מַדּוּעַ

madua · why?

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H4069 · appears 72 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?

Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

madua (מַדּוּעַ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “why?”.

For what reason?

How to say it

ma·du·a

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

A word for asking the cause or reason of something.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Why? It asks the cause of something.

Asking an explanation for someone's conduct Genesis 26:27 2 Samuel 11:10 1 Samuel 20:2
Asking why something strange happens Exodus 3:3 Genesis 40:7
God's reproach to his people Numbers 12:8 Isaiah 5:4
“Why is his chariot slow in coming?” Judges 5:28

How we translate it

Always “why” (72 times). It often opens a question of reproach or wonder: “Why have you come to me, when you hated me and sent me away from you?” (Genesis 26:27). In God's mouth, the reproach points to what has no explanation: “Why, when I waited for it to produce grapes, did it produce sour grapes?” (Isaiah 5:4).

Where it appears

Genesis 26:27
Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, when you hated me and sent me away from you?”
Genesis 40:7
He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in custody in his lord’s house, saying, “Why are your faces sad today?”
Exodus 1:18
So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”
Exodus 2:18
When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “Why have you come so quickly today?”
Exodus 3:3
And Moses said, “Let me turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn up.”
Exodus 5:14
And the supervisors of the sons of Israel, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, being told, “Why have you not completed your quota of making bricks as before, both yesterday and today?”
Exodus 18:14
When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”
Leviticus 10:17
“Why did you not eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is a most holy thing, and he has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the community, to make expiation for them before YHWH.
Numbers 12:8
Mouth to mouth I speak with him, plainly, and not in riddles; and he gazes on the form of YHWH. Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
Numbers 16:3
And they assembled against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “Enough of you! For all the community, all of them, are holy, and YHWH is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of YHWH?”
Joshua 17:14
And the sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me as an inheritance one lot and one allotment, when I am a numerous people, since up to now YHWH has blessed me?”
Judges 5:28
Through the window she looked out and cried, the mother of Sisera, through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot slow in coming? Why are the hoofbeats of his chariots delayed?’
Judges 9:28
Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem! And why should we serve him?
Judges 11:7
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did not you hate me and drive me out of the house of my father? Why have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
Judges 11:26
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are along the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them at that time?
Judges 12:1
The men of Ephraim were summoned, crossed to Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon and not call us to go with you? Your house we will burn over you with fire!”
Ruth 2:10
Then she fell on her face and bowed down to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”
1 Samuel 20:2
He said to him, “Far be it! You shall not die. Look, my father does not do anything great or anything small without making it known to me; why then would my father hide from me this thing? It is not so.”
1 Samuel 20:27
And it came about on the day after the new moon, the second day, that the place of David was empty; and Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come either yesterday or today to the meal?”
1 Samuel 21:1
David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
2 Samuel 3:7
Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
2 Samuel 11:10
They reported it to David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
2 Samuel 11:20
then if the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you, ‘Why did you go near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
2 Samuel 12:9
Why have you despised the word of YHWH, doing evil in my eyes? Uriah the Hittite you struck with the sword, and his wife you took for yourself as wife, and him you killed with the sword of the sons of Ammon.
2 Samuel 13:4
He said to him, “Why are you so weak, son of the king, morning after morning? Will you not tell me?” Amnon said to him, “Tamar, the sister of Absalom my brother, I love.”
2 Samuel 16:10
The king said, “What have I to do with you, sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, for YHWH has said to him, ‘Curse David’; and who shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”
2 Samuel 18:11
Joab said to the man who told him, “And look, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there and bring him to the ground? And it would have been for me to give you ten shekels of silver and one belt.”
2 Samuel 19:41
And there all the men of Israel were coming to the king, and they said to the king, “Why have our brothers, the men of Judah, stolen you and brought the king and his household across the Jordan, and all David’s men with him?”
2 Samuel 19:43
The men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, “I have ten shares in the king, and in David too I have more than you. Why then have you despised me? Was not my word the first for me to bring back my king?” But the word of the men of Judah was harsher than the word of the men of Israel.
2 Samuel 24:21
Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy from you the threshing floor, to build an altar to YHWH, so that the plague may be stopped from the people.”
1 Kings 1:6
His father had never grieved him by saying, “Why have you done so?” He too was very handsome in form, and his mother had borne him after Absalom.
1 Kings 1:13
Go and go in to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? So why does Adonijah reign?’
1 Kings 1:41
And Adonijah heard it, and all the guests who were with him, just as they finished eating. And Joab heard the sound of the horn and said, “Why is there the sound of the city in an uproar?”
1 Kings 2:43
Why then have you not kept the oath of YHWH and the commandment that I commanded you?”
2 Kings 4:23
He said, “Why are you going to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “Peace.”
2 Kings 8:12
Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” He said, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their fortresses you will set on fire, their young men you will kill with the sword, their little ones you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open.”
2 Kings 9:11
Jehu went out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and his talk.”
2 Kings 12:7
King Joash called Jehoiada the priest and the priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the breaches of the house? Now do not take silver from your acquaintances, but for the breaches of the house you are to give it.”
2 Chronicles 24:6
The king called Jehoiada the head and said to him, “Why have you not required of the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the levy of Moses, the servant of YHWH, and of the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?”
Nehemiah 2:2
And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” And I was afraid very greatly.

And 32 more times.