malat · escape

What it means

malat (מָלַט) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “escape”.

Get to safety; in the causative form, rescue, let escape.

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. To flee from a danger or an enemy and get to safety.
2. To bring another out of danger and set him safe.
3. To give birth, or lay eggs: what comes out of the mother's body.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To escape, get to safety; in the causative form, to rescue someone or bring him to safety. BDB: to be smooth, to slip away; from there, to escape, to deliver, to save.

• “Escape for your life!” Genesis 19:17
• David escapes from Saul 1 Samuel 19:111 Samuel 19:12
• The one who escapes a punishment 1 Kings 19:17Amos 2:14
• YHWH lets those who cry out escape Psalms 22:5Psalms 107:20
• “Everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be delivered” Joel 2:32

How we translate it

“Escape” 35 times, “escaped” 26; “rescue” 5, “save” 5, “be rescued” 3, “deliver” 3 and “will be delivered” 3, mostly in the causative form. This edition keeps it apart from בָּרַח, “flee”, so that both can be seen side by side: “he went and fled and escaped” (1 Samuel 19:12). מִלֵּט נֶפֶשׁ is “save your life” (1 Samuel 19:11).

How it is translated

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

• escape ×35
• escaped ×26
• rescue ×5
• save ×5
• be rescued ×3
• deliver ×3
• will be delivered ×3
• delivered ×2
• have saved ×2
• whoever escapes ×2
• others ×9

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×5
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×13
• 2 Samuel×4
• 1 Kings×5
• 2 Kings×3
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Esther×1
• Job×11
• Psalms×8
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Isaiah×9
• Jeremiah×13
• Ezekiel×4
• Daniel×2
• Joel×1
• Amos×4
• Zechariah×1
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 19:17

  When they had brought them outside, he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away.”

• Genesis 19:19

  Look, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have made great your loyal love that you have shown me by keeping me alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me and I die.

• Genesis 19:20

  Look, this city is near to flee there, and it is small. Please let me escape there (is it not small?) and I will stay alive.”

• Genesis 19:22

  Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the name of the city was called Zoar.

• Judges 3:26

  Ehud escaped while they delayed; he passed the carved images and escaped to Seirah.

• Judges 3:29

  They struck Moab at that time, about ten thousand men, all robust and all men of valor; and not a man escaped.

• 1 Samuel 19:10

  Saul sought to strike with the spear David and the wall, but he slipped away from before Saul, and he drove the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

• 1 Samuel 19:11

  Saul sent messengers to the house of David to watch him and to put him to death in the morning. And Michal his wife told David, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death.”

• 1 Samuel 19:12

  Michal let David down through the window, and he went and fled and escaped.

• 1 Samuel 19:17

  Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let go my enemy, so that he has escaped?” And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go; why should I put you to death?’”

• 1 Samuel 19:18

  David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.

• 1 Samuel 20:29

  He said, ‘Let me go, please, for we have a family sacrifice in the city, and my brother himself has commanded me; and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me escape, please, and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the table of the king.”

• 1 Samuel 22:1

  David went from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. His brothers and all his father’s house heard it, and they went down there to him.

• 1 Samuel 22:20

  But one son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped, and his name was Abiathar; he fled after David.

• 1 Samuel 23:13

  David and his men, about six hundred men, arose and went out from Keilah and went about wherever they could go. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up going out.

• 1 Samuel 27:1

  David said to his heart, “Now I shall be swept away one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape without fail to the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up on me, seeking me any longer in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.”

• 1 Samuel 30:17

  David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on the camels and fled.

• 2 Samuel 1:3

  David said to him, “From where do you come?” He said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”

• 2 Samuel 4:6

  And there they came into the middle of the house, as though fetching wheat, and they struck him in the belly; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

• 2 Samuel 19:5

  Joab came to the king in the house and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the life of your sons and your daughters, and the life of your wives and the life of your concubines,

• 2 Samuel 19:9

  All the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies, and he rescued us from the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

• 1 Kings 1:12

  So now come, please let me give you advice, and save your life and the life of your son Solomon.

• 1 Kings 18:40

  Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

• 1 Kings 19:17

  And it will be that whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will put to death; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will put to death.

• 1 Kings 20:20

  They struck down each one his man; and Aram fled, and Israel pursued them; and Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen.

• 2 Kings 10:24

  They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself outside eighty men and had said, “The man who lets escape any of the men whom I am bringing into your hands, his life will go for his life.”

• 2 Kings 19:37

  And it happened, as he was bowing down in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

• 2 Kings 23:18

  He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones safe, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

• 2 Chronicles 16:7

  At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on YHWH your Elohim, therefore the force of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

• Esther 4:13

  And Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine for yourself that you will escape in the king’s house more than all the Jews.

• Job 1:15

  and Sheba fell on them and took them, and the young men they struck with the edge of the sword, and I escaped, only I, I alone, to tell you.”

• Job 1:16

  This one was still speaking when another came and said, “The fire of Elohim fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the young men and consumed them, and I escaped, only I, I alone, to tell you.”

• Job 1:17

  This one was still speaking when another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them, and the young men they struck with the edge of the sword, and I escaped, only I, I alone, to tell you.”

• Job 1:19

  and look, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died, and I escaped, only I, I alone, to tell you.”

• Job 6:23

  and ‘Rescue me from the hand of the adversary,’ and ‘From the hand of tyrants ransom me’?

• Job 19:20

  My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

• Job 20:20

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

• Job 22:30

  He will rescue one who is not innocent, and he will be rescued by the cleanness of your palms.”

• Job 29:12

  because I rescued the poor crying for help, and the orphan, and the one who had no helper.

• Job 41:19

  From its mouth go forth torches; sparks of fire escape.

And 55 more times.