Hebrew word · H4204
מָזוֹר
mazor
net
Where else it occurs (Hos 5:13; Jer 30:13), the word means 'wound, sore, festering injury.' In Obad 7 the context of something 'set beneath you' by treacherous friends points to a different meaning: 'net, snare, trap' or 'ambush.' HALOT and most modern lexicons list a separate meaning (or a...
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) net, trap
1a) meaning uncertain
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
Where else it occurs (Hos 5:13; Jer 30:13), the word means 'wound, sore, festering injury.' In Obad 7 the context of something 'set beneath you' by treacherous friends points to a different meaning: 'net, snare, trap' or 'ambush.' HALOT and most modern lexicons list a separate meaning (or a separate word) for this verse, though its origin is debated.
- Against the English
KJV 'laid a wound under thee' carries over the meaning from Hosea and Jeremiah and makes little sense in English. WEB 'snare', BSB/NIV/ESV 'trap', NASB 'ambush' follow the context and the ancient versions.
- How it drifted
Not drift over time but uncertainty about a rare word. The KJV translators applied the known meaning 'wound' in a place where it fits badly.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint seems to render it 'ambush' (enedra); the Vulgate has insidias, 'snares/ambush.' Ps 69:22 (Heb. 69:23), 'let their table become a snare before them,' gives a close image of a meal turned into a trap.
Where it appears
Obadiah · 1
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Obadiah 1:7 מָזוֹר֙ a trap
All the men allied with you will drive you to the border; the men at peace with you will deceive and overpower you. Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you without your awareness of it.
Here: Elsewhere the word means 'wound' (Hos 5:13; Jer 30:13), hence the KJV. Here the context calls for something set 'under' a person, such as a net, snare or ambush, and the ancient Greek and Latin versions took it that way.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.