matara · target, guard

What it means

matara (מַטָּרָא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “target, guard”.

A target aimed at with arrows; elsewhere, a guard or the court of the guard (a guarded place).

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. The court of the guard, an enclosure of the palace where someone was kept prisoner.
2. The mark that arrows are aimed at; also the one shot at.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• guard ×13
• as a target ×2
• target ×1

Where it appears

• 1 Samuel×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×1
• Jeremiah×11
• Lamentations×1

• 1 Samuel 20:20

  And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as if shooting at a target.

• Nehemiah 3:25

  Palal the son of Uzai repaired opposite the angle and the tower that projects from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him, Pedaiah the son of Parosh.

• Nehemiah 12:39

  and above the Ephraim Gate, and by the Old Gate, and by the Fish Gate, and the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate; and they stopped at the Guard Gate.

• Job 16:12

  I was tranquil, and he shook me; he seized me by the neck and smashed me to pieces, and set me up for himself as a target.

• Jeremiah 32:2

  Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah,

• Jeremiah 32:8

  And Hanamel my uncle's son came to me according to the word of YHWH to the court of the guard, and said to me, ‘Buy, please, my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that it was the word of YHWH.

• Jeremiah 32:12

  and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel my uncle, and before the eyes of the witnesses who had written in the deed of purchase, before the eyes of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.

• Jeremiah 33:1

  And the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

• Jeremiah 37:21

  And King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and they gave him a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was used up. So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.

• Jeremiah 38:6

  So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchijah son of the king, which was in the court of the guard, and they let down Jeremiah with ropes. In the cistern there was no water, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

• Jeremiah 38:13

  So they pulled Jeremiah with ropes and brought him up from the cistern; and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.

• Jeremiah 38:28

  And Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured. And it happened when Jerusalem was captured—

• Jeremiah 39:14

  they sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard and gave him to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, to take him out to the house; and he stayed among the people.

• Jeremiah 39:15

  And the word of YHWH had come to Jeremiah while he was confined in the court of the guard, saying,

• Lamentations 3:12

  He has bent his bow and set me as a target for the arrow.

And 1 more times.