What does מָה · דָּבָר · זֶה mean in the Bible?
מָה · דָּבָר · זֶה is a Hebrew phrase meaning "properly, interrogative what? (including how?
Hebrew · H4100, H1697, H2088
מָה הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה
Properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when? ); but also exclamation, what! (including how! ), or indefinitely what (including whatever , and even relatively, that which ); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses · a word ; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing ; adverbially, a cause · the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
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What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
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Words in this compound — expand to study each participant
מָה H4100 properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when? ); but also exclamation, what! (including how! ), or indefinitely what (including whatever , and even relatively, that which ); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses
Pronunciation māh
Interrogative pronoun functioning as existential probe; shifts from question to exclamation to indefinite reference depending on context.
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דָּבָר H1697 a word ; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing ; adverbially, a cause
Pronunciation dāḇār
Word that moves from speech to action: what is spoken becomes a matter of real consequence and effect.
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זֶה H2088 the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
What does מָה הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה (mah haddavar hazzeh) mean in the Bible?
מָה · דָּבָר · זֶה is a Hebrew phrase meaning "properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when? ); but also exclamation, what! (including how! ), or indefinitely what (including whatever , and even relatively, that which ); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses".
Full entry for מָה הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה (H4100, H1697, H2088) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How many biblical occurrences are listed for H4100, H1697, H2088?
H4100, H1697, H2088 is connected to 3,383 lexical occurrence verses in the lexicon data.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew phrase. properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when? ); but also exclamation, what! (including how! ), or indefinitely what (including whatever , and even relatively, that which ); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses
Strong's H4100, H1697, H2088
Lexical occurrences 3,383 verses Source Gloss
properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when? ); but also exclamation, what! (including how! ), or indefinitely what (including whatever , and even relatively, that which ); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Cross-Language Connections
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
G2982 LXX equivalent Greek
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain