Hebrew word · H4693

מָצוֹר

matzor

Egypt

Two words share the same sound: (1) matsor, 'siege, siege-works, fortification, stronghold' (H4692; e.g. Deut 20:19–20; Mic 5:1 [Eng. 5:1/4:14]); (2) Matsor, a rare poetic name for Egypt (H4693), related to Hebrew Mitsrayim and to Assyrian Muṣur/Muṣri.

Appears 5 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.

What it means

"Matsor", a name for Egypt

Another spelling of mits.ra.yim (מִצְרַ֫יִם "Egypt" H4714G)

This name means siege, entrenchment

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 Micah 7:12

Range of meaning

Two words share the same sound: (1) matsor, 'siege, siege-works, fortification, stronghold' (H4692; e.g. Deut 20:19–20; Mic 5:1 [Eng. 5:1/4:14]); (2) Matsor, a rare poetic name for Egypt (H4693), related to Hebrew Mitsrayim and to Assyrian Muṣur/Muṣri.

Against the English

Modern versions (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV, NASB) read 'Egypt' both times. KJV reads 'fortified cities' and 'the fortress', and YLT has 'cities of the fortress' and 'the fortress'. Those renderings follow the common noun and lose the place name.

How it drifted

The KJV follows the Latin Vulgate ('civitates munitas', 'fortified cities'), which took the word as the common noun. Later scholars recognised the place name from parallel passages.

Used elsewhere in the period

Matsor as Egypt also appears in Isa 19:6 and in Sennacherib's boast, 'I dried up all the streams of Matsor' (2 Kgs 19:24 = Isa 37:25), where it can only mean the Nile channels of Egypt. Assyrian royal inscriptions call Egypt Muṣur. Ancient translators wavered: the Septuagint seems to render one occurrence as 'fortified' and the other as Tyre (reading tsor), and the Vulgate has 'fortified cities' throughout.

Similar words

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 19:24 מָצֽוֹר׃ Egypt

    I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 19:6 מָצ֑וֹר Egypt

    The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

  2. Isaiah 37:25 מָצֽוֹר׃ Egypt

    I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

Micah · 2

  1. Micah 7:12 מָצ֑וֹר מָצוֹר֙ Egypt

    On that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

    Here: A rare poetic name for Egypt, close to Assyrian 'Muṣur'. It sounds exactly like the common word matsor, 'siege, fortification'. The likely pun is Egypt as 'the Fortress', the great stronghold the Israelites leaned on.

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