A masseba or matzeva (,, plural maṣṣÃÂá¸Âoṯ) is a term used in the Hebrew Bible for a baetyl, a type of sacred column or standing stone. In the Septuagint, it is translated as .
Archaeologists have adopted the term for these stones in Canaan and the pre-Islamic Arab state of the Nabataean Kingdom. Massevot can also mark graves.
The Hebrew word is derived from a Semitic root meaning 'to stand', which led to the meaning "pillar".
In transcription, many spellings are possible.
Use of the term can be found in and .
The Patriarch Jacob set up four massebot in the Hebrew Bible:
Moses is mentioned as erecting an altar and 12 massebot, "according [representing?] to the twelve tribes of Israel", before ascending the mountain for 40 days and nights to meet with God. He also commands the people to set up "large stones" and cover them in plaster upon entering Israel to write the religious law upon.
Joshua set up a "large stone" to commemorate a covenant at Shechem. Though it is not called a massebot in text, its function is identical to massebot set up to commemorate treaties and events.
Abimelech was crowned king near a massebah in Shechem, and Joash may have also been crowned near a massebah. Rehoboam erected massebot for the purposes of worship (indicated by their condemnation).
Leviticus 26:1 may indicate a prohibition on the use of massebot as representations of God. The specific prohibition includes it in a list, prohibiting the creation of idols, graven images, erecting standing "images" (massebot), or any other image of stone with the intention of bowing before it. Exodus 23:24 indicates that gentiles also erected massebot, which is likely the reason for this prohibition, alongside consolidation of authorized ritual spaces to center on the Jerusalem Temple. Deuteronomy 16:21-22 supports this by banning the creation of a particular kind of sacred grove/"asherah" near the creation of altars (given the use of the word asherah, it is referencing a pagan practice) and then bans erecting massebot, likely as a continuation of the previous passage. However, Isaiah 19:19 mentions the future erection of massebot in a positive context outside of altars, shrines, or temples, indicating this was not a total ban in massebot.
Massebot have been found inside shrines dating to the 8th century CE, indicating an aniconic usage of these as representations of the divine. In Canaanite/Israelite contexts, they are usually undecorated, whereas similar standing stones in West Asia are not.