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# מָתֹק

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H4985

**become sweet** — used 6 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

become sweet [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4985/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

מָתֹק: vb. become be sweet, pleasant [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4985/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** vb. become or be sweet, pleasant (NH מתק, especially Pi.; Assyrian \[matâḳu\] be sweet, in deriv.; Ethiopic ምጡቅ: sweet; Aramaic ܡܬܰܩ suck (with pleasure), מְתַק id., be sweet; Arabic مطق (ط before ق) v. smack the lips (with pleasure), مَطْقَةٌ sweetness);— Pf. 3 ms. sf. מְתָקוֹ Jb 24:20; 3 pl. מָֽתְקוּ 21:33; Impf. 3 mpl. יִמְתָּ֑קוּ Pr 9:17, וַיִּמְתְּקוּ Ex 15:25;— lit. become sweet, of water (opp. מָרִים) 15:25 (J); are (i.e. taste) sweet, מַיִם גְּנוּבִים יִמ׳ Pr 9:17 (fig. of delights of illicit pleasure). = be pleasant, מָֽתְקוּ לוֹ Jb 21:33 sweet (pleasant) to him are the clods of the valley (said of one resting in the grave). suck (Aramaic sense, cf. Syriac supr.) מְתָקוֹ רִמָּה Jb 24:20 the worm doth suck him, feast on him (on vb. masc. cf. Ges§ 145, 7 KöSynt. § 345 a DaSynt. § 113(b)), Di De Buhl (cf. Kau Da; also SS who render ‘angenehm finden’), but this sense in Heb. dub.; text perhaps crpt. (cf. conject. by Bu Du). Impf. 3 fs. אִם תַּמְתִּיק בְּפִיו רָעָה Jb 20:12 if evil gives a sweet taste in his mouth (declarative Hiph.); 1 pl. אֲשֶׁר יַחְדָּו נַמְתִּיק סוֹד ψ 55:15 we who used to make sweet (our) intimacy.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 6 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (4 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 2 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (5 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: it (1); it tastes sweet (1); they are sweet (1).

## In the verses

[Proverbs 9:17](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.9.17/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.9.17/#tree)

מַֽיִם־גְּנוּבִ֥ים יִמְתָּ֑קוּ וְלֶ֖חֶם סְתָרִ֣ים יִנְעָֽם׃

*Word for word:* waters stolen they.are.sweet and bread of.secret.places it.is.pleasant

*JPS 1917:* 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.'

[Psalms 55:15](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.55.15/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.55.15/#tree)

אֲשֶׁ֣ר יַ֭חְדָּו נַמְתִּ֣יק ס֑וֹד בְּבֵ֥ית אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים נְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בְּרָֽגֶשׁ׃

*Word for word:* who together we.made.sweet counsel in the.house of.God we.walked.about in a.crowd

*JPS 1917:* We took sweet counsel together, in the house of God we walked with the throng.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/4985.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4985/): 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).