TR: machah → exaleipho (Blot Out / Wipe Away)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────           ────────
מָחָה (machah)      →  ἐξαλείφω (exaleipho)  →  ἐξαλείφω (exaleipho)
H4229, 32x              22x as translation        5x in NT
"wipe, blot out"        of machah (PMI 27.72)     "blot out, wipe away"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H4229	מָחָה (machah)	32 unique verses	wipe, blot out, destroy, erase

No cognate nouns or adjectives attested in OT from this root.

Key OT passages: - Psalm 51:1 — "according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (petition for sin-erasure) - Isaiah 43:25 — "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake" (divine declaration of forgiveness) - Exodus 32:32-33 — "blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book... him will I blot out of my book" (erasure from divine record) - Isaiah 25:8 — "the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces" (eschatological comfort)

See H4229-machah.md for full canonical study.

LXX Bridge

H4229 machah → Greek (what Greek words translate machah in LXX):

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
machah (H4229)	ἐξαλείφω (G1813)	22x	27.72	Primary equivalent — near-exclusive rendering
machah (H4229)	βίβλος (G976)	3x	10.35	Context word ("book"), not a translation
machah (H4229)	ἀνομία (G458)	5x	7.58	Context word ("iniquity"), not a translation

G1813 exaleipho ← Hebrew (what Hebrew words exaleipho translates):

Greek	Hebrew Source	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
exaleipho (G1813)	מָחָה machah (H4229)	22x	27.72	Primary source — dominant correspondence
exaleipho (G1813)	טוּחַ tuwach (H2902)	4x	12.75	"daub, plaster" — physical smearing sense
exaleipho (G1813)	שָׁחַת shachath (H7843)	5x	8.29	"destroy, corrupt" — destruction sense

Bridge quality: Very tight. Machah maps to exaleipho 22 out of ~32 times (69%), and exaleipho maps back to machah as its dominant Hebrew source. The compound Greek word (ek + aleipho = "smear out/away") preserves the physical root sense of machah ("to rub/stroke" → "to erase").

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G1813	ἐξαλείφω (exaleipho)	5 verses	blot out, wipe away, obliterate

Key NT passages: - Acts 3:19 — "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (sin-erasure through repentance) - Colossians 2:14 — "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (erasure of legal record) - Revelation 3:5 — "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" (book-of-life imagery) - Revelation 7:17 — "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (eschatological comfort) - Revelation 21:4 — "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (new creation comfort)

TODO(need G1813 study)

Direct OT → NT Quotations

NT Verse	Echoes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Rev 7:17 / 21:4	Isa 25:8	machah → exaleipho	"wipe away tears from all faces" — Isaiah's eschatological promise fulfilled in Revelation using the same Greek word the LXX chose for machah
Rev 3:5	Exo 32:32-33; Psa 69:28	machah → exaleipho	"blot out of the book" — the divine-record imagery from Exodus and Psalms carried directly into Revelation through exaleipho
Acts 3:19	Psa 51:1, 9; Isa 43:25; 44:22	machah → exaleipho	"sins blotted out" — Peter's Pentecost sermon echoes the OT forgiveness formula of divine sin-erasure

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The core metaphor of erasure — removing something written or recorded — persists from OT through NT. Both testaments use machah/exaleipho for blotting out sins (Psa 51 → Acts 3:19), blotting out names from God's book (Exo 32:33 → Rev 3:5), and wiping away tears (Isa 25:8 → Rev 21:4). - God remains the primary agent of both erasure and comfort in both testaments.

What shifts: - The NT concentrates the word more narrowly. Where machah covers 7 semantic categories across 32 OT verses, exaleipho appears only 5 times in the NT, focusing exclusively on sin-erasure (Acts, Colossians) and eschatological comfort (Revelation). - The physical root sense of machah ("rub, smooth, make fat" — Isa 25:6 Pual) disappears entirely in the NT; exaleipho retains only the figurative "erase/obliterate" meaning. - Colossians 2:14 introduces a new application: blotting out a legal document (cheirographon), extending the erasure metaphor to written ordinances nailed to the cross — an image without direct OT precedent, though it builds on the book/record tradition of Exo 32 and Psa 69.

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-05-11