Word study
Fugitive
8 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: fugitives, fugitive. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “fugitive” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- פָּלִיט pâlîṭescaped one, fugitivetranslated this way 10 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H6412Noun · Translated: fugitive 5, escape 5, fugitives 4, survivors 3Full study and all 23 verses →
Joshua 8:22 Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces on both sides. So Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained.
Judges 12:4 Jephthah then gathered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim, living in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.”
- נוּעַ nûaquiver, wave, waver, tremble, tottertranslated this way 2 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H5128Verb · Translated: shake 5, sway 3, shakes 3, fugitive 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Genesis 4:12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
Genesis 4:14 Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
- בָּרִיחַ bârîachfleeingtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1281Adjective · Translated: fleeing 2, fugitives 2Full study and all 4 verses →
Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
Isaiah 43:14 Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake, I will send to Babylon and bring them all as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
- פְּלֵיטָה pelêṭâhescapetranslated this way 1 time of its 28 uses · Strong’s H6413Noun · Translated: escape 6, survivors 6, remnant 6, deliverance 4Full study and all 28 verses →
Isaiah 15:9 The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon — a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.
- נָדַח nâdachimpel, thrust, banishtranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H5080Verb · Translated: banished 13, exiles 5, driven 4, banish 4Full study and all 53 verses →
Isaiah 16:4 Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land,
- מָצָא mâtsâattain to, findtranslated this way 1 time of its 436 uses · Strong’s H4672Verb · Translated: found 197, find 87, finds 13, present 7Full study and all 411 verses →
- נָדַד nâdadretreat, flee, depart, stray, wander, fluttertranslated this way 1 time of its 26 uses · Strong’s H5074Verb · Translated: fled 4, flee 4, wanders 2, flees 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Jeremiah 49:5 Behold, I am about to bring terror upon you, declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, from all those around you. You will each be driven headlong, with no one to regather the fugitives.
- נוּס nûsflee, escapetranslated this way 1 time of its 157 uses · Strong’s H5127Verb · Translated: fled 65, flee 47, ran 5, run 5Full study and all 141 verses →
Jeremiah 50:28 Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for His temple.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.