Hebrew word · H1404
גְּבֶ֫רֶת
geveret
lady
Feminine of gᵉbîr, 'lord, master'. It comes from the root g-b-r, 'to be strong, prevail'. Its basic setting is the household: the mistress set over a maidservant. A related form, gᵉbîrâ, is used for the queen mother at court (1 Kgs 15:13; Jer 13:18). 5).
Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) lady, queen
2) mistress (of servants)
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
- Range of meaning
Feminine of gᵉbîr, 'lord, master'. It comes from the root g-b-r, 'to be strong, prevail'. Its basic setting is the household: the mistress set over a maidservant. A related form, gᵉbîrâ, is used for the queen mother at court (1 Kgs 15:13; Jer 13:18). In Isaiah 47 the image is stretched to empire: gᵉberet mamlākôt, 'mistress of kingdoms' (v. 5).
- Against the English
KJV 'lady', WEB 'princess', BSB/NASB 'queen', ESV/NRSV 'mistress'. 'Queen' gets the royal scale right but loses the household picture of mistress over slaves. 'Princess' wrongly suggests a junior royal. 'Lady' now sounds merely polite.
- How it drifted
In modern English, 'mistress' has come to suggest a sexual partner and 'lady' has gone soft. Translators therefore reach for 'queen'. That keeps her rank but hides the slave-and-mistress pairing the poem depends on.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Sarai is Hagar's gᵉberet (Gen 16:4, 8, 9). 'As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her gᵉberet' (Ps 123:2). 'A maidservant who displaces her gᵉberet' (Prov 30:23). 'As with the maid, so with her gᵉberet' (Isa 24:2). The Greek Septuagint renders it here with archousa, 'ruling woman'.
- Range of meaning
A feminine noun from the root g-b-r ("be strong, prevail"). It means a woman with authority over others, above all a mistress over female servants. It is used of Sarah in relation to Hagar (Gen 16:4, 8, 9), of the mistress of Naaman's Israelite slave-girl (2 Kgs 5:3), and in proverbs pairing "maid" and "mistress" (Ps 123:2; Prov 30:23; Isa 24:2, "as with the maid, so with her mistress"). The related form gevirah names the queen mother, the most powerful woman at the Judean court (1 Kgs 15:13; Jer 13:18). In Isa 47 it appears twice: here, and in v.7, where Babylon boasts "I will be mistress forever."
- Against the English
KJV "lady", WEB/ESV/NRSV "mistress", BSB/NIV/NASB "queen". "Mistress" keeps the household picture of a woman over servants. "Queen" keeps the royal grandeur but loses the slave-and-owner pairing. Modern "lady" has gone soft and just means a polite word for a woman.
- How it drifted
"Lady" once meant the female head of a household and the counterpart of "lord". By modern times it has weakened into a courtesy term. "Queen" is a reasonable rendering, but it points the reader to crowns rather than to the servant hierarchy the chapter builds on.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Hebrew Bible the word is regularly set against shifchah or amah ("maidservant"). Mesopotamian goddesses carried titles of the type bēlet mātāti, "lady of the lands" (bēltu, "lady/mistress"). Some scholars hear "Mistress of Kingdoms" as a Hebrew send-up of that kind of Babylonian royal and divine title. The Vulgate has domina regnorum ("mistress/ruling lady of kingdoms").
- Range of meaning
Lady or mistress: the woman in charge of a household, especially over female slaves. The related form gevîrāh is used for the queen-mother at the royal court (1 Kings 15:13). Babylon is mocked as 'mistress of kingdoms' (Isaiah 47:5, 7).
- Against the English
'Mistress' is accurate in its old sense, the woman of authority. Readers should not hear the modern sexual sense.
- How it drifted
Modern English 'mistress' often means a man's illicit partner. That has nothing to do with this word.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Genesis 16:4, 8, 9 (Hagar and Sarai); 2 Kings 5:3 (the captive Israelite girl speaks to 'her mistress', Naaman's wife); Proverbs 30:23; Isaiah 24:2.
Where it appears
Genesis · 3
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Genesis 16:4 גְּבִרְתָּ֖הּ mistress her
And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
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Genesis 16:8 גְּבִרְתִּ֔י mistress my
“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
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Genesis 16:9 גְּבִרְתֵּ֑ךְ mistress your
So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”
2 Kings · 1
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2 Kings 5:3 גְּבִרְתָּ֔הּ mistress her
She said to her mistress, “If only my master would go to the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.”
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 123:2 גְּבִ֫רְתָּ֥הּ mistress her
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on the LORD our God until He shows us mercy.
Here: 'Her mistress,' the woman with authority over her. The word comes from a root meaning 'to be strong, to prevail', so it names the one who holds power in the women's part of the household.
Proverbs · 1
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Proverbs 30:23 גְּבִרְתָּֽהּ׃ פ mistress her
an unloved woman who marries, and a maidservant who supplants her mistress.
Isaiah · 3
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Isaiah 24:2 כַּגְּבִרְתָּ֑הּ as <the> mistress her
people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
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Isaiah 47:5 גְּבֶ֖רֶת queen of
“Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
Here: The mistress of a household, the woman who commands maidservants (Sarah over Hagar, Gen 16:4–9). Babylon was "mistress" and the nations were her slave-girls. Now the roles flip, and she is the one grinding at the mill (v.2).
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Isaiah 47:7 גְבָ֑רֶת a queen
You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
Here: The woman in charge of a household, the one slave-girls answer to. In v. 5 Babylon is 'mistress of kingdoms'. In vv. 1–2 she is ordered to sit in the dust and grind grain like a slave-girl. So the word sets up the reversal from mistress to slave.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.