isa 51:17