4880. mashowt
Lexical Summary
mashowt: Drawing out, rescue

Original Word: מְשׁוֹט
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: mashowt
Pronunciation: mah-SHOHT
Phonetic Spelling: (maw-shote')
KJV: oar
Word Origin: [from H7751 (שׁוּט - To go)]

1. an oar

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
oar

Or mishshowt {mish-shote'}; from shuwt; an oar -- oar.

see HEBREW shuwt

Brown-Driver-Briggs
מָשׁוֺט noun [masculine] oar; — ׳תֹּפְשֵׂי מ Ezekiel 27:29.

[מָשׁוֺט] noun [masculine] id.; plural suffix מִשּׁוֺטַ֫יִךְ Ezekiel 27:6 (Köii. 153, compare Ges§ 72e), made of oak-trees.

Topical Lexicon
Meaning and Imagery

The term מְשׁוֹט evokes the long wooden oar that propels a vessel when the wind slackens. While a sail harnesses invisible currents, an oar demands human strength applied in rhythmic unity. Scripture capitalizes on that contrast to expose the limits of human industry when set against divine sovereignty.

Occurrences in Ezekiel

Ezekiel 27:6: “Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars.” Here the oar is a luxury item hewn from the prized Bashan timber, underscoring Tyre’s unrivaled resources.
Ezekiel 27:29: “All who handle the oars will abandon their ships.” The very agents of maritime success become helpless spectators when judgment arrives.

Historical and Cultural Background

Phoenician ships of the sixth century B.C. combined square sails with banks of oars, allowing Tyrian merchants to navigate the Mediterranean regardless of fickle winds. Oared galleys required trained crews who moved in disciplined cadence to a coxswain’s call. That labor-intensive system mirrored the commercial empire Tyre built—innovative, organized, and proud. By selecting the oar rather than the mast as his emblem, Ezekiel highlights Tyre’s dependence on human skill and coordinated effort.

Symbolic Significance in the Oracle against Tyre

1. Human Expertise. Oarsmen represent mastery over the elements, yet the prophecy shows that mastery collapsing under divine decree (Ezekiel 27:26–27).
2. Collective Pride. An individual sailor cannot move a galley; prosperity rests on corporate exertion. Thus Tyre becomes a parable of a society unified in self-reliance rather than in fear of the Lord.
3. Sudden Futility. When “the east wind” of judgment drives the ship onto the high seas (27:26), the oars that once ensured mobility are useless. The scene anticipates every human system that will one day “wither like grass” (Isaiah 51:12).

Theological Themes

• Sovereignty of God over Commerce and Craft. The finest materials and most disciplined crews submit to His verdict.
• Vanity of Human Effort apart from God. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1); Ezekiel supplies the nautical counterpart.
• Corporate Accountability. The plural “all who handle the oars” places communal guilt and communal collapse side by side.

Intercanonical Echoes

Revelation 18:17–19 reprises Ezekiel’s seaborne lament, depicting shipmasters casting dust on their heads when Babylon falls. Though written in Greek, the picture of abandoned oars reverberates behind John’s vision, linking Tyre’s demise to the ultimate downfall of every world-system that exalts itself.

Practical Ministry Applications

1. Preaching and Teaching: Use the oar image to contrast human exertion with reliance on the Spirit. Just as rowing without wind exhausts a crew, ministry undertaken without prayer drains workers and drifts off course.
2. Leadership: The cadence of rowers illustrates healthy teamwork under a single command. Churches prosper when each member “pulls together” under Christ the Head (Ephesians 4:15–16).
3. Discipleship: Encourage believers to examine where they trust in skill or resources rather than the Lord. The Tyrian oar warns that any source of confidence can become an object of judgment.

Christological Resonance

In the Gospels Jesus calms storms by a word (Mark 4:39), accomplishing effortlessly what oars could not. He embodies the divine mastery Ezekiel intimates. The Church, therefore, rows faithfully but trusts the One who commands wind and waves.

Eschatological Horizon

The abandoned oar foreshadows the day when every enterprise built on human pride will halt. Believers are called to labor now in what cannot be shaken—“a kingdom that cannot be moved” (Hebrews 12:28).

Related Biblical Concepts

• Mast and Sail (Ezekiel 27:5, 7) – complementary images of natural provision.
• East Wind (27:26) – a common cipher for divine judgment.
• Shipmasters and Seafarers (Revelation 18:17) – the New Testament counterpart linking temporal commerce to final collapse.

In sum, מְשׁוֹט is a small word carrying a mighty warning: the strongest oars and the most unified crews cannot outrun the purposes of God.

Forms and Transliterations
מִשּׁוֹטָ֑יִךְ מָשׁ֔וֹט משוט משוטיך mā·šō·wṭ maShot māšōwṭ miš·šō·w·ṭā·yiḵ mishshoTayich miššōwṭāyiḵ
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Interlinear GreekInterlinear HebrewStrong's NumbersEnglishman's Greek ConcordanceEnglishman's Hebrew ConcordanceParallel Texts
Englishman's Concordance
Ezekiel 27:6
HEB: מִבָּ֔שָׁן עָשׂ֖וּ מִשּׁוֹטָ֑יִךְ קַרְשֵׁ֤ךְ עָֽשׂוּ־
NAS: they have made your oars; With ivory
KJV: have they made thine oars; the company
INT: Bashan have made your oars your deck have inlaid

Ezekiel 27:29
HEB: כֹּ֚ל תֹּפְשֵׂ֣י מָשׁ֔וֹט מַלָּחִ֕ים כֹּ֖ל
NAS: who handle the oar, The sailors
KJV: And all that handle the oar, the mariners,
INT: All handle the oar the sailors all

2 Occurrences

Strong's Hebrew 4880
2 Occurrences


mā·šō·wṭ — 1 Occ.
miš·šō·w·ṭā·yiḵ — 1 Occ.

4879
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