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נוּס

to flee

‘to flee’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H5127 Strong's Hebrew
nûwç Transliteration
/noos/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 161 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

נוס (nûwç) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to flee.” It first appears in Genesis 14:10. Spanning 143 verses in 21 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. Across 3 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Hiphil). Related forms include מנוס and ניס. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
[idiom] abate
Modern gloss
to flee
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H5127 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 →

143
distinct verses
The word appears in 143 distinct verses.
21 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 21 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 14:10
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 14:10.
Zechariah 14:5
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 14:5.
#285
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 285 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 143 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 30 · 21%
  • Historical 73 · 51%
  • Wisdom 9 · 6%
  • Prophets 31 · 22%

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 143 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 93 verses · 65%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 30 verses · 21%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 20 verses · 14%

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: Fled 46×, Flee 15×, They fled 11×
  • American Standard Version: Fled 41×, Flee 14×, They fled 11×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Fled 39×, Flee 14×, Had fled 8×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Fled 44×, And 21×, They fled 15×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5127 across 160 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Fled” 46×
  • “Flee” 15×
  • “They fled” 11×
  • “He fled” 5×
  • “May flee” 4×
  • “Flee away” 3×
  • “Is fled” 3×
  • “Shall flee away” 3×
  • “They shall flee” 3×
  • “Are fled” 2×
  • “Fled away” 2×
  • “Fleeth” 2×

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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H5127 across 160 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Fled” 41×
  • “Flee” 14×
  • “They fled” 11×
  • “Is fled” 4×
  • “Shall flee” 4×
  • “Flee away” 3×
  • “He fled” 3×
  • “May flee thither” 3×
  • “Shall flee away” 3×
  • “Them” 3×
  • “Are fled” 2×
  • “Away” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 51 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 H5127 across 157 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Fled” 39×
  • “Flee” 14×
  • “Had fled” 8×
  • “He fled” 7×
  • “Will flee” 7×
  • “May flee” 6×
  • “They fled” 6×
  • “Flees” 4×
  • “Ran” 4×
  • “You will flee” 4×
  • “Ran away” 3×
  • “Run” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. 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 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5127 across 179 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Fled” 44×
  • “And” 21×
  • “They fled” 15×
  • “Flee” 11×
  • “Had fled” 9×
  • “Will flee” 9×
  • “He fled” 7×
  • “Fleeing” 5×
  • “You will flee” 4×
  • “Flees” 3×
  • “Shall flee” 3×
  • “Then” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 32 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


10 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 one or more reduplicated stems (the Pōlēl/Pilpēl type), which for hollow or geminate roots behave much like Piel — often intensive or iterative.

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 10 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.

Qal

  • Pf. נָס Nu 35:25 +; נַ֫סְתָּה 2 K 9:3; נַ֫סְתִּי 1 S 4:16, etc.; Impf. יָנוּס Ex 21:13 +; וַיָּנָ֫ס Gn 39:12 +; יְנוּס֑וּן ψ 104:7, etc.; Imv. mpl. נֻ֫סוּ Je 48:6 + 4 times Je Zc; Inf. abs. נוֹס 2 S 18:3; cstr. לָנוּס (לָנֻס) Gn 19:20 +; Pt. נָס Am 9:1 +; נָסִים Ex 14:27 +; — e.g. Numbers 35:25
  • 1. flee, abs. Gn 39:12, 15 Nu 16:34 (all J); Jos 10:16 (JE); Lv 26:17, 36 (H); fig. of sea ψ 114:3, 5 cf. 104:7; sq. acc. cogn. מָנוֹס Je 46:5, sq. דֶּרֶךְ Jos 8:15 (J), 2 K 9:27; sq. בְּדֶרֶךְ Dt 28:7, 25; נ׳ אֶל־נַפְשָׁם 2 K 7:7 flee for their life, נ׳ בְּרַגְלָיו Ju 4:15 flee on foot; + 44 times abs. (not elsewhere Hex); sq. אֶל־ loc. Dt 4:42; 19:5, 11 (D), Nu 35:32 Jos 20:4 (both P), Ju 4:17 1 K 2:28, 29 Is 13:14; sq. לְ 1 S 4:10 + 6 times + לִקְרָאתוֹ Ex 14:27 (E; not elsewhere Hex); sq. עַד Ju 7:22 + Pr 28:17 (עַד־בּוֹר, v. בּוֹר); sq. עַל־ Is 10:3; sq. ָה loc. Gn 14:10 + 4 times JE, Nu 35:6 + 6 times P, Dt 4:42; 19:3, 4 (D), + 6 times; sq. שָׁם Is 20:6; sq. acc. loc. Jos 8:20 (J), + 4 times; sq. מִמֶּרְחָק Is 17:13 = far away; sq. מִן from, Jos 20:6 (P), 1 S 4:16 + 3 times; מִתּוֹךְ Je 51:6; especially מִפְּנֵי from before Ex 4:3; 14:25 Nu 10:35 Jos 10:11 (all JE), 1 S 17:24 Je 48:44 (Qr הַנָּס, > Kt הניס), + 19 times; sq. לִפְנֵי Jos 7:4; 8:5, 6(×2) (all J), 1 S 4:17 2 S 24:13, מִלִּפְנֵי 1 Ch 19:18. e.g. Genesis 39:12
  • 2. escape Am 9:1 (‖ נמלט) so Je 46:6; hence e.g. Amos 9:1
  • 3. take flight, depart, disappear, only fig.; Dt 34:7 (JE) his freshness (לֵחֹה vigour) was not gone (‖ לֹא כָֽהֲתָה עינו); of shadows (at evening), Ct 2:17; 4:6; of sorrow etc. Is 35:10; 51:11. e.g. Deuteronomy 34:7
  • 4. נ׳ עַל־סוּס Is 30:16 fly (to the attack) on horseback. e.g. Isaiah 30:16

