masa · burden; oracle

What it means

masa (מַשָּׂא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “burden; oracle”.

Burden, load carried. In the prophets, a solemn message.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A load carried on the back; also, the act of carrying it.
2. A weighty message from God that a prophet carries, an oracle.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Burden: what is lifted and carried on one's back. It comes from נָשָׂא (lift, carry, H5375). In the prophets it heads a solemn message from YHWH, which is also often called an oracle.

• The load of an animal or a person Exodus 23:5Nehemiah 13:15
• Being a burden to someone 2 Samuel 15:33Deuteronomy 1:12
• Iniquities as a heavy burden Psalms 38:4
• Title of a prophetic message: “The burden of Babylon” Isaiah 13:1Malachi 1:1Habakkuk 1:1
• “What {is} the burden of YHWH?” Jeremiah 23:33Jeremiah 23:36

How we translate it

“Burden” 44 times, also in the titles of the prophets (Isaiah 13:1; Habakkuk 1:1; Malachi 1:1), and “load” 12. So the play of Jeremiah 23:33-36 can be heard, between the burden one carries and the burden YHWH utters (“What {is} the burden of YHWH?… What burden?”). Only in 2 Kings 9:25 does it say “oracle”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• burden ×44
• load ×12
• carrying ×5
• loads ×1
• longing ×1
• oracle ×1
• they could carry ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Numbers×11
• Deuteronomy×1
• 2 Samuel×2
• 2 Kings×3
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×4
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×1
• Psalms×1
• Proverbs×2
• Isaiah×14
• Jeremiah×12
• Ezekiel×2
• Hosea×1
• Nahum×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×2
• Malachi×1

• Exodus 23:5

  When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him; you shall surely help with him.

• Numbers 4:15

  And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the Holy Place and all the utensils of the Holy Place, as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch the holy things, or they will die. These are the load of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.

• Numbers 4:19

  But do this for them, so that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign them, each man to his service and to his load.

• Numbers 4:24

  This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in carrying loads:

• Numbers 4:27

  According to the command of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their load and in all their service; and you shall assign to them as a charge all their load.

• Numbers 4:31

  And this is the charge of their load, for all their service in the tent of meeting: the frames of the dwelling, and its bars, and its pillars, and its bases,

• Numbers 4:32

  and the pillars of the court all around, and their bases, and their pegs, and their cords, with all their utensils and with all their service; and by names you shall assign the utensils of the charge of their load.

• Numbers 4:47

  from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, everyone who entered to do the work of service and the work of carrying loads in the tent of meeting,

• Numbers 4:49

  According to the command of YHWH he counted them through Moses, each man according to his service and according to his load; so were those counted by him, as YHWH had commanded Moses.

• Numbers 11:11

  And Moses said to YHWH, “Why have you done evil to your servant? And why have I not found favor in your eyes, that you put the burden of all this people on me?

• Numbers 11:17

  And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall carry the burden of the people with you, and you shall not carry it yourself alone.

• Deuteronomy 1:12

  How can I carry by myself your trouble, your burden, and your strife?

• 2 Samuel 15:33

  David said to him, “If you cross over with me, you will be a burden to me.

• 2 Samuel 19:35

  I am eighty years old today. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be still a burden to my lord the king?

• 2 Kings 5:17

  Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant a load of earth, as much as a pair of mules can carry; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to YHWH.

• 2 Kings 8:9

  Hazael went to meet him and took a gift with him, all kinds of good things of Damascus, forty camel loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I live through this sickness?’”

• 2 Kings 9:25

  He said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, throw him into the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how I and you were riding side by side behind Ahab his father, when YHWH lifted up against him this oracle:

• 1 Chronicles 15:22

  And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites in the carrying, gave instruction in the carrying, for he understood it.

• 1 Chronicles 15:27

  David was wrapped in a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, the chief of the carrying of the singers; and on David was a linen ephod.

• 2 Chronicles 17:11

  From the Philistines some were bringing to Jehoshaphat tribute and silver as a load; also the Arabs were bringing him sheep and goats: rams, seven thousand and seven hundred, and male goats, seven thousand and seven hundred.

• 2 Chronicles 20:25

  Jehoshaphat and his people came to plunder their spoil, and they found among them in abundance goods and corpses and precious objects, and they stripped them for themselves until they could carry no more; and they were three days plundering the spoil, for it was much.

• 2 Chronicles 24:27

  As for his sons, and the abundance of the burden upon him, and the founding of the house of Elohim, they are written in the treatise of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

• 2 Chronicles 35:3

  He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to YHWH, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; it is no longer a burden for you on the shoulder. Now serve YHWH your Elohim and his people Israel.

• Nehemiah 13:15

  In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in the heaps and loading them on the donkeys, and also wine, grapes, and figs, and every kind of burden, and bringing them into Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath; and I testified on the day they sold provisions.

• Nehemiah 13:19

  It happened that when the gates of Jerusalem grew dark before the Sabbath, I spoke, and the doors were shut; and I said that they should not open them until after the Sabbath. And some of my young men I stationed at the gates, so that no burden would enter on the day of the Sabbath.

• Job 7:20

  I have sinned; what do I do to you, guardian of human beings? Why have you set me as your target, so that I am a burden to myself?

• Psalms 38:4

  For my iniquities have passed over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

• Proverbs 30:1

  The words of Agur, son of Jakeh, the burden. The oracle of the man to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:

• Proverbs 31:1

  The words of Lemuel, king, the burden with which his mother corrected him.

• Isaiah 13:1

  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.

• Isaiah 14:28

  In the year of the death of King Ahaz this burden came:

• Isaiah 15:1

  The burden of Moab. Because in a night Ar of Moab was devastated, it was destroyed; because in a night Kir of Moab was devastated, it was destroyed.

• Isaiah 17:1

  The burden of Damascus. Look, Damascus is removed from being a city, and it will be a heap of ruins.

• Isaiah 19:1

  The burden of Egypt. Look, YHWH is riding on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the heart of Egypt melts within it.

• Isaiah 21:1

  The burden of the wilderness of the sea. Like whirlwinds in the Negev sweeping through, from the wilderness it comes, from a fearsome land.

• Isaiah 21:11

  The burden of Dumah. One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

• Isaiah 21:13

  The burden in Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will spend the night, caravans of Dedanites.

• Isaiah 22:1

  The burden of the valley of Vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up, all of you, to the rooftops,

• Isaiah 22:25

  On that day, declares YHWH Tsevaot, the peg that was driven in a secure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for YHWH has spoken.”

• Isaiah 23:1

  The burden of Tyre. Wail, ships of Tarshish, for it is devastated, without house, without entrance; from the land of Kittim it was revealed to them.

And 25 more times.