Hebrew word · H4959

מָשַׁשׁ

mishashta

to feel

To touch, feel, handle. In the Qal (the basic form) it means touching to identify something (Isaac feeling Jacob, Gen 27:12, 21–22). The Hiphil (a causative form) is used of darkness so thick it 'can be felt' (Exod 10:21).

Appears 9 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to feel, grope

1a) (Qal) to feel, grope

1b) (Piel) to feel over or through, grope

1b1) to feel through

1b2) to grope

1c)(Hiphil) to feel

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 Deuteronomy 28:29

Range of meaning

To touch, feel, handle. In the Qal (the basic form) it means touching to identify something (Isaac feeling Jacob, Gen 27:12, 21–22). In the Piel (an intensive form) it means feeling about, searching by touch or rummaging (Laban, Gen 31:34, 37), and groping because you cannot see (here; Job 5:14; 12:25). The Hiphil (a causative form) is used of darkness so thick it 'can be felt' (Exod 10:21).

Against the English

'Grope' is an accurate English rendering. What English can lose is the repetition. Hebrew says the same verb twice ('you will be groping … as the blind man gropes'), so the hearer is made identical to the blind man, not just compared to him.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 5:14 is a close parallel: the crafty 'meet darkness in the daytime and grope at noon as in the night'. Isaiah 59:10 echoes it in a confession of national guilt: 'we grope for the wall like the blind… we stumble at noon as in twilight'. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) uses psēlaphaō, 'feel about', the same verb used of the darkness in Exodus 10:21 LXX.

From the study of Exodus 10:21

Range of meaning

The root māšaš (with related forms mûš / yāmaš) means 'to touch, feel, handle,' and especially 'to grope, fumble about' as a blind person does. Examples: Isaac feeling Jacob's arms (Gen 27:12, 21–22); Laban searching through Jacob's tents (Gen 31:34, 37); Samson asking to feel the pillars (Judg 16:26). The form here is the causative stem (Hebrew 'Hiphil'), which can mean 'cause to feel' or, used without an object, simply 'feel, grope.'

Against the English

KJV, WEB, ESV, NASB and NIV turn it into a passive description: darkness 'which may be felt.' BSB uses the adjective 'palpable.' YLT keeps a separate clause: 'and the darkness is felt.' NLT makes it an image of thickness ('so thick you can feel it'). Most English versions describe the darkness itself. The Hebrew can just as well describe people groping in it.

Used elsewhere in the period

Close parallels: Deuteronomy 28:29, a covenant curse: 'you shall grope (məmashshēsh) at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness.' Job 12:25: 'they grope in darkness (yəmashshû-ḥōshekh) without light.' Job 5:14: 'they grope at noonday as in the night.' The Greek Septuagint renders it psēlaphēton skotos, 'darkness that can be touched.' The Latin Vulgate has 'so thick that they can be felt.' Targum Onkelos (the Aramaic paraphrase) and Rashi derived it differently (see Debates).

From the study of Genesis 27:22

Range of meaning

To feel, touch or grope with the hands, especially to explore or check something one cannot see. The basic form (used here) means 'feel, touch'. An intensive form means 'grope, search through' (Gen 31:34, 37; Deut 28:29; Job 5:14; 12:25). A causative form means 'let feel' (Judg 16:26) or 'cause to be felt' (darkness 'that can be felt', Exod 10:21).

Against the English

BSB and NLT have 'touched', which is accurate but light. KJV and WEB have 'felt', which is closer. The Hebrew has the sense of inspecting by hand, an investigation rather than a caress.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 28:29 is the classic picture: 'you will grope at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness.' In Gen 31:34–37 Laban 'felt through' (searched) Jacob's whole tent for his stolen gods and found nothing, because Rachel was deceiving him. The same Jacob who survived his father's searching hands is later searched by Laban. The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) translates it here with psēlaphaō, the verb later used in Luke 24:39 ('handle me and see') and 1 John 1:1.

Where it appears

Genesis · 4

  1. Genesis 27:12 יְמֻשֵּׁ֙נִי֙ he will feel me

    What if my father touches me? Then I would be revealed to him as a deceiver, and I would bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”

  2. Genesis 27:22 וַיְמֻשֵּׁ֑הוּ and he felt him

    So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

    Here: Isaac runs his hands over Jacob, the searching touch of someone who cannot see. It is the very thing Jacob had dreaded in 27:12 ('perhaps my father will feel me').

  3. Genesis 31:34 וַיְמַשֵּׁ֥שׁ and he searched

    Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.

  4. Genesis 31:37 מִשַּׁ֣שְׁתָּ you have searched

    You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 10:21 וְיָמֵ֖שׁ so they may feel

    Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.”

    Here: The hardest word in the verse. It is most likely from a root meaning 'to feel, touch, grope.' The sense is either that the darkness is thick enough to be felt, or that people will grope their way through it like the blind. Ancient interpreters also offered other derivations (see Debates).

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 28:29 מְמַשֵּׁ֣שׁ יְמַשֵּׁ֤שׁ groping, he gropes

    and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

    Here: Feeling your way with your hands because you cannot see. This verb form (Piel) means repeated, searching touching, the way Laban felt through Jacob's tent for his stolen idols (Gen 31:34).

Job · 2

  1. Job 5:14 יְֽמַשְׁשׁ֥וּ they grope

    They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.

  2. Job 12:25 יְמַֽשְׁשׁוּ־ they grope

    They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.

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