Hebrew word · H4387
מִכְתָּם
mikhtam
Miktam
A genre or performance label in psalm headings (Psalm 16; 56–60). Its meaning was already lost to ancient translators.
Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
michtam
a technical term found in psalm titles
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
A genre or performance label in psalm headings (Psalm 16; 56–60). Its meaning was already lost to ancient translators.
- Against the English
BSB and ESV transliterate it ('Miktam'), KJV has 'Michtam', WEB guesses 'Poem', and YLT translates 'A Secret Treasure', linking it to ketem, 'fine gold'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint has stēlographia, 'inscription on a stone slab', and the Latin Vulgate (from the Greek) tituli inscriptio. The Aramaic Targum paraphrases it as 'an upright engraving'. Medieval Jewish interpreters linked it to ketem, 'gold', giving 'golden psalm'. Some modern scholars connect it to Akkadian katāmu, 'to cover', and take it as a psalm of covering or atonement.
Similar words
Where it appears
Psalms · 6
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.