a saying that teaches by comparison: a proverb, parable, taunt, or oracle that holds one thing up against another to make its point
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
A mashal is not one fixed kind of speech but a family of them, all held together by a single idea: saying something by setting it beside something else. The root sense is likeness or comparison, and every use grows out of that. A short folk proverb compares two situations in a memorable line. A parable or allegory lays a whole story alongside a hidden meaning. A taunt-song lines a fallen tyrant up against the mockery he now deserves. A prophet's oracle raises ordinary speech into weighty, patterned verse. The reason English needs half a dozen words for this one Hebrew word is that English never developed a single category for it.
The common thread is that a mashal is heightened, crafted speech that carries more than it says on the surface. It is meant to be pondered, quoted, or decoded, not merely heard and forgotten. That is why the same word covers a one-line saying and a long poetic discourse: both work by representation, making the hearer see one thing in the shape of another.
Because the senses shade into one another, translators pick the English word that fits each context, and the choice is often a judgment call. What never changes is the underlying move: a mashal points beyond itself.
usually names crafted, deliberate speech, where byword narrows it to the single case of a person made into an object of scornPro 25:1
Both
both can name a saying that fixes someone in the public mouth as a warning exampleDeu 28:37
Only byword
byword carries only the note of disgrace and mockery, missing the wisdom, teaching, and prophetic uses
How mashal differs from similar Hebrew words
חִידָהa riddle or puzzle meant to be solved, where a mashal is a comparison meant to be pondered; the two are often paired, since a mashal can pose a puzzle and a riddle can carry a lesson
Names something deliberately puzzling that must be solved, a hidden meaning posed as a challenge to figure out.Jdg 14:12Jdg 14:14
Used for how God speaks plainly to Moses rather than in obscure hints, so the word carries the sense of something veiled and hard to read.Num 12:8
Points to hard questions brought to test another's wisdom, and to a ruler skilled at cracking difficult sayings.1Ki 10:1Dan 8:23
מְלִיצָהan enigmatic or figurative expression whose point is its cleverness or obscurity, where a mashal foregrounds the comparison that carries the meaning
Covers a whole spread of comparison-sayings, from the short folk saying to the extended parable and the visionary oracle. It is the ordinary, everyday word for this kind of speech, not reserved for the obscure or the cutting.1Sa 10:12Num 23:7Ezk 17:2
Serves as the standard label for a collection of teaching sayings, the wisdom that fathers pass to sons. Whole books and chapters carry the name.Pro 1:1Pro 10:11Ki 4:32
Both
Both name a crafted saying that works by holding one thing up against another rather than speaking plainly, so the two stand side by side as companion words for the sayings of the wise.Pro 1:6
Both can turn on a fallen oppressor as a saying of scorn, the mocking verse a defeated tyrant provokes against himself.Hab 2:6
Names the puzzling, indirect quality of a saying: the enigma or hidden barb that has to be teased out. In the wise man's toolkit it sits alongside riddles as the kind of coded speech a reader must learn to decipher.Pro 1:6
Points to a saying's mocking, taunting edge. When the nations lift one of these against a fallen tyrant, it is a jeer aimed at bringing him down, not a lesson meant to instruct.Hab 2:6
מָשָׁלMashal is a biblical name written exactly like מָשָׁל, the common Hebrew word grouped here.
