Word of the day – מַטֶּה (matteh)

מַטֶּה (matteh), masculine noun = rod, staff, wand, branch, tribe

There are several Hebrew words for “rod” or “staff”, one of them is שֵׁבֶט (shevet, also means “scepter”), and the other is מַטֶּה

מַטֶּה is also the word for the rod of Moses and Aaron, the rod that, according to the Book of Exodus, transformed into a serpent and turned the waters of Egypt into blood (Exodus 7:9, 7:19 etc).

Figuratively, it means “tribe”.

The word is ultimately borrowed from Egyptian md.w, the noun “staff” or verb “to speak” (cf. md.w nTr “words of the Gods, sacred writings, hieroglyphs”); md.t, derived from md.w, means “speech” or “word”. In Late Egyptian it was probably pronounced as *mate, the form that made its way into Hebrew.