מָלַט
to escape
‘to escape’ is one of 10 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘slip away’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘lay’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘give birth to a male child Is 66’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself). Here: ‘slip forth’
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4422 appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes — 3 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Ecclesiastes
- Ecclesiastes 7:26 יִמָּלֵ֣ט Niphal impf 3ms I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 יְמַלֵּ֥ט Piel impf 3ms There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
- Ecclesiastes 9:15 וּ/מִלַּט conj + Piel pf 3ms Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“to escape” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb מלט (mâlaṭ). Older and newer Bibles part ways — “escaped” in the King James Version, “escape” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It appears 85 verses across 20 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 19:17. Across 4 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Niphal, Piel). See the sense tree, 85-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4422 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 85
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 85 distinct verses.
- 20 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 20 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #437
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 437 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 85 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 85 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 54 verses · 64%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 27 verses · 32%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 5%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Escaped 12×, Deliver 8×, Escape 7×
- American Standard Version: Escaped 12×, Escape 10×, Shall be delivered 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Escape 17×, Escaped 11×, Have escaped 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Escape 14×, Escaped 8×, And 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4422 across 95 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4422 across 95 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 42 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4422 across 93 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 39 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4422 across 105 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
14 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 14 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Niphal
- Pf. 3 ms. נִמְלַט Ju 3:26 + 6 times; 3 fs. נִמְלְטָה ψ 124:7, with וְ cons. וְנִמְלָ֑טָה Je 48:19; 3 mpl. נִמְלָ֑טוּ 2 S 4:6 + 8 times Pf.; Impf. יִמָּלֵט Am 9:1 + 13 times; וַיִּמּ׳ Ju 3:26 + 7 times; 1 s. אִמָּֽלְטָה Gn 19:20 +; 3 mpl. וַיִּמָּלֵ֑טוֹּ Mal 3:15 + 12 times Impf.; Imv. הִמָּלֵט Gn 19:17(×2), 22; f. הִמָּֽלְטִי Zc 2:11; Inf. abs. הִמָּלֵט 1 S 27:1 (but read אִם אִמָּלֵט 𝔊 We Dr Löhr HPS; > Th Kit Bu ins. אִם bef. הִמּ׳); cstr. id., Gn 19:19 Est 4:3; Pt. נִמְלָט 1 K 19:17(×2);— e.g. Judges 3:26
- 1. slip away אִמָּֽלְטָה נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה אֶת־אֶחָ֑י 1 S 20:29 let me slip away to see my brethren; slip through, or past (into the house) 2 S 4:6 (cf. Dr HPS and Pi. 1, Hiph. 2; > Klo נִלְאָ֑טוּ, √ לאט, after 𝔊 ἔλαθον). e.g. 1 Samuel 20:29
