Hebrew word · H4678
מַצֶּבֶת
matzevet
pillar
Something set up or left standing. The closely related maṣṣēbâ is an upright standing stone, used as a memorial or (often condemned) cult object. Here it means the standing stump of a felled tree.
Appears 6 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) pillar, mastaba, stump
1a) pillar
1a1) as monument, personal memorial
1a2) with an altar
1b) (Hoph) stock, stump (of tree)
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
Something set up or left standing. The closely related maṣṣēbâ is an upright standing stone, used as a memorial or (often condemned) cult object. Here it means the standing stump of a felled tree.
- Against the English
Modern versions say "stump". The KJV says "substance", which in 1611 meant something like the solid stock or core of the tree, and modern readers misunderstand it.
- How it drifted
KJV "substance" has drifted. Today it suggests material or essence in the abstract, not the living stump of a tree.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The two words maṣṣebet and maṣṣēbâ are near-twins. The related verb nāṣab, "to stand", is common. Isaiah 1:29–30 condemns sacred oaks and pictures the people as "a terebinth whose leaf withers". Hos 4:13 links worship "under oak and terebinth".
From the study of 2 Samuel 18:18
- Range of meaning
From natsav, 'to stand': 'a thing made to stand'. It means an upright stone, often rough or lightly dressed. It could mark a covenant (Gen 31:45), a meeting with God (Gen 28:18), a grave (Gen 35:20), or serve as a cult stone at a shrine. The cult use was later banned (Deut 16:22) and condemned (2 Kgs 18:4). The rare form matsevet appears only in Genesis 35 and here.
- Against the English
'Pillar' (BSB, KJV, WEB) suggests a tall architectural column. YLT's 'standing-pillar' is closer. 'Stela' or 'standing stone' is the most accurate.
- How it drifted
In modern English, 'pillar' mostly means a structural column holding something up. The Hebrew word means a free-standing stone that holds up nothing and is there to be seen and remembered.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Standing stones (massebot) are found widely in Iron Age Israel and Judah, for example at Arad, Hazor and Tel Dan. The Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat lists among the ideal son's duties to 'set up the stela (skn) of his father's god' (KTU 1.17 I 26-27). That links standing stones, sons and memory of the dead. The Septuagint (LXX) translates the word as stēlē.
Similar words
Where it appears
Genesis · 2
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Genesis 35:14 מַצֶּ֣בֶת a pillar of
So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.
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Genesis 35:20 מַצֶּ֥בֶת [is] [the] pillar of
Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel’s tomb to this day.
2 Samuel · 2
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2 Samuel 18:18 מַצֶּ֙בֶת֙ לַמַּצֶּ֙בֶת֙ a pillar, <to> the pillar
During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
Here: An upright stone slab (a stela) set up to mark a person, place or event. This is not a built column. The rare form matsevet is also used of the stone Jacob set over Rachel's grave (Gen 35:20).
Isaiah · 2
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Isaiah 6:13 מַצֶּ֣בֶת מַצַּבְתָּֽהּ׃ פ a stump, stump its
And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”
Here: "A stump": literally "what stands". It comes from the verb "to stand" and is closely related to maṣṣēbâ, the upright standing stone of shrines. Here it means the stump that remains standing after the trunk falls.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.