To smite
מְחָאStrong’s H4223meach (me-ach)
Appears in 4 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Meach is the Aramaic word usually translated “let him be impaled”, “it struck” and “strike”. It appears in 4 verses of the Old Testament.
“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.”
Meaning
- To strike, smite, kill(P'al) to strike · (Pael) to hinder · (Ithp'al) to allow to be stricken
How it's translated
- let him be impaled 1
- and it struck 1
- it struck 1
- he will strike 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Daniel 3
- Ezra 1
2 books in all.
Related words
Explore in Scripture
- Daniel 2:35In contextThen was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
- Daniel 4:35In contextAnd all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
- Ezra 6:11Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
Aramaic dictionary
מְחָא meach · to smite
1) to strike, smite, kill 1a) (P'al) to strike 1b) (Pael) to hinder 1c) (Ithp'al) to allow to be stricken
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “smite” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
SMITE, verb transitive
preterit tense smote; participle passive smitten, smil. [This verb is the Latin mitto.]
- To strike; to throw, drive or force against, as the fist or hand, a stone or a weapon; to reach with a blow or a weapon; as, to smite one with the fist; to smite with a rod or with a stone. Matthew 5:39“Whoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” Matthew 5:39
- To kill; to destroy the life of by beating or by weapons of any kind; as, to smite one with the sword, or with an arrow or other engine.
- To blast; to destroy life; as by a stroke or by something sent. Exodus 9:15“The flax and the barley were smitten” Exodus 9:31
- To afflict; to chasten; to punish.
All definitions and other forms of “smite”
- To strike or affect with passion.
SMITE, verb intransitive
To strike; to collide. The heart melteth and the kness smite together. Nahum 2.
SMITE, noun
A blow.
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 Aramaic, not from any one translation.