מְשֹׁל

From the study of Job 17:6

Range of meaning

The root covers comparison and saying. A māšāl is a saying built on a comparison: a proverb, a parable, a poem, and also a taunt-song or byword, where a person or nation becomes the standard example everyone points to. The rare form mešōl here (used only in this verse) belongs to that same family.

Against the English

'Byword' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB, WEB) is right, but modern 'byword' is often neutral or positive ('a byword for quality'). Young's Literal Translation's 'proverb' makes modern readers think of a wise saying. NLT's 'mockery' gets the tone but loses the idea of a repeated saying.

How it drifted

The English word 'byword' once mainly meant an object of scorn or a proverbial example of disaster, as in the KJV's Deuteronomy 28:37 and 1 Kings 9:7. In current usage it more often means 'the typical example of something', usually good.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 28:37 warns that a covenant-breaking Israel will become 'a horror, a māšāl and a taunt' among the nations. 1 Kings 9:7 says the same of a ruined temple. Psalm 44:14 (Heb. 44:15) says 'you make us a māšāl among the nations'. Jeremiah 24:9 uses the same sequence. Isaiah 14:4 calls the taunt-song against the king of Babylon a māšāl.