Bible word study

Matstsah (Strong’s H4682): Meaning in the Bible

Matstsah (מַצָּה) is the Hebrew word numbered H4682 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as properly, sweetness; concretely, sweet (i.e. not soured or bittered with yeast); specifically, an unfermented cake or loaf, or (elliptically) the festival of Passover (because no leaven was then used). In the King James Bible it is translated unleaved (bread, cake), without leaven..

מַצָּה
matstsâh · Hebrew
Strong’s H4682 · mats-tsaw'

The full Strong’s definition

properly, sweetness; concretely, sweet (i.e. not soured or bittered with yeast); specifically, an unfermented cake or loaf, or (elliptically) the festival of Passover (because no leaven was then used)

Derivation. from H4711 in the sense of greedily devouring for sweetness;

How the King James Bible translates it

unleaved (bread, cake), without leaven.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Matstsah 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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