beten · womb, belly

What it means

beten (בֶּטֶן) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “womb, belly”.

Belly; the mother's womb; the inner part of a person.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The belly; also one's innermost part.
2. The belly where a mother carries her child.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Belly: the abdomen; above all the mother's womb, where the child is formed. Also the innermost part of a person.

• The mother's womb: twins in the womb Genesis 25:23Genesis 25:24
• Known or called “from the womb” Jeremiah 1:5Psalms 22:10Isaiah 44:2
• “The fruit of your womb”: children Deuteronomy 28:4Psalms 127:3
• The belly of the body Judges 3:21
• The innermost part of a person Proverbs 18:8Proverbs 20:27

How we translate it

“Womb” 36 times when it is the mother's (Genesis 25:23) and “belly” 34 for the body and in the figurative sense, keeping the Hebrew image (the morsels that “go down into the inner rooms of the belly”, Proverbs 18:8). In Proverbs 22:18 it is translated “within you”, because there it names a person's inner self.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• womb ×36
• belly ×34
• inward parts ×1
• within you ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Numbers×3
• Deuteronomy×6
• Judges×5
• 1 Kings×1
• Job×16
• Psalms×10
• Proverbs×8
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×1
• Hosea×3
• Jonah×1
• Micah×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 25:23

  YHWH said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from your inner parts will be divided; one people will be stronger than the other people, and the older will serve the younger.”

• Genesis 25:24

  When her days to give birth were fulfilled, look, there were twins in her womb.

• Genesis 30:2

  Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of Elohim, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

• Genesis 38:27

  When the time of her giving birth came, look, there were twins in her womb.

• Numbers 5:21

  then the priest shall make the woman swear the oath of imprecation, and the priest shall say to the woman, ‘May YHWH make you an imprecation and an oath among your people, when YHWH makes your thigh sag and your belly swell;

• Numbers 5:22

  may this water that brings a curse go into your bowels to make the belly swell and the thigh sag.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, amen.’

• Numbers 5:27

  When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be that if she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse shall enter into her to become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh sag, and the woman shall become an imprecation among her people.

• Deuteronomy 7:13

  He will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock, on the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.

• Deuteronomy 28:4

  Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock, the offspring of your herds and the young of your flock.

• Deuteronomy 28:11

  And YHWH will make you abound in good things, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, on the land that YHWH swore to your fathers to give you.

• Deuteronomy 28:18

  Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your herds and the young of your flock.

• Deuteronomy 28:53

  And you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom YHWH your Elohim has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you.

• Deuteronomy 30:9

  And YHWH your Elohim will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for YHWH will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers,

• Judges 3:21

  Ehud reached out his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

• Judges 3:22

  The hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the excrement came out.

• Judges 13:5

  For look, you will be pregnant and bear a son. And no razor shall come up on his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb, and he will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

• Judges 13:7

  But he said to me, ‘Look, you will be pregnant and bear a son; so now do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, and do not eat any uncleanness, for the boy shall be a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb until the day of his death.’”

• Judges 16:17

  So he opened to her all his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come up on my head, for I have been a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb of my mother. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any human being.”

• 1 Kings 7:20

  And the capitals on the two pillars were also above, close to the belly that was beside the net; and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows all around on the second capital.

• Job 1:21

  He said, “Naked I came out of the belly of my mother, and naked I will return there. YHWH gave, and YHWH took; may the name of YHWH be blessed.”

• Job 3:10

  because it did not shut the doors of my belly and hide suffering from my eyes.

• Job 3:11

  Why did I not die from the womb, come out from the belly and expire?

• Job 10:19

  I would be as though I had not been; from the belly to the grave I would have been carried.

• Job 15:2

  “Will a wise man answer with knowledge of wind, and fill his belly with the east wind?

• Job 15:35

  They conceive suffering and give birth to wickedness, and their belly prepares deceit.”

• Job 19:17

  My breath is strange to my wife, and I plead with the sons of my belly.

• Job 20:15

  Wealth he swallowed, and he will vomit it up; from his belly El will drive it out.

• Job 20:20

  For he did not know tranquility in his belly; nothing of what he covets will he rescue.

• Job 20:23

  When he is about to fill his belly, he will send against him the burning of his anger, and rain it on him upon his flesh.

• Job 31:15

  Did not the one who made me in the womb make him? And did not one form us in the womb?

• Job 31:18

  —for from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and from the womb of my mother I guided her—

• Job 32:18

  For I am full of words; the spirit of my belly presses me.

• Job 32:19

  Look, my belly is like wine that is not opened; like new wineskins it is bursting.

• Job 38:29

  From the womb of whom has the ice come out? And the frost of the heavens, who has given it birth?

• Job 40:16

  Look, please, its strength is in its loins, and its vigor in the muscles of its belly.

• Psalms 17:14

  from men, by your hand, YHWH, from men of the world, whose share is in life; and with what you have stored up you fill their belly; the sons are satisfied and leave their remainder to their little ones.

• Psalms 22:9

  For you are the one who drew me out of the belly, who made me trust at the breasts of my mother.

• Psalms 22:10

  Upon you I was cast from the womb; from the belly of my mother you are my El.

• Psalms 31:9

  Show me favor, YHWH, for I am in distress; my eye has wasted away with grief, my soul and my belly.

• Psalms 44:25

  For our soul has sunk down to the dust; our belly clings to the earth.

And 32 more times.