moshav · dwelling, seat

What it means

moshav (מוֹשָׁב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “dwelling, seat”.

The place where someone lives or sits; dwelling, seat; also the time of living there.

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 place where someone settles to live, whether a house, a city or a camp.
2. Where one sits, or those sitting.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Seat and place where one lives: the spot where someone sits and, more broadly, where a people dwells or settles. It comes from the verb יָשַׁב, ‘sit, dwell’ (H3427).

• The seat at the table or at the gate 1 Samuel 20:181 Samuel 20:25Job 29:7
• “The seat of scoffers” Psalms 1:1
• “In all your dwellings”: the feasts Leviticus 23:3Leviticus 23:14Exodus 35:3
• The dwelling of the unclean, outside the camp Leviticus 13:46
• A city to dwell in Psalms 107:7Psalms 132:13
• The time they lived in Egypt Exodus 12:40

Historical and cultural background

David’s seat beside Saul’s table at the new moon was empty, and that is why Saul asked about him (1 Samuel 20:18, 25). The Sabbath bound in every dwelling: no fire was kindled in them (Exodus 35:3).

How we translate it

“Dwellings” 12 times, “dwelling” 6 and “dwelling places” 8, above all in the Hebrew phrase about the feasts (“in all your dwellings”, Leviticus 23:3); the place where one sits is “seat” (8), as in Psalm 1:1. עִיר מוֹשָׁב is “a city to dwell in” (Psalm 107:7). In Exodus 12:40, “The time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt”.

How it is translated

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

• dwellings ×12
• dwelling places ×8
• seat ×8
• dwelling ×6
• dwell in ×3
• seating ×2
• as a place to dwell ×1
• inhabited places ×1
• site ×1
• time ×1
• others ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×3
• Exodus×4
• Leviticus×9
• Numbers×4
• 1 Samuel×3
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×6
• Ezekiel×7

• Genesis 10:30

  And their dwelling place was from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, the hill country of the east.

• Genesis 27:39

  Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Look, away from the richness of the earth will be your dwelling, and away from the dew of the heavens from above.

• Genesis 36:43

  the chieftain Magdiel, the chieftain Iram. These are the chieftains of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of Edom.

• Exodus 10:23

  They did not see one another, and no one rose from his place for three days; but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.

• Exodus 12:20

  You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

• Exodus 12:40

  The time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

• Exodus 35:3

  You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

• Leviticus 3:17

  It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.”

• Leviticus 7:26

  And you shall not eat any blood, whether of bird or of beast, in any of your dwellings.

• Leviticus 13:46

  All the days that the sore is on him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

• Leviticus 23:3

  Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work at all; it is a Sabbath to YHWH in all your dwellings.

• Leviticus 23:14

  And bread or roasted grain or fresh grain you shall not eat until this very day, until you have brought the offering of your Elohim; it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

• Leviticus 23:17

  From your dwellings you shall bring two loaves for a wave offering; they shall be of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as first fruits to YHWH.

• Leviticus 23:21

  And on this very day you shall proclaim: there shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall do no laborious work at all; it is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

• Leviticus 23:31

  You shall do no work at all; it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

• Leviticus 25:29

  And if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, his redemption shall last until a year from his sale is complete; for a full year shall his redemption last.

• Numbers 15:2

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land of your dwellings, which I am giving you,

• Numbers 24:21

  And he saw the Kenites and took up his poem and said, “Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the crag;

• Numbers 31:10

  All their cities in their dwelling places and all their encampments they burned with fire.

• Numbers 35:29

  These shall be for you a statute of justice throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

• 1 Samuel 20:18

  Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.

• 1 Samuel 20:25

  The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan rose, and Abner sat at the side of Saul, and the place of David was empty.

• 2 Samuel 9:12

  Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica. And all who lived in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth.

• 1 Kings 10:5

  and the food of his table, and the seating of his servants, and the station of his attendants and their clothing, and his cupbearers, and his burnt offering that he offered at the house of YHWH; and there was no more spirit in her.

• 2 Kings 2:19

  The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, please, the site of the city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land causes miscarriage.”

• 1 Chronicles 4:33

  and all their villages that were around these cities as far as Baal. These were their dwelling places, and they had their genealogical record.

• 1 Chronicles 6:54

  And these are their dwelling places according to their encampments within their territory. To the sons of Aaron, of the family of the Kohathites, for theirs was the lot,

• 1 Chronicles 7:28

  And their possession and their dwelling places: Bethel and its towns; and to the east, Naaran; and to the west, Gezer and its towns; and Shechem and its towns, as far as Ayyah and its towns;

• 2 Chronicles 9:4

  the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the station of his attendants and their clothing, his cupbearers and their clothing, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of YHWH; and there was no more spirit in her.

• Job 29:7

  When I went out to the gate by the city, and in the square I set up my seat,

• Psalms 1:1

  Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

• Psalms 107:4

  They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert; a way to a city to dwell in they did not find.

• Psalms 107:7

  And he led them by a straight way to go to a city to dwell in.

• Psalms 107:32

  And let them exalt him in the assembly of the people, and in the seat of the elders praise him.

• Psalms 107:36

  And he makes the hungry dwell there, and they establish a city to dwell in.

• Psalms 132:13

  For YHWH has chosen Zion; he has desired it as a place to dwell for himself:

• Ezekiel 6:6

  In all your dwelling places the cities will be laid waste, and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will be laid waste and be guilty, and your idols will be broken and cease, and your incense altars will be cut down, and your works wiped out.

• Ezekiel 6:14

  And I will stretch out my hand against them, and make the land a desolation and a horror more than the wilderness of Diblah, in all their dwelling places; and they will know that I am YHWH.”

• Ezekiel 8:3

  And he stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and a spirit lifted me between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in visions of Elohim, to the entrance of the gate of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the statue of jealousy that provokes jealousy.

• Ezekiel 28:2

  “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre: ‘Thus says Adonai YHWH: Because your heart is lifted up and you have said, “I am El; in the seat of Elohim I sit in the heart of the seas,” yet you are a human being and not El, and you have set your heart like the heart of Elohim;

And 4 more times.