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# מַאֲכָל

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H3978

**food** — used 30 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

food [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/3978/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

מַאֲכָל: n.m. food [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/3978/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. Ju 14:14 (f. Hb 1:16) food—מ׳ Gn 2:9 + 21 textual; cstr. מַאֲכַל Gn 40:7 + 3 textual; sf. מַאֲכָֽלְךָ Ez 4:10; מַאֲכָלוֹ Hb 1:16; מַאֲכָלָהּ Pr 6:8; מַאֲכַלְכֶם Dn 1:10—food, in genl. Gn 6:21 1 K 10:5 = 2 Ch 9:4 Hg 2:12; opp. drink Ezr 3:7 2 Ch 11:11 Dn 1:10; מַאֲכַל תַּאֲוָה Jb 33:20; fig. of peoples as fishes, food for Chaldeans Hb 1:16; appl. to fruit Gn 2:9; 3:6 (of tree טוֹב לְמ׳) cf. עֵץ־מ׳ Lv 19:23 Dt 20:20 Ne 9:25 Ez 47:12(×2); appl. to דָּגָן Is 62:8 appl.; to honey Ju 14:14; to flour 1 Ch 12:40(41), appos. קֶמַח; to food of ants Pr 6:8 (‖ לָחֶם); to baker’s work Gn 40:17 cf. Ez 4:10; appl. to carcasses, as food for beasts & birds of prey Dt 28:26 ψ 79:2 cf. 44:12 (צֹאן מ׳, sim. of suffering people) Je 7:33; 16:4; 19:7; 34:20 ψ 74:14.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 29 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (2 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (1 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: food (21); of food (6); the food (3).

## In the verses

[Job 33:20](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.33.20/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.33.20/#tree)

וְזִֽהֲמַ֣תּוּ חַיָּת֣וֹ לָ֑חֶם וְ֝נַפְשׁ֗וֹ מַאֲכַ֥ל תַּאֲוָֽה׃

*Word for word:* and it loathes.it life his bread and self his food of.desire

*JPS 1917:* So that his life maketh him to abhor bread, and his soul dainty food.

[Psalms 44:12](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.44.12/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.44.12/#tree)

תִּ֭תְּנֵנוּ כְּצֹ֣אן מַאֲכָ֑ל וּ֝בַגּוֹיִ֗ם זֵרִיתָֽנוּ׃

*Word for word:* you have.made.us like sheep of.food and among the nations you have.scattered.us

*JPS 1917:* Thou hast given us like sheep to be eaten; and hast scattered us among the nations.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/3978.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/3978/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).