Bible word study

Machah (Strong’s H4229): Meaning in the Bible

Machah (מָחָה) is the Hebrew word numbered H4229 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as properly, to stroke or rub; by implication, to erase; also to smooth (as if with oil), i.e. grease or make fat; also to touch, i.e. reach to. In the King James Bible it is translated abolish, blot out, destroy, full of marrow, put out.

מָחָה
mâchâh · Hebrew
Strong’s H4229 · maw-khaw'

The full Strong’s definition

properly, to stroke or rub; by implication, to erase; also to smooth (as if with oil), i.e. grease or make fat; also to touch, i.e. reach to

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

abolish, blot out, destroy, full of marrow, put out, reach unto, × utterly, wipe (away, out). (The × marks places where the word shapes the phrasing rather than being rendered by a single English word.)

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Machah in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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