maṭṭēh leḥem (מַטֵּה לֶחֶם)
- Language: Hebrew
- Romanized: maṭṭēh leḥem
- Original script: מַטֵּה לֶחֶם
- Gloss: staff of bread
A famine idiom in which bread is the life-support a people lean on — the thing that lets them stand, and the thing God can break. The phrase recurs in The Staff of Bread.
Concordance Aid
Reading Note
Example passages: Leviticus 26:26; Ezekiel 4:16; Ezekiel 5:16.
The phrase is severe and beautiful at once. Bread is imagined as a staff, the thing a people leans on. When famine breaks that staff, daily life loses its support.
Translation Range
Staff of bread, support of bread, food support, bread supply, sustenance.
Not To Be Confused With
Do not read the phrase as a literal object. It is an idiom in which bread becomes the support a community leans on.
Translator’s Choice
“Staff of bread” preserves the image but may sound strange. “Food supply” is clearer but loses the metaphor. The Study Edition keeps the image and explains it.
Modern Caution
The idiom is about food support and social fragility, not a timeless endorsement of every bread form in every culture.
Related entries
- Matteh — staff, rod, support
- Lehem — bread
- Sterigma Artou — Greek rendering of the idiom
- Baculum Panis — Latin (Vulgate) rendering