Hebrew word · H4966

מָתוֹק

matok

sweet

Sweet to the taste (honey, Judges 14:18; Psalm 19:10). From there: pleasant, delightful, agreeable. Used of sleep (Ecclesiastes 5:12), friendship and counsel (Proverbs 27:7, 9), stolen water (Proverbs 9:17), and God's words (Psalm 119:103).

Appears 12 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

adj

1) sweet

n m

2) sweetness, pleasant (thing)

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 Ecclesiastes 11:7

Range of meaning

Sweet to the taste (honey, Judges 14:18; Psalm 19:10). From there: pleasant, delightful, agreeable. Used of sleep (Ecclesiastes 5:12), friendship and counsel (Proverbs 27:7, 9), stolen water (Proverbs 9:17), and God's words (Psalm 119:103).

Against the English

'Sweet' (BSB, KJV, WEB, YLT, ESV, NIV) keeps the taste image. Versions that say 'pleasant' lose the physical, almost edible feel of the word, and they blur the shift from taste (line one) to sight (line two).

Used elsewhere in the period

Ecclesiastes uses it once more, in 5:12, 'sweet is the sleep of the laborer.' That is another of Qoheleth's small, bodily goods. The Septuagint translates it γλυκύ (glyky, 'sweet') and the Vulgate dulce, both keeping the taste image.

From the study of Proverbs 24:13

Range of meaning

Sweet to taste. Used figuratively for anything pleasant or delightful: words (Prov 16:24), sleep (Eccl 5:12), light (Eccl 11:7), even stolen water (Prov 9:17).

Against the English

Matches English "sweet" well. There is no real drift.

Used elsewhere in the period

Samson's riddle: "What is sweeter than honey?" (Judg 14:18). Prov 16:24: "pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Ps 119:103: "How sweet are your words to my palate." Ezekiel's scroll tastes "as sweet as honey" (Ezek 3:3).

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 14:14 מָת֑וֹק a sweet [thing]

    So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” For three days they were unable to explain the riddle.

  2. Judges 14:18 מָּת֣וֹק [is] sweet

    Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” So he said to them: “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 19:10 וּמְתוּקִ֥ים and sweet

    They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

    Here: 'And sweet ones,' plural to match 'the ones desirable.' The comparison moves from wealth to taste: from what you would want to own to what you enjoy in your mouth.

Proverbs · 3

  1. Proverbs 16:24 מָת֥וֹק a sweet [thing]

    Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

    Here: Sweet to the taste. It carries the honey picture on: these words taste good, and their sweetness is pleasure and also nourishment.

  2. Proverbs 24:13 מָ֝ת֗וֹק [is] sweet

    Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

    Here: Sweet to the taste. Its parallel with "good" sets up the key word for v.14, which in Hebrew reads "so know wisdom for your soul", the sweetness carried over by the comparison.

  3. Proverbs 27:7 מָתֽוֹק׃ [is] sweet

    The soul that is full loathes honey, but to a hungry soul, any bitter thing is sweet.

    Here: Sweet, pleasant to taste. There is no verb in the line: 'every bitter thing, sweet'. The hungry person simply finds it so, and the verse ends on the word that turns the honey of line one on its head.

Ecclesiastes · 2

  1. Ecclesiastes 5:12 מְתוּקָה֙ [is] sweet

    The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep.

  2. Ecclesiastes 11:7 וּמָת֖וֹק and [is] sweet

    Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

    Here: Comes first for emphasis: 'Sweet is the light!' This is a taste word, used for honey (Judges 14:18) and for a worker's sleep (Ecclesiastes 5:12). It makes being alive something you enjoy with the senses. The opening 'and' links the verse loosely to what comes before and starts a new thought.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 2:3 מָת֥וֹק [was] sweet

    Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

    Here: 'Sweet': the taste of honey and ripe fruit, the standard Hebrew word for pleasure you can taste. There is no verb, so it could be 'is' or 'was' sweet.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 5:20 לְמָת֖וֹק וּמָת֥וֹק into sweet, and sweet

    Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.

    Here: "As sweet." They pass off the harmful thing as pleasant and wholesome. Sweetness was the taste of honey, ripe fruit and, in the poets, God's word (Ps 19:10).

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 3:3 לְמָתֽוֹק׃ פ to sweet

    “Son of man,” He said to me, “eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

    Here: 'With respect to sweetness'. It specifies how the scroll was like honey: in its sweetness. The idiom closes the verse on the word 'sweet'.

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