Hebrew word · H4163
מוֹצָאָה
lemachara'ot
going forth
A rare feminine noun from yatsa', "going out." Its only other use is 2 Kings 10:27 (Qere), where it means a latrine, literally a "place of going out." The related masculine motsa' means a going-out, a starting point, a source (of water), an utterance, or sunrise/east.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
1) origin, place of going out from
1a) origin
1b) places of going out to or from
1b1) privy
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
- Range of meaning
A rare feminine noun from yatsa', "going out." Its only other use is 2 Kings 10:27 (Qere), where it means a latrine, literally a "place of going out." The related masculine motsa' means a going-out, a starting point, a source (of water), an utterance, or sunrise/east. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "origin, descent" for this verse.
- Against the English
KJV "goings forth" and YLT "comings forth" keep the plural and the echo of "come forth," but they are opaque in modern English. BSB and NIV "origins" give the likely sense. ESV's singular "coming forth" is smooth but loses the plural.
- How it drifted
"Goings forth" became a technical phrase in later Christian theology for the Son's eternal "generation" from the Father. That gives the KJV wording a doctrinal sound the Hebrew word does not itself carry.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint has hai exodoi autou, "his goings-out." The Targum turns the clause into "whose name was spoken from of old," in line with the rabbinic tradition that the Messiah's name was among things prepared before the world (b. Pesachim 54a).
Similar words
Where it appears
2 Kings · 1
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2 Kings 10:27 לְמֽוֹצָא֖וֹת <into> outhouses
They also demolished the sacred pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine, which it is to this day.
Micah · 1
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Micah 5:2 וּמוֹצָאֹתָ֥יו and origins his
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
Here: A rare noun from the same root as "come forth" just before it: he "goes out," and his "goings-out" go back a long way. It most likely means his origin or descent. The plural may point to a long line of ancestry, though the exact nuance is debated.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.