Poʿlel

  • Pf. Is 59:19 רוּחַ י׳ נֹסֲסָה בּוֹ the breath of י׳ driveth at it, driveth it on (cf. Hiph. 2). †Hithpoʿl. Inf. cstr. לְהִתְנוֹסֵס מִפְּנֵי ψ 60:6 in order to take flight before the bow (so Vrss Hup-Now but v. ii. [נסס]). e.g. Isaiah 59:19

Hiphil

  • Pf. הֵנִיס Ex 9:20; Impf. יָנִיסוּ Dt 32:30 + Ju 7:21 Kt (Qr וַיָּנוּסוּ Qal); Inf. cstr. לְהָנִיס Ju 6:11;— e.g. Exodus 9:20
  • 1. put to flight, sq. acc. Dt 32:30 (‖ רדף). e.g. Deuteronomy 32:30
  • 2. drive hastily to a safe place Ex 9:20, sq. acc. + אֶל־. e.g. Exodus 9:20
  • 3. cause to disappear, hide Ju 6:11 (no obj. expr.) sq. מִפְּנֵי. e.g. Judges 6:11

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. flee, escape (Syriac ܢܳܣ tremble (rare), cf. Brock; Arabic نوس, نَاسَ move to and fro, be in commotion, dangle, Lane 2866);—

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 1327


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.

נוּס

  • (b. h.) to flee. Ex. R. s. 3 למה נָס why did he flee (before the serpent)? Yalk. Ex. 237 בכל מקים שהיה מצרי נס וכ׳ withersoever an Egyptian fled, the sea ran against him; Mekh. B’shall. 6 מצרים נָסִים; a. fr.

נוּס ²

  • ch., v. נְסִס

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 103 distinct written forms H5127 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
וַ/יָּנֻ֖סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 19:8 8
נָ֣ס Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 19:15 5
וַ/יָּ֣נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 19:18 5
וַ/יָּ֥נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 4:3 5
לָ/נ֖וּס Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct 1 Kings 12:18 5
נָ֖סוּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 Chronicles 11:13 5
וַ/יָּ֖נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 39:12 4
וְ/נָ֖סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Isaiah 35:10 3
וַ/יָּנֻ֨סוּ֙ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 4:10 3
וַ/יָּנֻֽסוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 17:51 3
יָנ֥וּס Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Amos 2:16 3
לָ/נ֥וּס Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct Deuteronomy 19:3 3
נָ֥ס Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 34:7 3
נָ֔ס Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 20:30 2
הַ/נָּ֞ס Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 24:18 2
וְ/נַ֖סְנוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural Joshua 8:5 2
וְ/נָ֥ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 31:8 2
וַ/יָּנ֣וּסוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Chronicles 19:15 2
וַ/יָּנֹ֑ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:23 2
וַ/יָּנֻ֔סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Chronicles 10:7 2
וַ/יָּנֻ֕סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Joshua 7:4 2
וַ/יָּנֻ֤סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Judges 20:45 2
וַ/יָּנֻ֨סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Kings 20:30 2
יָנ֖וּס Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 21:13 2
לָ/נ֣וּס Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct Joshua 20:9 2
נָ֖ס Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 19:8 2
נָ֣סוּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Numbers 16:34 2
נָ֤ס Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 2:29 2
נָסִ֣ים Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Exodus 14:27 2
אָנ֨וּסָה֙ Verb, Qal, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Singular Exodus 14:25 1
בְּ/נֻסָ֣/ם Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct Joshua 10:11 1
בְּ/נוּסָ֖/ם Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct 2 Samuel 19:3 1
הֵנִ֛יס Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 9:20 1
הַ/נָּ֣ס Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 8:20 1
ו/יניסו Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Judges 7:21 1
וְ/יָנ֥וּסוּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 68:1 1
וְ/יָנֻ֥סוּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Numbers 10:35 1
וְ/נַ֖סְתָּה Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:3 1
וְ/נַסְתֶּ֖ם Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Leviticus 26:17 1
וְ/נַסְתֶּ֗ם Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Zechariah 14:5 1
וְ/נַסְתֶּ֣ם Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Zechariah 14:5 1
וְ/נָ֕ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 19:11 1
וְ/נָ֖ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 17:2 1
וְ/נָ֗ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 4:42 1
וְ/נָ֞ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Joshua 20:4 1
וְ/נָ֣ס Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 17:13 1
וְ/נָס֧וּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Leviticus 26:36 1
וְ/נֻ֛סוּ Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Zechariah 2:6 1
וַ/יָּ֑נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 10:1 1
וַ/יָּ֕נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:27 1
וַ/יָּ֤נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 2:28 1
וַ/יָּ֨נָס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Judges 7:22 1
וַ/יָּ֨נָס֙ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Judges 1:6 1
וַ/יָּנ֖וּסוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Chronicles 19:14 1
וַ/יָּנ֗וּסוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Judges 8:12 1
וַ/יָּנ֥וּסוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 13:16 1
וַ/יָּנֹֽס Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:10 1
וַ/יָּנֻ֛סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 14:10 1
וַ/יָּנֻ֜סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 31:1 1
וַ/יָּנֻ֣סוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Kings 20:20 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 43 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5127, 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 132 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 143 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

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.

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