Hebrew word · H4856

מַשֹּׂא

umaso'

respect

Literally 'lifting of face'. The idiom nasaʾ panim pictures someone bowed low before a superior. The superior 'lifts his face', meaning he receives him and grants the request. In ordinary settings it can be good: to accept someone or show them favour (Genesis 19:21; 32:20; Job 42:8–9).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) a lifting up

1a) partiality (in construct)

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 2 Chronicles 19:7

Range of meaning

Literally 'lifting of face'. The idiom nasaʾ panim pictures someone bowed low before a superior. The superior 'lifts his face', meaning he receives him and grants the request. In ordinary settings it can be good: to accept someone or show them favour (Genesis 19:21; 32:20; Job 42:8–9). In a court it means partiality: treating a party better because of status, kinship or influence (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17 uses the related hikkir panim, 'recognise faces').

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'respect of persons' is literal in its own day but misleading now. To modern ears 'respecting persons' sounds like a virtue. YLT 'acceptance of faces' keeps the picture. BSB, NIV and ESV 'partiality' give the right sense but lose the image of the face.

How it drifted

In 1611 'respect' meant 'regard, taking into account', so 'respect of persons' meant letting who someone is shape your judgment. 'Respect' has since come to mean esteem, which reverses how the phrase sounds.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 10:17 is the source of the whole clause: God 'does not lift faces and does not take a bribe' (lo-yissaʾ panim velo yiqqaḥ shoḥad). The LXX regularly renders the idiom with prosōpon, 'face'. This leads to the New Testament word prosōpolēmpsia, 'face-receiving' (Romans 2:11: 'there is no partiality with God'; also Acts 10:34; James 2:1).

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 19:7 וּמַשֹּׂ֥א and lifting up of

    And now, may the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

    Here: 'And lifting up of.' The noun comes from nasaʾ, 'to lift', and only occurs here. It sets up the idiom 'lifting the face'.

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