H4960 — מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H4960
Original: מִשְׁתֶּה
Transliteration: mishteh
Pronunciation: mish-teh
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: From שָׁתָה (shathah, H8354) — "to drink"
Occurrences: 49 tokens in 43 unique OT verses
Books: 13
First Occurrence: Gen 19:3 — Lot "made them a feast (mishteh), and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From שָׁתָה (shathah, "to drink"): drink, by implication, drinking (the act); also (by implication) a banquet or (generally) feast. KJV: banquet, drank, drink, feast((-ed), -ing).

The underlying sense is a social drinking-occasion. Unlike חַג (chag, H2282), which denotes a calendrical/religious festival, mishteh denotes an ad-hoc social event centered on shared eating and especially drinking.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
a feast	13	30.2%
the banquet	6	14.0%
of feasting	5	11.6%
feast	4	9.3%
at the banquet	2	4.7%
which he drank	2	4.7%
and drink / your drink / that they should drink	3	7.0%
feasting / and feasting / in their feasts / their feasts / from the banquet / like the feast / of the banquet / of the feast / and feasted	9	20.9%

Note: ~58% of uses render as "feast/feasting"; ~23% render as "banquet"; the remainder render as "drink/drinking" — mapping cleanly onto the noun's double sense (feast-event / drinking-act).

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Esther	19	11.4
Daniel	4	1.1
Judges	3	0.5
Ecclesiastes	1	0.5
Ezra	1	0.4
Genesis	5	0.3
Isaiah	2	0.2
Job	2	0.2
1 Samuel	1	0.1
2 Samuel	1	0.1
1 Kings	1	0.1
Proverbs	1	0.1
Jeremiah	2	0.1

Pattern: Massive concentration in Esther (44% of all uses, density ~20x the next book) — the book of Esther is structurally built around a sequence of mishteh-scenes. Secondary clusters in Genesis patriarchal narratives (weddings, weanings, covenant meals) and in Daniel (Babylonian court banqueting). Entirely absent from Torah legal/cultic material, Psalms, and most of the Prophets — this is a narrative-setting word, not a cultic one.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Covenant / Hospitality Feast¶

A meal hosted to welcome, honor, or seal relations with guests. - Gen 19:3 — Lot "made them a feast" for the two angelic visitors - Gen 26:30 — Isaac makes a feast for Abimelech at the Beersheba covenant - 2 Sam 3:20 — David makes a feast for Abner and his twenty men - 1 Kings 3:15 — Solomon "made a feast to all his servants" after the Gibeon dream

2. Life-Cycle Celebration (Weaning, Wedding, Birthday)¶

Feasts tied to family/royal milestone events. - Gen 21:8 — Abraham makes "a great feast" on the day Isaac was weaned - Gen 29:22 — Laban gathers all the men and "made a feast" for Jacob's wedding - Gen 40:20 — Pharaoh's birthday feast "unto all his servants" - Judg 14:10, 12, 17 — Samson's seven-day wedding feast

3. Royal / Imperial Banquet (Esther, Daniel)¶

State banquets that display the king's wealth and serve as the stage for political drama. - Esth 1:3, 5 — Ahasuerus's 180-day feast for his princes, then 7-day feast for all Shushan - Esth 5:4–6; 7:2, 7–8 — Esther's sequence of banquets trapping Haman - Dan 1:5 — "a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank (mishteh)"

4. Drinking-Session / "Banquet of Wine"¶

The specialized idiom מִשְׁתֵּה הַיַּיִן ("banquet of wine") — a session whose defining feature is the wine itself. - Esth 5:6; 7:2, 7, 8 — "banquet of wine" (four times, all in the Esther/Haman climax) - Isa 5:12 — "the harp, and the viol... and wine, are in their feasts (mishteh)" - Jer 51:39 — "I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken"

5. Feasting as Ethical Contrast (Wisdom Literature)¶

In Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes mishteh functions as a moral foil — either a cause of worry or a lesser good than sober reflection. - Job 1:4–5 — the sons' rotating feasts that prompt Job's sin-offerings - Prov 15:15 — "he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast" - Eccl 7:2 — "better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting"

