מְתֹם
𐤌𐤕𐤌
mᵉthôm
H4974 noun
SILEX Entry
Definition
State of being unimpaired, completeness, soundness, wholeness; denotes that which is undamaged or entire, whether describing physical condition (such as a body part), the entirety of a people, or the absence of defect or injury. In some cases, the sense can extend to 'in entirety' or 'completely' in an adverbial use, though this is rare.
Semantic Range
soundness, wholeness, physical integrity, state of being undamaged, entirety (in adverbial adjunction), bodily health
Root / Etymology
From the Hebrew root תָּמַם (t-m-m), meaning 'to be complete, finished, sound, blameless.' מְתֹם derives as a noun form expressing the state or condition of being intact or whole. The word functions as an abstract noun formed from the root תָּמַם, not to be confused with the similar sounding מַת which has a different derivation and meaning ('man').
Historical & Contextual Notes
מְתֹם is a rare word in Biblical Hebrew, found in contexts emphasizing a lack of defect or injury, e.g., describing warriors without physical blemish (Deut 32:39, Job 21:23). In such cases, it can refer to the whole body or a state of being undamaged. Its function overlaps with other words such as תָּמִים (tamim, 'blameless, whole') but מְתֹם is limited primarily to physical soundness or wholeness, not moral or ritual wholeness. The adverbial sense 'completely' reflects its nominal meaning and pertains to a state of fullness or entirety, not an action. In later Hebrew, this root yields terms of integrity and completeness, but the specific form מְתֹם largely disappears from the corpus after the biblical period. Older translations and Strong's itself sometimes conflate it with 'men' due to script variations or confusion with מַת, but these are unrelated and should not be combined lexically. English renderings as 'wholesomeness' or 'soundness' generally capture the central idea but may not convey the word's concrete, bodily orientation in biblical texts.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from תָּמַם; wholesomeness; also (adverb) completely; men (by reading מַת), soundness.
Bantu Hebrew
No Bantu Hebrew comparisons have been submitted for this word yet.
+ Add Bantu Hebrew WordRoot Family
תמם (t-m-m) — to be complete, to be finished, to be sound, to be unimpaired
| Strong's | Lemma | SIBI-P1 |
|---|---|---|
| H8535 | תָּם | whole and blameless |
| H8537 | תֹּם | wholeness |
| H8549 | תָּמִים | in integrity |
| H8550 | תֻּמִּים | the perfections |
| H8552 | תָּמַם | Wholeness |
Word Forms
1 distinct form
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H4974-01 |
מְתֹם֙ | metom | HNcmsa |
soundness | sound wholeness | 4 |
Occurrences in Scripture
4 total occurrences
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H4974-01 |
Judges 20:48 | מְתֹם֙ | metom | HNcmsa |
complete | sound wholeness |
H4974-01 |
Isaiah 1:6 | מְתֹ֔ם | metom | HNcmsa |
soundness | sound wholeness |
H4974-01 |
Psalms 38:4 | מְתֹ֣ם | metom | HNcmsa |
sound | sound wholeness |
H4974-01 |
Psalms 38:8 | מְ֝תֹ֗ם | metom | HNcmsa |
soundness | sound wholeness |