מָנָה
ma.nah
portion
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# מָנָה (Manah): Portion and Appointed Share The Hebrew word *manah* (H4490) carries the primary meaning of "portion"—a defined share or allocation of something. With thirteen occurrences across the biblical text, this relatively uncommon term appears in contexts where resources, responsibilities, or benefits are being divided or assigned. The word's function is fundamentally distributive: it designates what belongs to or is allotted to a particular person or group within a larger whole. The limited frequency of *manah* in Scripture suggests it was employed in specific contexts where the notion of an appointed or measured allocation was significant. Rather than being a common everyday term, it appears reserved for situations where formal division or assignment was noteworthy—whether of food, inheritance, land, or other valued resources. This selectivity indicates the word carried particular weight when used, marking moments when allocation and proportion mattered theologically or socially. Understanding *manah* as "portion" illuminates how biblical writers expressed the concept of what is due, assigned, or belonging to someone by right or divine arrangement. The word captures the idea that within larger communal or divine distributions, individual portions are determined and recognized, making it valuable for texts concerned with fairness, inheritance, and the proper ordering of resources.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
13 total occurrences across the text
Also for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the fields of the pasture lands of their cities, in every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all who were listed by genealogy among the Levites.
Nehemiah 8:10Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:12All the people went their way to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Esther 2:9The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven choice maidens who were to be given her out of the king’s house. He moved her and her maidens to the best place in the women’s house.
Esther 9:19Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.
Esther 9:22as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
Psalms 16:5Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.
Exodus 29:26“You shall take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh. It shall be your portion.
Leviticus 7:33He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh for a portion.
Leviticus 8:29Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before Yahweh. It was Moses’ portion of the ram of consecration, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
1 Samuel 1:4When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions;
1 Samuel 1:5but to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.
1 Samuel 9:23Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it aside.’ ”