Why?
מַדּוּעַStrong’s H4069maddua (mad-du-a)
Appears in 71 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Maddua is the Hebrew word usually translated “why”. It appears in 71 verses of the Old Testament.
“And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?”
Meaning
- Why?, on what account?, wherefore?
How it's translated
- why 62
- and why 10
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Jeremiah 16
- 2 Samuel 10
- Job 6
- Exodus 5
- Judges 5
- 1 Kings 4
19 books in all.
Related words
Explore in Scripture
- Genesis 40:7And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in the ward of his lord’s house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
- Exodus 1:18And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?
- Exodus 2:18And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
- Exodus 3:3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
- Exodus 5:14And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?
- Exodus 18:14And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
All 71 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
מַדּוּעַ maddua · why?
why?, on what account?, wherefore?
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “why” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
WHY, adverb
[Latin, for what. The original phrase is for what, for why ]
- For what cause or reason, interrogatively.“Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” Jeremiah 2:24
- For which reason or cause, relatively.
- For what reason or cause; for which; relatively.
- It is used sometimes emphatically, or rather as a expletive.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.