Hebrew word · H3973
מָאוֹס
uma'os
refuse
A noun that occurs only here, from the common verb maʾas, 'to reject, refuse, despise, cast off'. As a noun it means something rejected: refuse in the sense of what has been turned down and discarded.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
refuse, trash
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Lamentations 3:45
- Range of meaning
A noun that occurs only here, from the common verb maʾas, 'to reject, refuse, despise, cast off'. As a noun it means something rejected: refuse in the sense of what has been turned down and discarded.
- Against the English
'Refuse' (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) originally meant exactly 'what is refused', so it is a good match. Modern ears mostly hear 'trash', though, and lose the link to the verb 'reject'. ESV's 'garbage' goes the whole way to the trash picture.
- How it drifted
The English noun 'refuse' has narrowed to mean household waste. The Hebrew keeps its connection to the act of rejecting, and in Israel's covenant language that act is usually done by God.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The verb maʾas is used of God rejecting Saul (1 Samuel 15:23, 26) and of 'rejected silver, for the LORD has rejected them' (Jeremiah 6:30). In Leviticus 26:44 God promises that even in exile 'I will not reject them'. Lamentations ends with the same root: 'unless you have utterly rejected us' (5:22, maʾos meʾastanu).
Where it appears
Lamentations · 1
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Lamentations 3:45 וּמָא֛וֹס and refuse
You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
Here: 'And rejected stuff', from the verb maʾas, 'to reject, despise'. It is the thing turned down and thrown out. The root is the same word used for God rejecting his people, so it carries more than 'garbage'. This noun form also appears only here.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.