Hebrew word · H1326

בָּתָה

vatah

waste

Occurs only here, so its meaning has to be worked out from context and related words.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

end, destruction

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 5:6

Range of meaning

Occurs only here, so its meaning has to be worked out from context and related words. BDB gives "end, destruction." Others link it to the plural battot in Isaiah 7:19 ("steep ravines" or "desolate gorges"), which would give a meaning like "wild, broken ground" or "wasteland." Either way it describes land that has gone out of use.

Against the English

BSB "a wasteland", KJV/NASB "lay it waste", ESV "a waste" and NLT "a wild place" all fit the context. None of them can be more exact than the evidence allows, and none of them misleads.

Used elsewhere in the period

Not attested elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) does not translate it word for word. It says "I will abandon my vineyard" and later describes the thorns coming up "as on barren ground," which shows the translators also read it as land given up. The Vulgate (the Latin Bible) has "I will make it deserted" (ponam eam desertam).

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 5:6 בָתָ֗ה a desolation

    I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. From context it means ruin or a stretch of wasteland, the opposite of the carefully worked plot in verse 2. Its exact shade is uncertain (see studies).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.