מַנְגִּינָה
man.gi.nah
mocking
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of Hebrew מַנְגִּינָה (manginah) The Hebrew word *manginah* (Strong's H4485) denotes "mocking"—a form of verbal ridicule or contempt. Based on the lexical data provided, this term appears only once in the biblical text, which limits our ability to establish a clear semantic range or observe how the word's meaning might shift across different contexts. The single occurrence suggests this was either a specialized term with limited application or a word that fell out of regular use in the biblical period. The significance of this hapax legomenon (single-occurrence word) lies partly in what its rarity tells us about biblical vocabulary for social behavior. While Hebrew possessed multiple terms for various forms of mockery and derision, *manginah* represents a distinct concept that the biblical writers felt warranted its own designation. Without access to the specific context of its single biblical appearance, we cannot fully determine whether the word carries particular intensity, formality, or social connotation compared to related terms—information that would typically be evident from usage patterns across multiple passages.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text