Hebrew word · H4295

מַ֫טָּה

matah

beneath

Below, beneath, downward. With lamed (le-mattah) it means 'to below, downward' (e.g. Deut 28:43, 'you will go down lower and lower'; Eccl 3:21).

Appears 19 times in 18 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) downwards, below

1a) downwards

1b) under (of age)

1c) beneath

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 Ezra 9:13

Range of meaning

Below, beneath, downward. With lamed (le-mattah) it means 'to below, downward' (e.g. Deut 28:43, 'you will go down lower and lower'; Eccl 3:21).

Against the English

Most versions absorb it into 'less than'. YLT renders it 'rod', reading it as a different noun.

Used elsewhere in the period

Common as an adverb. The construction 'held back to below from X', meaning 'held below the level of X', is found nowhere else, so the phrase is a little unusual.

From the study of Isaiah 37:31

Range of meaning

"Downward … upward." Used together for a plant, "root below / fruit above" is a fixed pair of opposites standing for the whole living organism and its future.

Against the English

English versions translate it correctly. A reader cannot tell from them that this is a stock formula, and in its other uses usually a curse.

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 2:9: God "destroyed his fruit above and his roots below" (the Amorites). Job 18:16: "his roots dry up below, and his branch withers above." Hosea 9:16; Malachi 4:1 ("neither root nor branch"). In the Phoenician sarcophagus inscription of King Eshmunazar II of Sidon (about the 5th century BC, KAI 14), the same Semitic words appear in a curse on tomb robbers: may they have "no root below and no fruit above."

Where it appears

Exodus · 6

  1. Exodus 26:24 מִלְּמַטָּה֒ from to downwards

    coupled together from bottom to top and fitted into a single ring. These will serve as the two corners.

  2. Exodus 27:5 מִלְּמָ֑טָּה from to downwards

    Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.

  3. Exodus 28:27 מִלְּמַ֙טָּה֙ from to downwards

    Make two additional gold rings and attach them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, on its front, near its seam just above its woven waistband.

  4. Exodus 36:29 מִלְּמַטָּה֒ from to downwards

    coupled together from bottom to top and fitted into a single ring. He made both corners in this way.

  5. Exodus 38:4 מִלְּמַ֖טָּה from to downwards

    He made a grate of bronze mesh for the altar under its ledge, halfway up from the bottom.

  6. Exodus 39:20 מִלְמַ֙טָּה֙ from to downwards

    They made two additional gold rings and attached them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, on its front, near the seam just above its woven waistband.

Deuteronomy · 3

  1. Deuteronomy 28:13 לְמָ֑טָּה <to> downwards

    The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today.

  2. Deuteronomy 28:43 מַ֥טָּה מָּֽטָּה׃ downwards

    The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 19:30 לְמָ֑טָּה <to> downwards

    And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 27:23 וּלְמָ֑טָּה and <to> downwards

    David did not count the men aged twenty or under, because the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky.

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 32:30 לְמַֽטָּה־ <to> downwards

    It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 9:13 לְמַ֙טָּה֙ <to> downwards

    After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

    Here: 'To below', an adverb. With the next word it makes a measuring phrase: God held the punishment down beneath the level the iniquity reached.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 15:24 מָֽטָּה׃ beneath

    The path of life leads upward for the wise, that he may avoid going down to Sheol.

    Here: 'Below.' It matches 'upward' earlier in the verse and finishes the picture: life is up, Sheol is down.

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:21 לְמַ֥טָּה <to> downwards

    Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 37:31 לְמָ֑טָּה <to> downwards

    And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.

    Here: "Downward." It is the first half of the pair "below…above" that describes a plant's whole life, from the hidden roots to the visible crop.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 31:37 לְמָ֑טָּה <to> downwards

    This is what the LORD says: “Only if the heavens above could be measured and the foundations of the earth below searched out would I reject all of Israel’s descendants because of all they have done,” declares the LORD.

    Here: 'Down below': matches 'above'. Highest height and lowest depth together stand for the whole created world.

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 1:27 וּלְמַ֔טָּה and <to> downwards

    From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire within it all around. And from what seemed to be His waist down, I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him.

  2. Ezekiel 8:2 וּלְמַ֖טָּה and <to> downwards

    Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber.

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