mavet · death

What it means

mavet (מָוֶת) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “death”.

Also the realm of the dead, or a deadly plague.

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 end of life: when someone stops breathing and returns to dust.
2. The place of the dead, or a plague.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Death, natural or violent; also the place of the dead, and figuratively, plague or ruin. BDB: death; concretely, the dead, their place or state; figuratively, pestilence, ruin. It comes from מוּת, “to die”.

• “Life and death” Deuteronomy 30:15Deuteronomy 30:19
• “Precious in the eyes of YHWH {is} the death of his faithful ones” Psalms 116:15
• “If anything but death separates me and you” Ruth 1:17
• Death overcome Isaiah 25:8Hosea 13:14
• “Son of death”: “deserves to die” 2 Samuel 12:5

How we translate it

“Death” 140 times; with an infinitive or a verbal construction, “died”, “die”, “dies”, “when they are dead”. בֶּן־מָוֶת, “son of death”, is translated “deserves to die”.

How it is translated

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

• death ×140
• died ×6
• die ×4
• dies ×4
• when they are dead ×2
• deathly ×1
• deaths ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×7
• Exodus×1
• Leviticus×3
• Numbers×9
• Deuteronomy×9
• Joshua×3
• Judges×3
• Ruth×2
• 1 Samuel×6
• 2 Samuel×10
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Kings×6
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×6
• Esther×1
• Job×8
• Psalms×22
• Proverbs×19
• Ecclesiastes×6
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×13
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×5
• Hosea×2
• Jonah×2
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 21:16

  Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Let me not see the death of the child.” And she sat opposite him, lifted up her voice, and wept.

• Genesis 25:11

  After the death of Abraham, Elohim blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi.

• Genesis 26:18

  Isaac again dug the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by names like the names by which his father had called them.

• Genesis 27:2

  He said, “Look, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.

• Genesis 27:7

  ‘Bring me game and make me tasty food, so that I may eat and bless you before YHWH before my death.’

• Genesis 27:10

  Then you will bring it to your father, and he will eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

• Genesis 50:16

  So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave orders before his death, saying,

• Exodus 10:17

  So now, please forgive my sin only this time, and pray to YHWH your Elohim that he only remove this death from me.”

• Leviticus 11:31

  These are unclean for you among all the swarming things; whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:32

  And anything on which any of them falls when they are dead will be unclean, whether any article of wood or garment or skin or sack, any article with which work is done; it shall be put into water, and it will be unclean until the evening; then it will be clean.

• Leviticus 16:1

  And YHWH spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before YHWH and died.

• Numbers 6:7

  For his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, he shall not make himself unclean for them when they die, because the consecration of his Elohim is on his head.

• Numbers 16:29

  If these men die as all human beings die, and the fate of all human beings is visited on them, YHWH has not sent me.

• Numbers 23:10

  Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”

• Numbers 26:10

  The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korah when the community died, when the fire consumed two hundred fifty men, and they became a sign.

• Numbers 33:39

  Aaron was a hundred twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

• Numbers 35:25

  And the community shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community shall return him to his city of refuge to which he had fled; and he shall dwell in it until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

• Numbers 35:28

  For in his city of refuge he must dwell until the death of the high priest; and after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

• Numbers 35:32

  And you shall not accept compensation for one who fled to his city of refuge, to return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.

• Deuteronomy 19:6

  so that the avenger of blood does not pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, though he did not deserve a sentence of death, since he did not hate him previously.

• Deuteronomy 21:22

  And if there is in a man a sin with a sentence of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

• Deuteronomy 22:26

  But to the young woman you shall not do anything; the young woman has no sin deserving death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case,

• Deuteronomy 30:15

  See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil,

• Deuteronomy 30:19

  I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring,

• Deuteronomy 31:27

  For I know your rebelliousness and your stubbornness. Look, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against YHWH; how much more after my death!

• Deuteronomy 31:29

  For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the days to come, because you will do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands.”

• Deuteronomy 33:1

  And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of Elohim, blessed the sons of Israel before his death.

• Deuteronomy 34:7

  And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye had not grown dim, and his vigor had not fled.

• Joshua 1:1

  And it came about after the death of Moses the servant of YHWH, that YHWH said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant:

• Joshua 2:13

  that you will keep alive my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”

• Joshua 20:6

  And he shall live in that city until he stands before the community for judgment, until the death of the high priest who is in those days. Then the manslayer shall return and come to his city and to his house, to the city from which he fled.’”

• Judges 1:1

  After the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel asked YHWH, saying, “Who will go up for us against the Canaanite first, to fight against him?”

• 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 16:30

  And Samson said, “Let my soul die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with force, and the house fell on the lords and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death at his death were more than those he had put to death in his life.

• Ruth 1:17

  Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. So may YHWH do to me, and so may he add, if anything but death separates me and you.”

• Ruth 2:11

  Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully told to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you abandoned your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not know before.

• 1 Samuel 5:11

  So they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the Elohim of Israel, and let it return to its place, so that it does not put me to death, and my people.” For there was a deathly confusion throughout the city; the hand of Elohim was very heavy there.

• 1 Samuel 15:32

  Samuel said, “Bring near to me Agag king of Amalek.” And Agag went to him in good spirits; and Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death has turned aside.”

• 1 Samuel 15:35

  Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned for Saul; and YHWH was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

• 1 Samuel 20:3

  David swore again and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as YHWH lives and as your soul lives, there is but as it were a step between me and death.”

And 118 more times.