Hebrew word · H4660
מַפָּץ
mapatzo
shattering
Mappats comes from the root n-p-ts, 'to shatter, smash, dash to pieces', used of smashing pottery (Jer 13:14; Ps 2:9) and of shattering nations. A mappats / mappets is a smashing implement: a war club, mace or battle-hammer. Keli is a broad word for an implement, vessel or weapon.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
shattering (of type of weapon)
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
Mappats comes from the root n-p-ts, 'to shatter, smash, dash to pieces', used of smashing pottery (Jer 13:14; Ps 2:9) and of shattering nations. A mappats / mappets is a smashing implement: a war club, mace or battle-hammer. Keli is a broad word for an implement, vessel or weapon.
- Against the English
KJV, WEB and YLT have 'slaughter weapon' and BSB has 'weapon of slaughter'. Some modern versions say 'deadly weapon'. 'Shattering weapon' is closest to the word itself. 'Slaughter' gets the result right but loses the picture of smashing.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Jeremiah 51:20 has the same word: 'You are my war club (mappets), my weapon of battle; with you I shatter nations.' There Babylon is God's smashing tool. Verse 1 of this chapter has the parallel phrase keli mashchet, 'weapon of destruction'. The Septuagint renders it pelyx, 'axe'.
Where it appears
Ezekiel · 1
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Ezekiel 9:2 מַפָּצוֹ֙ shattering his
And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a weapon of slaughter in his hand. With them was another man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Here: 'His shattering', from a verb meaning to smash to pieces: a crushing weapon such as a war club, mace or heavy axe. Verse 1 calls it a 'weapon of destruction'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.