Hebrew word · H4530

מִסַּת

misat

payment

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The main lexicons (BDB, HALOT) explain it from the Aramaic noun missat / mesat, "sufficiency, what is enough, adequate amount," which is common in later Aramaic.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) sufficient, sufficiency

1a) sufficiency, enough

1b) full amount or proportion (affordable)

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 16:10

Range of meaning

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The main lexicons (BDB, HALOT) explain it from the Aramaic noun missat / mesat, "sufficiency, what is enough, adequate amount," which is common in later Aramaic. The sense would be "the measure / amount fitting to." An older guess linked it with Hebrew mas, "forced labor, levy, tribute." That is the source of "tribute" in the KJV tradition.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, YLT (and ESV, NASB) say "a tribute of a freewill offering." BSB and NIV say "in proportion to." JPS-type renderings drop the word and leave "according as the LORD has blessed you" to carry the idea.

How it drifted

"Tribute" goes back to the medieval and Reformation-era link with mas (levy). Today "tribute" suggests either a tax paid to an overlord or a sentimental homage. Neither fits a word meaning "sufficient amount," and "compulsory tax" clashes with the next word, "freewill."

Used elsewhere in the period

The ancient translators were already unsure. The Septuagint renders the sense, roughly "as your hand is able," which treats the word as "capacity / sufficiency." The Vulgate omits it (oblationem spontaneam manus tuae). Aramaic missat "sufficiency" is well attested in the Targums and in rabbinic Aramaic.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 16:10 מִסַּ֛ת a sufficiency of

    And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Comparison with Aramaic suggests "the amount that is enough, the due measure." Your gift is to match what you have. It is not a fixed tax (see the study below on "tribute").

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