- 2. escape, Ju 3:29 1 S 19:10 (‖ נוּס), v 12, 18 (both ‖ בָּרַה), v 17; 22:20 (‖ בָּרַה), 30:17 1 K 18:40; 20:20 (‖ נוּס), 2 K 10:24 Is 20:6 (‖ נִצַּל, נוּס), 49:24, 25 Je 46:6; 48:8, 19 (‖ נוּס), Ez 17:15(×2), 18 Am 9:1 Jo 3:5 Zc 2:11 Mal 3:15 ψ 124:7 Pr 19:5 Jb 1:15, 16, 17, 19; c. מִן of place whence 1 S 23:13 2 S 1:3 ψ 124:7; c. אֶל־ = whither 1 S 22:1; 27:1(×2); c. עַד Ju 3:26; c. ָה loc., Gn 19:17, 19, 20, 22 (J), Ju 3:26; c. acc. 2 K 19:37 = Is 37:38, Est 4:13; c. מִן of person from whom Ec 7:26; c. מִיַּד 1 S 27:1 2 Ch 16:7 Je 32:4; 34:3; 38:18, 23 Dn 11:41; מִפְּנֵי Je 41:15; מֵחֶרֶב 1 K 19, 17(×2); c. עַל־נֶפֶשׁ for one’s life Gn 19:17. e.g. Judges 3:29
- 3. pass. be delivered ψ 22:6 Pr 11:21; 28:26 Jb 22:30 Dn 12:1 (later usage). e.g. Psalms 22:6
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. מִלֵּט Ez 33:5; וּמִלַּט־ Ec 9:15; sf. מִלְּטֵ֫נוּ 2 S 19:10; Impf. יְמַלֵּט Am 2:14 + 8 times, sf. יְמַלְּטֵ֫הוּ ψ 41:2; + 5 times Impf.; Imv. מַלְּטָה ψ 116:4; f. מַלְּטִי 1 K 1:12; + 4 times Imv.; Inf. abs. מַלֵּט Is 46:2 Je 39:18; Pt. מְמַלֵּט 1 S 19:11; pl. מְמַלְּטִים 2 S 19:6;— e.g. Ezekiel 33:5
- 1. lay (eggs; i.e. let them slip out; of arrow-snake) Is 34:15 e.g. Isaiah 34:15
- 2. let escape: וימלטו עצמתיו 2 K 23:18 and so they let his bones (the prophet’s) escape (from the burning). e.g. 2 Kings 23:18
- 3. deliver, abs. Is 46:4; c. acc. Is 46:2 Je 39:18(×2) ψ 41:2 Jb 22:30; 29:12 Ec 8:8; 9:15; c. מִיַּד Jb 6:23; מִכַּף 2 S 19:10; מִשְּׁחִיתוֹתָם ψ 107:20; elsewhere מִלֵּט נֶפֶשׁ deliver, save, life 1 S 19:11; 2 S 19:6; 1 K 1:12 Je 48:6; 51:6, 45 Ez 33:5 Am 2:14, 15 ψ 89:49; 116:4; נפשׁ om. Am 2:15 ψ 33:17 Jb 20:20.—(This form not in Hex, Ju., Ch., Is. 1) e.g. Isaiah 46:4
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. הִמְלִיט Is 31:5; 3 fs. הִמְ֫לִיטָה Is 66:7. e.g. Isaiah 31:5
- 1. give birth to a male child Is 66:7 (‖ יָֽלְדָה, cf. Pi. 1). e.g. Isaiah 66:7
- 2. deliver: abs. Is 31:5 (‖ הִצִּיל גָּנַן, פָּסַח). e.g. Isaiah 31:5
Hithpael
- Impf. 1 s. וָאֶתְמַלְּטָה Jb 19:20; 3 mpl. יִתְמַלְּטוּ Jb 41:11. e.g. Job 19:20
- 1. slip forth, escape (sparks of fire from jaws of crocodile; RV leap forth) Jb 41:11. e.g. Job 41:11
- 2. escape (with the skin of the teeth, the gums; only these left unattacked by leprosy) Jb 19:20. e.g. Job 19:20
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. slip away (not in Qal) (NH מִילּוּט rescue; 𝔗 מְלַט (rare) = BH; Arabic مَلِطَ is have scanty hair; iv. cast the foetus without hair; [slip away, escape from hand is مَلِصَ]);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
מָלַט
- (b. h.) [to stand forth, project (cmp. בָּלַט),] to escape.
- to rescue. Midr. Till. to Ps. XLI ביום רעה אֲמַלֶּטְךָ on the day of evil I shall save thee. Taan. 23ᵃ מִילַּטְתּוֹ בתפלתךָ thou hast saved it (the generation) through thy prayer. Yalk. Ps. 777 מיכל מְמַלֶּטֶת וכ׳ Michael helped David to escape from within and Jonathan from without; a. e.
- to be saved, to escape. Esth. R. introd. נח ראש לנִמְלָטִים Noah is the first of those saved (mentioned in the Bible). Koh. R. to IX, 15 כל השומע ליצר טוב נ׳ whosoever listens to the suggestions of his good inclination will be saved; a. e.
- same. Yalk. Deut. 854 ואתם מִתְמַלְּטִים וכ׳ and you will be saved from the judgment of &c.
מְלַט
- Ithpe. אִתְמְלִיט to be saved. Targ. Prov. XIX, 5 נִתְמְלִיט (ed. Wil. נִתְמַלֵט; Ms. נתפליט).
מֶלֶט
- m. (b. h.), pl. מִלְטִין, v. מַלְטֵט
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 77 distinct written forms H4422 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 17 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4422, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 78 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 85 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 19:17
- Judges 3:26
- 1 Samuel 19:10
- 2 Samuel 1:3
- 1 Kings 1:12
- 2 Kings 10:24
- 2 Chronicles 16:7
- Esther 4:13
- Job 1:15
- Psalms 22:5
- Proverbs 11:21
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
