4576. mader
Lexical Summary
mader: Pasture, meadow

Original Word: מַעְדִּר
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: ma`der
Pronunciation: mah-DER
Phonetic Spelling: (mah-dare')
KJV: mattock
NASB: hoe
Word Origin: [from H5737 (עָדַר - To be majestic)]

1. a (weeding) hoe

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
mattock

From adar; a (weeding) hoe -- mattock.

see HEBREW adar

NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
from adar
Definition
a hoe
NASB Translation
hoe (1).

Brown-Driver-Briggs
מַעְדֵּר noun [masculine] hoe Isaiah 7:25, see foregoing.

מָרֵא noun masculine lord (ᵑ7 מָר, with מָרֵי; Syriac , e. , , Egyptian Aramaic מרא (RÉSi. 361); Christian-Palestinian Aramaic , etc., SchulthLex. 115; Old Aramaic Nabataean Palmyrene מר(אׅ (Lzb316); compare proper name, of deity מרנא (μαρνα), god of Gaza, SAC77; also Arabic man, Sabean מרא, man, lord HomChr 127; AA 293 RÉS:i. 454, 2); — lord: of God, construct שְׁמַיָּא Daniel 5:23, מָרֵה מַלְכִין Daniel 2:47; of king, suffix מָֽרְאִי Kt (as Nabataean, SACl.c.; K§ 58, 1), Qr מָרִי (as Palmyrene, SACl.c.) Daniel 4:16; Daniel 4:21.

Topical Lexicon
Agricultural Setting in Ancient Israel

The hoe or weed-hook designated by מַעְדִּר belonged to the basic toolkit of every Israelite farmer. Light enough to be swung repeatedly yet sharp enough to break hardened soil, it was indispensable for clearing weeds, aerating earth around vines and olive trees, and carving irrigation furrows on terraced hillsides. The appearance of this implement in prophetic speech assumes the hearer’s familiarity with the rhythms of sowing, pruning, and harvesting that sustained village life from Dan to Beersheba.

Single Scriptural Occurrence: Isaiah 7:25

In Isaiah’s oracle to the house of David, the hoe becomes a silent witness to judgment:

“As for all the hills once cultivated with the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briers and thorns; they will become places for cattle to graze and sheep to trample.” (Isaiah 7:25)

The verse concludes a series of warnings (Isaiah 7:17-25) announcing that foreign invasion will reverse the hard-won gains of husbandry. Ground that once yielded produce through diligent labor will revert to wilderness. The prophetic logic is stark: covenant infidelity breeds national desolation (compare Leviticus 26:31-35).

Prophetic Imagery of Briers and Thorns

The coupling of the hoe with “briers and thorns” evokes Eden’s curse where the ground brings forth “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:17-18). Isaiah later applies the same imagery to Judah’s moral decay (Isaiah 5:6; 32:13). Where righteousness should flourish, negligence invites chaos. The abandoned hoe lying idle pictures a people who have ceased to “break up your fallow ground” (Hosea 10:12) and to seek the LORD.

Theological Themes

1. Divine Retribution and Mercy: The withholding of cultivated land signals divine displeasure; yet the temporary nature of the devastation leaves room for future restoration (Isaiah 37:30-32; 62:4).
2. Stewardship and Diligence: Proverbs exhorts, “I passed by the field of a slacker… and it was overgrown with thorns” (Proverbs 24:30-34). The hoe stands for responsible labor, a tangible reminder that fruitfulness is ordinarily mediated through disciplined effort under God’s blessing.
3. Covenant Consequence: The tool’s absence in the prophetic scene dramatizes how covenant breach disrupts the normal blessings promised in Deuteronomy 28:1-12.

New Testament Resonances

Though the term itself does not recur, its motif survives. Jesus’ parable of the soils (Matthew 13:3-23) presumes cultivation; Paul speaks of “planting” and “watering” in the field of God (1 Corinthians 3:6-9). The diligence once symbolized by the hoe now describes gospel labor that prepares hearts for the seed of the word.

Pastoral and Ministry Applications

• Spiritual Cultivation: Leaders are called to keep their congregations free of “root of bitterness” (Hebrews 12:15), wielding the equivalent of a spiritual hoe through teaching and discipline.
• Warning against Neglect: Just as Judah’s hills became grazing ground, churches that abandon holiness risk becoming spiritually barren.
• Hope of Renewal: Where repentance occurs, the Lord “will comfort all her waste places” (Isaiah 51:3), promising that diligent hands will again take up the hoe.

Christological and Eschatological Outlook

The first advent of Christ did not immediately reverse all agricultural curses, yet His resurrection inaugurates the restoration of creation. Isaiah’s later vision of a renewed earth—“Your land will no longer be called Desolate” (Isaiah 62:4)—anticipates the day when “the ground shall yield its increase” without threat of thorn (Psalm 67:6; Revelation 22:3). Until that consummation, the presence or absence of the hoe continues to signal whether hearts and lands are being tended under the reign of the true Davidic King.

Forms and Transliterations
בַּמַּעְדֵּר֙ במעדר bam·ma‘·dêr bamma‘dêr bammaDer
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Englishman's Concordance
Isaiah 7:25
HEB: הֶהָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר בַּמַּעְדֵּר֙ יֵעָ֣דֵר֔וּן לֹֽא־
NAS: used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go
KJV: that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither
INT: the hills which the hoe to be cultivated you will not

1 Occurrence

Strong's Hebrew 4576
1 Occurrence


bam·ma‘·dêr — 1 Occ.

4575b
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