Hebrew word · H4242

מְחִיר

mechir

price

Meḥir means 'price, purchase-money', what is paid in a sale. Kelev means 'dog'. In the ancient Near East the dog was mainly an unclean scavenger, not a pet, and 'dog' was a standard insult (1 Sam 17:43; 2 Sam 16:9).

Appears 15 times in 15 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) price, hire

1a) price

1b) hire, reward, gain

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 Deuteronomy 23:18

Range of meaning

Meḥir means 'price, purchase-money', what is paid in a sale. Kelev means 'dog'. In the ancient Near East the dog was mainly an unclean scavenger, not a pet, and 'dog' was a standard insult (1 Sam 17:43; 2 Sam 16:9). In letters it also served as a term of self-abasement: 'who is your servant but a dog?' (2 Kgs 8:13; Lachish Letters; Amarna letters; Akkadian kalbu).

Against the English

KJV, YLT and ESV keep 'dog', so they preserve both the ambiguity and the insult. BSB ('whether female or male'), WEB and NIV ('male prostitute') resolve it, which reads an interpretation into the text as if it were certain.

How it drifted

Readers of 'price of a dog' today picture a pet or have no idea what it means. Readers of 'male prostitute' get a confident identification that the Hebrew does not actually state.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Kition tariff, a 4th-century BC Phoenician inscription from Cyprus (KAI 37), lists payments to klbm, 'dogs', among the personnel of a temple of Astarte. Many take these as some class of cult functionary. Rev 22:15 puts 'the dogs' outside the city alongside the sexually immoral. The Septuagint renders allagma kynos, 'exchange-price of a dog'. Mishnah Temurah 6:3 reads it literally as an animal received in exchange for a dog.

From the study of Proverbs 17:16

Range of meaning

Price, purchase money, payment or hire. It is the amount handed over in a transaction, not wealth as such.

Against the English

KJV and YLT keep 'a price'. BSB, WEB and most modern versions say 'money', which is accurate enough but loses the picture of payment ready in hand for a particular purchase.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Samuel 24:24: David will buy Araunah's threshing floor 'for a price' (bimḥîr) and will not offer what cost him nothing. 1 Kings 10:28 speaks of the price of horses, Proverbs 27:26 of 'the price of a field', and Lamentations 5:4 of drinking water bought 'for money'. Isaiah 55:1 makes the striking contrast: 'buy wine and milk without money and without price (məḥîr)'. Job 28:15–19 insists wisdom cannot be bought with gold.

From the study of Daniel 11:39

Range of meaning

Price, purchase money, payment, hire. It is used of buying (2 Sam 24:24; Prov 17:16; Isa 55:1 'without money and without price'), of corrupt payment (Mic 3:11), and, in negated form, to mean 'free' (Isa 45:13; Jer 15:13).

Against the English

BSB, WEB, ESV, NASB: 'for a price'. KJV 'for gain'. NLT reads it as reward, 'dividing the land among them as their reward'. 'For a price' leaves both options open. 'As their reward' chooses one.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mic 3:11: 'her priests teach for a price (bimḥîr)', which uses the exact same form, a charge of corrupt religious leaders. Isa 45:13: Cyrus will free the exiles 'not for price or reward'. Historically, 2 Macc 4:7–10, 23–24 tells how Jason and then Menelaus bought the high priesthood from Antiochus IV by outbidding each other. 1 Macc 3:36 tells how Lysias was ordered to 'settle foreigners in all their territory and distribute their land by allotment'.

Similar words

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 23:18 וּמְחִ֣יר and [the] hire of

    You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

    Here: 'And the price of.' Meḥir is usually the price paid in a sale (2 Sam 24:24; 1 Kgs 21:2), which is why some read the phrase as the money from selling a dog. Parallel with ʾetnan, it can also mean the fee a 'dog' earns.

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 24:24 בִּמְחִ֔יר for a price

    “No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

1 Kings · 2

  1. 1 Kings 10:28 בִּמְחִֽיר׃ for a price

    Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

  2. 1 Kings 21:2 מְחִ֥יר [the] price of

    So Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard to use as a vegetable garden, since it is next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place—or if you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.”

    Here: 'The price' or 'value'. In apposition: '(in) silver, the price of this', i.e. its full market value.

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 1:16 בִּמְחִֽיר׃ for a price

    Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

Job · 1

  1. Job 28:15 מְחִירָֽהּ׃ price its

    It cannot be bought with gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 44:12 בִּמְחִירֵיהֶֽם׃ by price<s> their

    You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.

Proverbs · 2

  1. Proverbs 17:16 מְחִ֣יר [is] a price

    Why should the fool have money in his hand with no intention of buying wisdom?

    Here: Not money in general but the sum paid for something: the purchase price. The fool is pictured holding the payment, ready to do business.

  2. Proverbs 27:26 וּמְחִ֥יר and [the] price of

    the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 45:13 בִמְחִיר֙ for hire

    I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for payment or reward, says the LORD of Hosts.”

    Here: 'For a price': the money paid to buy something or buy someone out. No purchase price will be paid to release the exiles. Compare 55:1, 'without money and without price.'

  2. Isaiah 55:1 מְחִ֖יר price

    “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!

    Here: The price or value paid in exchange. Silver is ruled out, and so is any other form of payment such as barter goods, labour or a promise.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 15:13 בִמְחִ֑יר for price

    Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 5:4 בִּמְחִ֥יר for a price

    We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 11:39 בִּמְחִֽיר׃ for a price

    He will attack the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him, making them rulers over many and distributing the land for a price.

    Here: 'For a price': sold for money, or handed out as payment for loyalty. Either way the land becomes a commodity in a system of patronage and bribery.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 3:11 בִּמְחִ֣יר for a price

    Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

    Here: “For a price”: the language of buying and selling. Their rulings have become goods on sale.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.