maas · reject, despise

What it means

maas (מָאַס) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “reject, despise”.

Despise, reject, refuse something.

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. To regard something or someone as worthless and put it away.
2. To melt or run, like skin that oozes or water that drains away.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To despise, reject, cast off: not to want something or someone, to count it worthless. BDB: to spurn, disdain, refuse; to cast away. Another verb of the same form means to run, fester (Job 7:5).

• “Me they have despised”: Israel asks for a king 1 Samuel 8:7
• Saul rejected: “he has despised you” 1 Samuel 15:231 Samuel 16:7
• “The stone {that} the builders rejected” Psalms 118:22
• “You have rejected knowledge” Hosea 4:6Jeremiah 6:30
• YHWH rejects empty worship Amos 5:21

How we translate it

“Despised” 22 times, “rejected” 17, “reject” 13, “despise” 11, “they rejected” 5. “Despise” when a person is scorned (1 Samuel 8:7), distinct from נִאֵץ, “spurn”; “reject” when something is cast aside (Hosea 4:6; Jeremiah 6:30). In Job 7:5, the other verb: “festers”.

How it is translated

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

• despised ×22
• rejected ×17
• reject ×13
• despise ×11
• they rejected ×5
• despises ×3
• Have you utterly ×1
• Let them dissolve ×1
• festers ×1
• who rejects ×1
• others ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Leviticus×3
• Numbers×2
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×9
• 2 Kings×3
• Job×12
• Psalms×9
• Proverbs×2
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×12
• Lamentations×2
• Ezekiel×6
• Hosea×3
• Amos×2

• Leviticus 26:15

  and if you reject my statutes, and if your soul loathes my rules, so that you do not do all my commandments, and you break my covenant,

• Leviticus 26:43

  But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the payment for their iniquity, because, yes, because they rejected my rules and their soul loathed my statutes.

• Leviticus 26:44

  Yet even for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them and I will not loathe them so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them; for I am YHWH their Elohim.

• Numbers 11:20

  but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised YHWH who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

• Numbers 14:31

  But your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring them in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.

• Judges 9:38

  Zebul said to him, “Where now is your mouth, with which you said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Is not this the people whom you despised? Go out, please, now and fight against them.”

• 1 Samuel 8:7

  And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for it is not you they have despised, but me they have despised from reigning over them.

• 1 Samuel 10:19

  But you today have despised your Elohim, who himself saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ So now, present yourselves before YHWH by your tribes and by your thousands.”

• 1 Samuel 15:23

  For rebellion is the sin of divination, and stubbornness is wickedness and teraphim. Because you have despised the word of YHWH, he has despised you from being king.”

• 1 Samuel 15:26

  Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have despised the word of YHWH, and YHWH has despised you from being king over Israel.”

• 1 Samuel 16:1

  YHWH said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, when I have despised him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have seen among his sons a king for myself.”

• 1 Samuel 16:7

  YHWH said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have despised him; for it is not what the human being sees: the human being sees what is before the eyes, but YHWH sees the heart.”

• 2 Kings 17:15

  They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies that he testified against them; and they went after what is vain and became vain, and after the nations that were around them, about which YHWH had commanded them not to do like them.

• 2 Kings 17:20

  YHWH despised all the offspring of Israel, and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them from before his face.

• 2 Kings 23:27

  YHWH said, “Judah also I will remove from before my face, as I removed Israel, and I will despise this city that I chose, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

• Job 5:17

  Look, happy is the mortal whom Eloah reproves; so do not despise the correction of Shaddai.

• Job 7:5

  My flesh is clothed with worms and a crust of dust; my skin hardens and festers.

• Job 7:16

  I despise my life; I will not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a vapor.

• Job 8:20

  Look, El does not despise the blameless, nor does he take hold of the hand of evildoers.

• Job 9:21

  Blameless I am; I do not know myself; I despise my life.

• Job 10:3

  Does it seem good to you that you oppress, that you despise the labor of your palms, and shine forth on the counsel of the wicked?

• Job 19:18

  Even little ones despise me; I rise, and they speak against me.

• Job 30:1

  But now they laugh at me, those younger than I in days, whose fathers I despised to put with the dogs of my flock.

• Job 31:13

  If I despised the right of my male slave or my female slave in their case with me,

• Job 34:33

  Is it on your terms that he should repay it, because you despise it? For you must choose, and not I; so what you know, speak.

• Job 36:5

  Look, El is mighty, and does not despise anyone; mighty in strength of heart.

• Job 42:6

  Therefore I despise what I said, and I repent on dust and ashes.”

• Psalms 15:4

  in whose eyes the rejected one is despised, but those who fear YHWH he honors; he swears to his own hurt and does not change;

• Psalms 36:4

  Wickedness he plots on his bed; he takes his stand on a way not good; evil he does not reject.

• Psalms 53:5

  There they were filled with dread where there was no dread, for Elohim scattered the bones of the one who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for Elohim despised them.

• Psalms 58:7

  Let them dissolve like water that flows away; when he draws his arrows, let them be as if blunted.

• Psalms 78:59

  Elohim heard and became enraged, and he utterly despised Israel.

• Psalms 78:67

  And he despised the tent of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose,

• Psalms 89:38

  But you have rejected and despised; you have become enraged with your anointed.

• Psalms 106:24

  And they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his word.

• Psalms 118:22

  The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

• Proverbs 3:11

  The correction of YHWH, my son, do not reject, and do not grow weary of his reproof;

• Proverbs 15:32

  Whoever ignores correction despises his soul, but whoever listens to reproof acquires sense.

• Isaiah 5:24

  Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours stubble, and dry grass sinks down in the flame, their root will be like rot, and their blossom will go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of YHWH Tsevaot and spurned the saying of the Holy One of Israel.

• Isaiah 7:15

  Butter and honey he will eat when he knows how to reject evil and choose good.

And 36 more times.