6. Eschatological Feast of YHWH¶

One distinctive prophetic re-use: YHWH himself hosts a mishteh for all peoples. - Isa 25:6 — "In this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast (mishteh) of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
מֶלֶךְ melek (king)	H4428	19x (44%)	"the king made a feast" — royal host
יוֹם yom (day)	H3117	16x (37%)	"days of feasting" / "day of the feast"
בּוֹא bo (come/enter)	H935	12x (28%)	"come unto the banquet" — invitation/arrival
כֹּל kol (all)	H3605	12x (28%)	"a feast unto all his princes/servants/people"
אָמַר amar (say)	H559	10x (23%)	feast as setting for speech (petitions, oaths)
אֶסְתֵּר Esther	H635	9x (21%)	Esther's banquets, dominant in that book
הָמָן Haman	H2001	8x (19%)	the banquet as Haman's trap
יַיִן yayin (wine)	H3196	8x (19%)	"banquet of wine" (mishteh hayyayin)
נָתַן nathan (give/make)	H5414	8x (19%)	"gave/made a feast"
בַּיִת bayith (house)	H1004	7x (16%)	"house of feasting" (Ecc 7:2; Jer 16:8)
שִׂמְחָה simchah (joy)	H8057	5x (12%)	feasting paired with gladness (Esth 9)
שָׁלוֹשׁ shalosh (three)	H7969	5x (12%)	multi-day feasts
מַלְכָּה malkah (queen)	H4436	5x (12%)	queen as host/participant (Vashti, Esther)

Word Family / Cognates¶

H8354 שָׁתָה (shathah) — root verb: "to drink" (the verb from which mishteh is derived)
H4945 מַשְׁקֶה (mashqeh) — "drink, drinking vessel, cup-bearer" (parallel nominal from שָׁקָה, close semantic neighbor)
H4961 מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh) — Aramaic cognate "banquet" (Dan 5:10, parallel form)

Synonyms¶

No synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H4960.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H4960.

Easily Confused Words (shared KJV translation)¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
חַג (chag)	H2282	"feast" (12v)	chag = calendrical/cultic festival (Passover, Booths, Pilgrim feasts); mishteh = social drinking-feast, never used of the Mosaic festivals
מִרְזַח (mirzach)	H4797	"banquet" (1v, Jer 16:5)	mirzach = a mourning/funerary feast society; mishteh = celebratory
לֶחֶם (lechem)	H3899	"feast" (1v)	lechem = "bread/food" generically; mishteh foregrounds drinking
לְחֶם (lechem, Aram.)	H3900	"feast" (1v, Dan 5:1)	Aramaic cognate of lechem with feast-sense in Daniel

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
πότος (potos)	G4224	19	8.52	Primary equivalent — "a drinking-bout, carousal"; directly preserves the drink-event sense
δοχή (dochē)	G1403	8	9.08	"reception, convivial entertainment" (NT: Luke 5:29; 14:13)
γάμος (gamos)	G1062	4	9.08	"wedding, marriage feast" (matches Gen 29:22 type)
εὐφροσύνη (euphrosynē)	G2167	6	5.00	"gladness" — translates the affective aspect
χαρά (chara)	G5479	4	6.68	"joy, gladness"
βασίλισσα (basilissa)	G938	6	6.57	co-occurring noun ("queen"), Esther scenes

The dominant bridge is mishteh → πότος (G4224); the NT κώμος / δοχή / γάμος words inherit surrounding LXX territory. πότος appears only once in the Greek NT (1 Pet 4:3), where it retains the negative "drinking-bout" sense.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002001001025] Ingest — core eating/drinking event domain returned by the relationship tool.
[002002002011] Festivals — banquet and feast-occasion domain, including celebratory assemblies.
[001002010007] Liquids — drink and wine association that underlies the noun's "banquet of wine" uses.