Hebrew word · H4974

מְתֹם

metom

soundness

Wholeness, soundness, an intact and undamaged state. It comes from the root t-m-m, 'to be complete,' which also gives tam/tamim, 'whole, blameless, without defect.' The defect-free animals required for sacrifice are tamim (e.g. Leviticus 22:21).

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

What it means

soundness, entirety, entire

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 Isaiah 1:6

Range of meaning

Wholeness, soundness, an intact and undamaged state. It comes from the root t-m-m, 'to be complete,' which also gives tam/tamim, 'whole, blameless, without defect.' The defect-free animals required for sacrifice are tamim (e.g. Leviticus 22:21).

Against the English

'Soundness' (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) is accurate, though a little old-fashioned. It means a healthy, unbroken place. It is not a moral word here.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is rare. Psalm 38:3, 7 (Hebrew 4, 8): 'There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation ... no soundness in my flesh.' Judges 20:48 has the same spelling, but many scholars correct it there to 'men' (mətim). The root family is common: tamim describes the unblemished sacrificial animal and the 'blameless' person (Genesis 6:9; 17:1).

From the study of Psalm 38:3

Range of meaning

From the verb tamam, "to be complete, finished, whole" (the same root as tam/tamim, "whole, blameless"). Metom is the noun for an unbroken condition: a body with no wound, no damaged part. It is a rare word. Apart from this psalm (here and v. 7) its only clear use is Isaiah 1:6.

Against the English

"Soundness" (KJV, WEB, BSB, ESV, NASB) is a good match. NIV's "health" is acceptable but loses the picture of something intact and not yet broken.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 1:6 pictures beaten Israel: "from the sole of the foot to the head there is no metom in it, only wounds and welts and raw sores." In Judges 20:48 the word appears in most Hebrew manuscripts, but there it is probably a copying error for metim, "men". The Greek Septuagint translates it here as iasis, "healing/cure", which shows that ancient readers took it medically.

From the study of Judges 20:48

Range of meaning

mətōm means 'soundness, wholeness, an unbroken state'. Elsewhere it appears only in Psalm 38:3, 7 ('there is no soundness in my flesh') and Isaiah 1:6 ('no soundness in it'), always about a healthy body. mətim (a related plural noun) means 'men, people', as in the name Methuselah ('man of the dart'), and in the phrase 'every city, men, women and little ones' in Deuteronomy 2:34; 3:6.

Against the English

WEB ('the entire city') and NASB follow the vowels as printed, reading 'whole'. KJV ('the men of every city'), YLT ('men unto cattle') and ESV ('men and beasts') follow the reading 'men'. BSB smooths the phrase over and keeps neither sense clearly.

Used elsewhere in the period

Using 'soundness' to describe a city would be unique to this verse; everywhere else the word is about bodies. By contrast, 'city' followed by mətim ('men') is a known formula for a total massacre (Deut 2:34; 3:6). Some medieval Hebrew manuscripts actually read מְתִם. The major Hebrew lexicons (BDB, HALOT) list this verse as a probable case of mətim.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 20:48 מְתֹם֙ soundness

    And the men of Israel turned back against the other Benjamites and put to the sword all the cities, including the animals and everything else they found. And they burned down all the cities in their path.

    Here: As the vowels stand, the word means 'whole' or 'intact', so 'the entire city'. Many scholars think it should be read mətim, 'men', which gives 'from the city's men down to the animals' (see textual notes).

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 38:3 מְתֹ֣ם [is] soundness

    There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

    Here: From the root t-m-m, "to be complete, whole". It means an unbroken, undamaged body, a place with no wound in it. The psalmist says there is no such spot left in his flesh.

  2. Psalm 38:7 מְ֝תֹ֗ם [is] soundness

    For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.

    Here: From the root tamam, 'to be complete, whole'. It means a healthy, unbroken part of the body. The speaker is saying no part of him is still intact.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 1:6 מְתֹ֔ם [is] soundness

    From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

    Here: From the root t-m-m, 'to be complete, intact.' It means an undamaged, healthy place on the body. The only close parallel is Psalm 38:3, 7 (Hebrew 38:4, 8): 'there is no soundness in my flesh,' where the sick body is likewise tied to sin and God's anger.

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