mashal in the other biblical languages
παραβολήGreek“parable”the standard Greek word the Septuagint uses to render this one; it centers on the parable as a comparison-story, one slice of this word's wider range
It names the taunt or byword of scorn that a fallen people becomes: Israel is to become a byword and an object of mockery among the nations, the thing people point to and jeer at. The Greek word is never used for being made a public reproach.Deu 28:371Ki 9:7Jer 24:9
It can be a full prophetic oracle that a speaker solemnly takes up and pronounces, not a short saying: Balaam lifts up his oracle over Israel, and Job resumes his discourse. This sustained, lifted-up poetic speech has no parallel in the Greek word.Num 23:7Job 27:1
It can be the dark, riddling saying meant to puzzle, regularly paired with the Hebrew word for riddle: Ezekiel is told to put forth a riddle and speak a mashal, and the psalmist opens his mouth in a mashal to utter dark sayings of old. The Greek word does not carry this deliberately enigmatic edge.Ezk 17:2Psa 78:2
Both
Both can be the short pithy proverb, the compressed wisdom saying everyone quotes. The Hebrew word heads Solomon's proverbs and names the ancient saying David cites; the Greek word covers the terse saying physician, heal yourself.1Sa 24:13Pro 1:1Luk 4:23
Both name figurative speech that has to be interpreted, set over against speaking plainly. The Greek word is the standard rendering of the Hebrew one: Ezekiel speaks a mashal to the house of Israel, and Jesus spoke to the crowds only in parables, reaching for a likeness when plain words would not do.Ezk 17:2Mrk 4:30Mat 13:34
In the Gospels it is almost always the story Jesus tells: an invented everyday scene (a farmer sowing, tenants in a vineyard, a budding fig tree) laid alongside the kingdom of God to teach it. This narrative comparison is the New Testament's home sense and is not what the Hebrew word usually does.Mat 13:3Mrk 12:1Luk 8:11
Hebrews stretches it to mean a symbol or foreshadowing: one thing standing for another, where the earthly object points to a spiritual reality. The tabernacle is called a parable of the present age, and Abraham received Isaac back as a parable of resurrection.Heb 9:9Heb 11:19
παροιμίαGreek“proverb”the Greek word for a proverb or veiled figure of speech; it captures the short-saying and riddling ends of this word's range more than the oracle or taunt-song ends
It reaches far beyond a short saying to cover a whole poetic oracle, the weighty patterned discourse a prophet pronounces over a people.Num 23:7Num 24:3
It names a taunt-song, a mocking poem raised against a fallen ruler, holding him up to the scorn he now deserves.Isa 14:4Hab 2:6
It can mean a byword, a nation made into an object lesson and a warning that others quote in contempt.Deu 28:371Ki 9:7
It covers the extended parable or riddle, a whole comparison laid out to be pondered and decoded, as when a prophet is told to speak one to the house of Israel.Ezk 17:2Psa 78:2
Both
Both are the standard word for a short, pointed popular saying, the kind of pithy line people quote to sum up a situation. The Hebrew word titles the book of collected sayings, and the Greek word names the folk saying about a dog returning to its vomit.Pro 1:11Sa 24:132Pe 2:22
In John it names a veiled saying whose meaning is hidden until it is unpacked, set against plain speaking. Jesus tells his followers that a time is coming when he will no longer talk to them this obscure way but tell them openly, and they answer that now he is speaking plainly and using no such saying.Jhn 16:25Jhn 16:29
It can label a figure of speech that its hearers simply fail to grasp: John notes that the crowd did not understand the picture Jesus was drawing when he spoke of the shepherd and the sheep.Jhn 10:6
What scholars say about mashal
The lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat mashal as a single polysemous noun rather than as homonyms, deriving it from the root idea of likeness or comparison and grouping its uses as proverbial sentence, byword, prophetic figurative discourse or oracle, similitude or parable, and poem of derision. TDOT and the standard monograph literature (A.R. Johnson; McKane, Proverbs) trace how one term spans the popular proverb, the wisdom collection, the Balaam oracles, the prophetic taunt (Isaiah 14; Micah 2; Habakkuk 2), and the allegories of Ezekiel. A long-standing debate concerns whether the noun derives from the verb meaning to be like or compare, or is connected to the homonymous verb meaning to rule, which would tie the mashal to the idea of authoritative or powerful words; most recent lexicography favors the comparison etymology while noting the second remains defended.
Where scholars disagree about mashal
Whether the noun derives from the verb meaning to be like or compare, or from the homonymous verb meaning to rule (which would make a mashal a word of power or authority).
majorityIt derives from the sense of likeness or comparison, so a mashal is fundamentally a comparison; this is the mainstream lexical position.; HALOT, s.v. מָשָׁל II; K.-M. Beyse, "מָשָׁל," TDOT 9:64-67
minorityIt is connected to the sense of ruling or power, so a mashal is a word of authority or a potent, effective utterance.; A. R. Johnson, "מָשָׁל," in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East (VTSup 3, 1955), 162-169