the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Escape
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
Mâlaṭ (מָלַט, Strong's #4422), “to escape, slip away, deliver, give birth.” This word is found in both ancient and modern Hebrew. Mâlaṭ occurs approximately 95 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The word appears twice in the first verse in which it is found: “Flee for your life; … flee to the hills, lest you be consumed” (Gen. 19:17, RSV). Sometimes mâlaṭ is used in parallelism with $, “to flee” (1 Sam. 19:10), or with mâlaṭ, “to flee” (1 Sam. 19:12). The most common use of this word is to express the “escaping” from any kind of dangersuch as an enemy (Isa. 20:6), a trap (2 Kings 10:24), or a temptress (Eccl. 7:26). When Josiah’s reform called for burning the bones of false prophets, a special directive was issued to spare the bones of a true prophet buried at the same place: “… So they let his bones alone …” (2 Kings 23:18; literally, “they let his bones escape”). Mâlaṭ is used once in the sense of “delivering a child” (Isa. 66:7).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Escape'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​vot/​e/escape.html. 1940.