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# מִסְכֵּן

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H4542

**poor** — used 4 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

poor [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4542/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

מִסְכֵּן: adj. poor [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4542/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** adj. poor, only Ec. (NH id.; Aramaic id., ܡܶܣܟܶܝܢ PS2632; Arabic مِسْكِينٌ; Ethiopic ምስኪን Di382; √ dub.; usually der. from III. סכן q.v.; perhaps loan-wd.; according to JenZA iv (1889), 271 f Zimib. vii (1892), 353=Assyrian muškênu, beggar, needy one);—always abs. מ׳:—יֶלָד מ׳ וְחָכָם Ec 4:13 (opp. מֶלֶךְ זָקִן וּכְסִיל); אִישׁ מ׳ חָכָם 9:15, הָאִישׁ הַמּ׳ v 15; as subst. הַמּ׳ v 16 the poor man.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 3 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (1 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: poor (3); the poor \[person\] (1).

## In the verses

[Ecclesiastes 4:13](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.13/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.13/#tree)

ט֛וֹב יֶ֥לֶד מִסְכֵּ֖ן וְחָכָ֑ם מִמֶּ֤לֶךְ זָקֵן֙ וּכְסִ֔יל אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹא־יָדַ֥ע לְהִזָּהֵ֖ר עֽוֹד׃

*Word for word:* \[is\].good a.youth poor and wise more than.a.king old and a.fool who not he.knows to be.warned still

*JPS 1917:* Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more.

[Ecclesiastes 9:16](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.9.16/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.9.16/#tree)

וְאָמַ֣רְתִּי אָ֔נִי טוֹבָ֥ה חָכְמָ֖ה מִגְּבוּרָ֑ה וְחָכְמַ֤ת הַמִּסְכֵּן֙ בְּזוּיָ֔ה וּדְבָרָ֖יו אֵינָ֥ם נִשְׁמָעִֽים׃

*Word for word:* and I.said I \[is\].good wisdom more than.strength and the.wisdom of the.poor.\[person\] \[is\].despised and words his not they \[are\].heard

*JPS 1917:* Then said I: 'Wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.'

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/4542.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4542/): 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).