machmad · desirable thing, delight

What it means

machmad (מַחְמָד) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “desirable thing, delight”.

What is desirable, what pleases the eyes: that which someone most loves or values.

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. What one most loves or values.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• precious things ×4
• delight ×3
• desirable ×3
• precious ×2
• beloved ones ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×1
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×3
• Hosea×2
• Joel×1

• 1 Kings 20:6

  But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants; and it will be that everything desirable in your eyes they will put in their hand and take it away.’”

• 2 Chronicles 36:19

  They burned the house of Elohim and tore down the wall of Jerusalem; and all its palaces they burned with fire, and all its precious objects they destroyed.

• Song of Songs 5:16

  His palate is sweetness, and all of him desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, daughters of Jerusalem.

• Isaiah 64:11

  The house of our holiness and of our beauty, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our desirable things have become a ruin.

• Lamentations 1:10

  The adversary has spread out his hand over all her precious things; for she has seen nations enter her sanctuary, those concerning whom you commanded, “They shall not enter into your assembly.”

• Lamentations 1:11

  All her people groan, seeking bread; they have given their precious things for food to bring back life. “See, YHWH, and look, for I have become worthless.”

• Lamentations 2:4

  He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like an adversary, and he has killed all who were precious to the eye; in the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out like fire his fury.

• Ezekiel 24:16

  “Son of man, look, I am taking from you the delight of your eyes with a plague; and you shall not lament, and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come.

• Ezekiel 24:21

  ‘Say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai YHWH: Look, I am profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and the tenderness of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword.

• Ezekiel 24:25

  And you, son of man, will it not be on the day when I take from them their stronghold, the joy of their beauty, the delight of their eyes, and the longing of their soul, their sons and their daughters,

• Hosea 9:6

  For look, they have gone because of the destruction; Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them; the precious things of their silver, nettles will possess them; thorns will be in their tents.

• Hosea 9:16

  Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit; even if they give birth, I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.

• Joel 3:5

  For my silver and my gold you have taken, and my precious things, the good ones, you have brought into your temples.