H4161 — מוֹצָא (môwtsâʼ)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H4161
Original: מוֹצָא (also מֹצָא môtsâʼ)
Transliteration: môwtsâʼ
Pronunciation: mo-tsaw'
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: יָצָא (yâtsâʼ) H3318 — to go out, come forth
Occurrences: 31 tokens across 26 unique verses in 13 books
First Occurrence: Num 30:12 — "whatsoever proceeded out of her lips"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H3318 יָצָא; a going forth, i.e. (the act) an egress, or (the place) an exit; hence, a source or product; specifically, dawn, the rising of the sun (the East), exportation, utterance, a gate, a fountain, a mine, a meadow (as producing grass). KJV renderings: brought out, bud, that which came out, east, going forth, goings out, that which (thing that) is gone out, outgoing, proceeded out, spring, vein, (water-) course (springs).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
goings out / their goings out	3	11.5%
going forth / his going forth / the going forth	3	11.5%
spring / springs / the spring	3	11.5%
watersprings / watercourse	3	11.5%
brought (out)	2	7.7%
that which is gone out / the thing that is gone out of	2	7.7%
proceeded out / that proceedeth	2	7.7%
thy going out	1	3.8%
from the east	1	3.8%
the outgoings	1	3.8%
a vein	1	3.8%
the bud	1	3.8%
that which came out	1	3.8%
Other (function-word renderings)	4	15.4%

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Psalms	6	0.24
Ezekiel	4	0.31
Numbers	2	0.16
Deuteronomy	2	0.21
2 Chronicles	2	0.24
Job	2	0.19
Isaiah	2	0.15
2 Samuel	1	0.14
1 Kings	1	0.12
2 Kings	1	0.14
Jeremiah	1	0.07
Daniel	1	0.28
Hosea	1	0.51

The word is broadly distributed across genres — Torah, historical narrative, wisdom, prophetic, and poetry. No single book dominates, though Psalms has the highest raw count. The Ezekiel occurrences cluster in the temple-vision chapters (42–44) where the architectural sense "exits/entrances" appears. The word is absent from the entire NT Greek canon; the LXX renders it primarily through ἔξοδος (G1841).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Utterance / Words Proceeding from the Mouth¶

Words or commands that "go forth" from lips or mouth — the verbal-act sense. - Num 30:12 — "whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows" - Deut 8:3 — "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD" - Deut 23:23 — "That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform" - Psa 89:34 — "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips"

2. Physical Departure / Journeying Out¶

The act of going forth, military or travel movements, daily comings and goings. - Num 33:2 — "Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys" - 2 Sam 3:25 — "to know thy going out and thy coming in" - Eze 12:4 — "thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity"

3. Decree or Commandment Going Forth¶

A formal pronouncement or edict issued from authority. - Dan 9:25 — "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" - Jer 17:16 — "neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee"

4. Water Source / Spring / Fountain¶

The place from which water emerges — springs, watercourses, fountains. - 2 Ki 2:21 — "he went forth unto the spring of the waters" - Psa 107:33 — "He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground" - Psa 107:35 — "He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings" - Isa 41:18 — "I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water" - Isa 58:11 — "thou shalt be like a spring of water, whose waters fail not" - 2 Chr 32:30 — "Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon"

5. Dawn / Sunrise / The East¶

The place where the sun "goes forth" — sunrise, the east. - Psa 19:6 — "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it" - Psa 65:8 — "thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice" - Psa 75:6 — "promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south" - Hos 6:3 — "his going forth is prepared as the morning"

6. Exportation / Imported Goods¶

Commercial goods "brought out" from a country. - 1 Ki 10:28 — "Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt" - 2 Chr 1:16 — "Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt"

7. Source / Origin / Product (Miscellaneous)¶

A place or thing from which something emerges — mine, bud, architectural exit. - Job 28:1 — "Surely there is a vein for the silver" (a mine-source) - Job 38:27 — "to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth" - Eze 42:11 — "the way before them was like the appearance of the chambers… as long as they, and as broad as they: and all their goings out" - Eze 43:11 — "the form of the house… and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof" - Eze 44:5 — "mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהֹוָה (Yᵉhôvâh)	H3068	8× (31%)	Divine speech context — "word/thing that goes forth from the LORD"
כֹּל (kôl)	H3605	7× (27%)	Totality — "every going forth," "all their goings out"
מַיִם (mayim)	H4325	6× (23%)	Water-source sense — "spring of the waters," "watersprings"
יָדַע (yâdaʻ)	H3045	6× (23%)	Knowledge of movements — "to know thy going out"
מִדְבָּר (midbâr)	H4057	4× (15%)	Wilderness context — journeys, water-in-desert transformation
שָׂפָה (sâphâh)	H8193	4× (15%)	Lips — utterance sense: "that which is gone out of thy lips"
פֶּה (peh)	H6310	3× (12%)	Mouth — "proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD"
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets)	H776	3× (12%)	Land/earth — geographical context of departures

Word Family / Cognates¶

H3318 יָצָא (yâtsâʼ) — root verb: to go out, come forth, bring out (1,069 tokens across 990 verses)
H4163 מוֹצָאָה (môwtsâʼâh) — feminine form: origin, descent, privy, sewer
H8444 תּוֹצָאוֹת (tôwtsâʼôwth) — feminine plural: outgoings, borders, extremities (23v)
H6631 צֶאֱצָא (tseʼetsaʼ) — reduplicated form: offspring, produce, issue

Antonyms¶

H4126 מוֹבָא (môwbâʼ) — entrance, coming in (2v; 2 Sam 3:25, Eze 43:11 — exact semantic antonym; both appear together in 2 Sam 3:25 "thy going out and thy coming in")
H4627 מַעֲרָב (maʻărâb) — traffic, merchandise; west (9v; semantic contrast as directional opposite "west" vs. môwtsâʼ "east/sunrise")

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
יָצָא (yâtsâʼ)	H3318	"go forth," "proceed"	H3318 is the root verb (active action of going out); H4161 is the nominal derivative (the act, place, or product of going forth)
תּוֹצָאוֹת (tôwtsâʼôwth)	H8444	"outgoings," "goings out"	H8444 is the feminine plural form used primarily for territorial borders in Joshua; H4161 covers broader semantic range including utterance, springs, sunrise

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἔξοδος (exodos) G1841	12	7.60	Primary rendering — "a going out, exit, departure"
ἐκπορεύομαι (ekporeuomai) G1607	5	4.95	"proceed from, go forth" — verbal rendering of the noun
χεῖλος (cheilos) G5491	4	4.69	"lip" — contextual rendering when môwtsâʼ governs lips/utterance
ἔρημος (erēmos) G2048	4	3.48	"wilderness" — contextual rendering in desert/journey passages
ὕδωρ (hudōr) G5204	5	3.12	"water" — contextual rendering in water-source passages
ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai) G1831	3	2.30	"go out, come forth" — verbal rendering

The dominant bridge is G1841 ἔξοδος (12 co-occurrences, PMI 7.60), which carries the "going out / departure" concept into Greek. The LXX translators also frequently rendered contextually — using "water" for the water-source sense and "lips" for the utterance sense rather than translating the Hebrew word itself.