Hebrew word · H4613

מׇעֳמָ֑ד

mo'omad

foothold

A place or ground for standing, a foothold. It is formed from עָמַד ('amad), 'to stand'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

foothold, standing ground

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 Psalm 69:2

Range of meaning

A place or ground for standing, a foothold. It is formed from עָמַד ('amad), 'to stand'.

Against the English

'Foothold' (WEB, BSB's 'footing', ESV, NIV) is exact. KJV's 'no standing' was a clear rendering in its day, but it can now sound like legal or social standing.

How it drifted

'Standing' in modern English has gathered the sense of status or legal right, which the Hebrew word does not have here.

Used elsewhere in the period

It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning rests on its obvious root and on this context. The Septuagint's ὑπόστασις (hypostasis), literally 'what stands underneath', and the Hebrew phrase in Psalm 26:12 ('my foot stands on level ground') support the sense. Compare Psalm 40:2, where God sets the feet on rock and makes the steps secure.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 69:2 מָעֳמָ֑ד [is] a foothold

    I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.

    Here: A place where feet can stand, from the common verb 'to stand'. This is the only place the word occurs in the Hebrew Bible, and it names exactly what the mud has taken away.

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