Hebrew word · H4566
מַעְבָּד
ma'badeihem
work
'Work, deed, act.' The noun is formed from the root ʿbd, 'to work, serve, do'. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
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
'Work, deed, act.' The noun is formed from the root ʿbd, 'to work, serve, do'. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.
- Against the English
All the major versions render it 'works' or 'deeds'. Nothing in the English misleads here.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Aramaic equivalent appears in Daniel 4:37 (Aramaic 4:34), where Nebuchadnezzar praises God, 'all whose works are truth'. The word is common in later Aramaic. Job's poetry contains a number of these Aramaic-colored words. They are one reason scholars debate the book's date and the dialect of its poet, and of the Elihu speeches in particular.
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 34:25 מַעְבָּֽדֵיהֶ֑ם deeds their
Therefore, He recognizes their deeds; He overthrows them in the night and they are crushed.
Here: 'Their deeds', meaning the conduct of the powerful men of verse 24. The word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is an Aramaic-flavored word, matching the Aramaic of Daniel 4:37 ('his works').
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.