H4061 H4061
tribute, tax levied on subject peoples
This Aramaic loan-word denotes mandatory payments imposed on conquered or subject territories, appearing exclusively in post-exilic texts dealing with Persian administration. The term occurs in correspondence about Jerusalem's reconstruction, where opponents warn the Persian king that the city historically refused to pay tribute (Ezra 4:13, 20). It reflects the complex political realities of the restoration period, when the Jewish community navigated obligations to imperial power.
Senses
1. sense 1 — A fiscal term for tribute or tax imposed by imperial authority, specifically in the Persian period. All four occurrences appear in Ezra's account of political tensions surrounding Jerusalem's rebuilding. The cross-linguistic glosses ('tribute,' 'tributo') uniformly convey the sense of mandatory payment to a governing power, reflecting the administrative vocabulary of the Achaemenid Empire. 4×
AR["جِزْيَة", "جِزْيَةً-", "مِنْ-جِزْيَة", "وَ-جِزْيَةٌ"]·ben["আর-কর", "কর", "কর-"]·DE["[ומדה]", "[מנדה]", "von-Gesetz"]·EN["and-tribute", "the-tribute-of", "tribute"]·FR["[ומדה]", "[מדת]", "[מנדה]"]·heb["ו-מדה", "מדת", "מנדה"]·HI["और-कर", "कर", "कर-पर"]·ID["dan-pajak", "pajak"]·IT["e-tassa", "tassa"]·jav["pajeg", "saking-pajeg", "upeti"]·KO["그리고-세금", "세금", "세금-"]·PT["do-tributo-de", "e-tributo", "tributo"]·RU["и-подать", "подати", "подать", "подать-"]·ES["del-tributo-de", "tributo", "tributo-", "y-tributo"]·SW["kodi", "na-kodi"]·TR["ve-vergi", "vergi", "vergi-", "vergiden"]·urd["اور-خراج", "خراج", "خراج-"]
Related Senses
H5414 1. give, bestow (1855×)H3947 1. take, seize, grasp (Qal) (940×)G2192 1. possess / have (680×)G1325 1. give, bestow (336×)H5159 1. inherited land or property (170×)G2983 1. receive, obtain (134×)H3423 1. Qal: take possession of land (130×)G2983 2. take, take up (113×)G2398 1. one's own, belonging to oneself (91×)G3860 1. hand over, deliver to custody (78×)H7998 1. spoil, plunder, booty (74×)G1325 2. be given, be granted (70×)H5414 2. put, place, set (68×)H7999a 1. pay, repay, recompense (63×)H7069 1. Buy, purchase (59×)H1892 1. vanity, futility, absurdity (58×)H5159 2. heritage as covenant portion (52×)H6299 1. redeem or ransom (Qal active) (49×)H4376 1. Sell (Qal active) (47×)H1350a 1. Redeem, buy back (46×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† מִנְדָּה, מִדָּה (?) n.f. tribute (Assyrian loan-word, cf. BH ii. [מִדָּה]);—abs. מִנ׳ Ezr 4:13; 7:24 + 4:20 Baer (van d. H. Gi Str מִדָּה); cstr. מִדַּת 6:8.