Study
Word study

Word study

Hebrew

To find

מָצָאStrong’s H4672

matsa (ma-tsa)

Appears in 425 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Matsa is the Hebrew word usually translated “have found”, “found” and “it will be found”. It appears in 425 verses of the Old Testament.

“And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.”
Daniel 1:19 KJV
Meaning
  1. To find, attain to(Qal) · (Niphal)
How it's translated
  • i have found 31
  • and he found 16
  • it will be found 14
  • and they found 13
  • they found 13
  • it was found 12
  • which was found 11
  • he found 10

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Genesis 54
  • 1 Samuel 34
  • 2 Chronicles 28
  • Proverbs 25
  • 2 Kings 24
  • Jeremiah 24

34 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 425 verses, by book
Lamentations 4
1:31:62:92:16
Amos 1
8:12
Jonah 1
1:3
Micah 1
1:13
Zephaniah 1
3:13
Zechariah 2
10:1011:6
Malachi 1
2:6
Hebrew dictionary

מָצָא matsa · to find

1) to find, attain to 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to find 1a1a) to find, secure, acquire, get (thing sought) 1a1b) to find (what is lost) 1a1c) to meet, encounter 1a1d) to find (a condition) 1a1e) to learn, devise 1a2) to find out 1a2a) to find out 1a2b) to detect 1a2c) to guess 1a3) to come upon, light upon 1a3a) to happen upon, meet, fall in with 1a3b) to hit 1a3c) to befall 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be found 1b1a) to be encountered, be lighted upon, be discovered 1b1b) to appear, be recognised 1b1c) to be discovered, be detected 1b1d) to be gained, be secured 1b2) to be, be found 1b2a) to be found in …

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “find” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

FIND, verb transitive

preterit tense and participle passive found. [Latin venio; but in sense, with invenio. The primary sense is to come to, to rush, to fall on, to meet, to set on.]

  1. Literally, to come to; to meet; hence, to discover by the eye; to gain first sight or knowledge of something lost; to recover either by searching for it or by accident.“Doth she not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? and when she hath found it -” Luke 15:8
  2. To meet; to discover something not before seen or known.“He saith to him, we have found the Messiah” John 1:41
  3. To obtain by seeking.“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find” Matthew 7:7
  4. To meet with.
All definitions
  1. To discover or know by experience.
  2. To reach; to attain to; to arrive at.“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it” Matthew 7:14
  3. To discover by study, experiment or trial.
  4. To gain; to have; as, to find leisure for a visit.
  5. To perceive; to observe; to learn.
  6. To catch; to detect.
  7. To meet.
  8. To have; to experience; to enjoy.“Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure” Isaiah 58:3
  9. To select; to choose; to designate.“I have found David my servant” Psalms 89:20
  10. To discover and declare the truth of disputed facts; to come to a conclusion and decide between parties, as a jury.
  11. To determine and declare by verdict.
  12. To establish or pronounce charges alleged to be true.
  13. To supply; to furnish.
  14. To discover or gain knowledge of by touching or by sounding.
  15. To find out.
  16. To unriddle; to solve; as, to find out the meaning of a parable of an enigma.
  17. To discover; to obtain knowledge of what is hidden; as, to find out a secret.
  18. To understand; to comprehend.“Canst thou by searching find out God?” Job 11:7
  19. To detect; to discover; to bring to light; as, to find out a thief or a theft; to find out a trick.

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.