Hebrew word · H4351

מְכֹרָה

mekhorotayikh

origin

'Origin, extraction, place of origin.' It occurs only three times, all in Ezekiel: 16:3; 21:30 [Heb 21:35], of the Ammonites' 'land of your origin'; and 29:14, of Egypt's 'land of their origin'. Where it comes from is uncertain. Others suggest 'cut' or 'trade', or a loanword.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

origin

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 Ezekiel 16:3

Range of meaning

'Origin, extraction, place of origin.' It occurs only three times, all in Ezekiel: 16:3; 21:30 [Heb 21:35], of the Ammonites' 'land of your origin'; and 29:14, of Egypt's 'land of their origin'. Where it comes from is uncertain. Many link it to a root meaning 'dig' or 'hollow out', which would give 'the pit or quarry you were dug from'. Others suggest 'cut' or 'trade', or a loanword. Every time it appears it refers to a people's native land and stock.

Against the English

'Origin' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NASB), 'ancestry' (NIV), 'birth' (KJV, which then uses 'nativity' for the next word). All are accurate in sense. None of them keeps the possible picture of being quarried or dug out of a place.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the early Greek translation) and the Vulgate (the Latin Bible) both render it 'root' (Greek rhiza, Latin radix), so ancient translators took it as 'source, stock'. If the 'dig' derivation is right, compare Isaiah 51:1–2: 'the rock from which you were hewn and the quarry from which you were dug', which is said of Abraham and Sarah. Ezekiel's line would then be a bitter reversal: Jerusalem's quarry is Canaan, not Abraham.

From the study of Ezekiel 29:14

Range of meaning

Origin, descent, ancestral homeland. It appears only in Ezekiel: 16:3 ('your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanite'), 21:30 in English Bibles (21:35 in Hebrew) about Ammon's homeland, and here. Where the word comes from is uncertain. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'origin'.

Against the English

KJV 'habitation' reflects an older guess at the word's root, 'dwelling-place'. WEB and YLT 'birth', ESV, NASB and BSB 'origin', and NIV 'ancestry' match how Ezekiel uses the word elsewhere.

How it drifted

KJV's 'habitation' is a guess based on the root rather than drift over time. Readers of the KJV would simply take it as 'where they lived'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel's other two uses pair the word with moledet, 'birth/kindred', and both are about where a people ultimately came from. This confirms the sense 'origin'.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 3

  1. Ezekiel 16:3 מְכֹרֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ origins your

    and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

    Here: 'Your origins,' meaning your roots or source. The word is rare, found only in Ezekiel, and probably carries the picture of where something was dug or hewn from. The plural covers the whole of her background.

  2. Ezekiel 21:30 מְכֻרוֹתַ֖יִךְ origins your

    Return the sword to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

  3. Ezekiel 29:14 מְכֽוּרָתָ֑ם origin their

    I will restore Egypt from captivity and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. There they will be a lowly kingdom.

    Here: A rare word that only Ezekiel uses (also 16:3; 21:30/35). It means where a people comes from: their ancestral homeland. Egypt is sent back to the place it started from.

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