Hebrew word · H2916

טִיט

tit

mud

ṭîṭ is mud, mire or clay: street mud (Isa 10:6; Mic 7:10), the potter's clay (Isa 41:25; Nah 3:14), the mud in Jeremiah's cistern (Jer 38:6). yāwēn is a rarer word for sucking slime or mire. It appears only here and in Ps 69:2 ("I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing").

Appears 13 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) mud, clay, mire, damp dirt

1a) mud, mire

1b) clay (poetical)

Aramaic equivalent: tin (טִין "common" H2917)

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 Psalm 40:2

Range of meaning

ṭîṭ is mud, mire or clay: street mud (Isa 10:6; Mic 7:10), the potter's clay (Isa 41:25; Nah 3:14), the mud in Jeremiah's cistern (Jer 38:6). yāwēn is a rarer word for sucking slime or mire. It appears only here and in Ps 69:2 ("I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing").

Against the English

KJV/BSB/WEB "miry clay", ESV "miry bog", NIV/NLT "mud and mire", YLT "mire of mud". "Clay" can make readers think of a potter's useful material. The point here is the opposite: ground that will not hold you up.

How it drifted

"Miry clay" became fixed in hymns and revival songs, and "clay" pulls toward the potter imagery found elsewhere in Scripture (Jer 18; Isa 64:8). This verse is not about being shaped. It is about sinking.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 69:2, 14: "deliver me from the mire (ṭîṭ), let me not sink", with yāwēn in v2 and the explicit note "there is no foothold". Jer 38:6: "there was no water in the cistern, only mud (ṭîṭ), and Jeremiah sank in the mud."

From the study of Jeremiah 38:6

Range of meaning

Mud, mire, wet clay: the mud of the streets (Isa 10:6; Mic 7:10; Zech 9:3), the potter's clay (Isa 41:25; Nah 3:14), the churned-up muck of a troubled sea (Isa 57:20), and in the psalms the 'miry clay' of a pit (Ps 40:2, tit hayyaven).

Against the English

'Mud' (BSB and most modern versions) and 'mire' (KJV, WEB, YLT) are both accurate. 'Mire' keeps the sense of being stuck.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 40:2: 'He drew me up from the pit (bor) of destruction, out of the miry clay (tit).' Ps 69:2, 14 pairs sinking (tava) with deep mire. These are prayers of a person rescued from near-death, using the same imagery of pit, mud and sinking.

From the study of Psalm 69:14

Range of meaning

Mud, mire, wet clay. It is used for street mud that gets trampled (Isa 10:6; Mic 7:10), potter's clay (Isa 41:25; Nah 3:14), the mud churned up by the sea (Isa 57:20), and the mud at the bottom of a cistern or pit (Jer 38:6; Ps 40:2).

Against the English

'Mire' (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) is right but sounds old-fashioned. 'Mud' (NLT) is plainer. Neither word quite gets across that the danger is mud you sink into and cannot climb out of.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 38:6 is the closest parallel. Jeremiah is let down into a cistern with no water, 'only mud (ṭiṭ), and Jeremiah sank (wayyiṭba') in the mud.' That uses the same noun and the same verb as this verse. In Psalm 40:2 God lifts the psalmist 'out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay (ṭiṭ hayyāwen).'

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 22:43 כְּטִיט־ like [the] mud of

    I ground them as the dust of the earth; I crushed and trampled them like mud in the streets.

Job · 1

  1. Job 41:30 טִֽיט׃ mud

    His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.

Psalms · 3

  1. Psalm 18:42 כְּטִ֖יט like [the] mud of

    I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them like mud in the streets.

  2. Psalm 40:2 מִטִּ֪יט from [the] mud of

    He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.

    Here: "From the mud of." Wet muck at the bottom of a pit or street. It is the same word used for the mud Jeremiah sank into in the cistern (Jer 38:6).

  3. Psalm 69:14 מִ֭טִּיט from [the] mud

    Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.

    Here: 'From the mud.' Wet, clinging mud, the kind found at the bottom of a cistern or in a street after rain. It holds you fast. It picks up the 'deep mire' of verse 2, where the speaker said he was already sinking.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 41:25 טִֽיט׃ clay

    I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.

    Here: 'Clay / mire.' This is wet, sticky ground. Elsewhere it is the mire of the pit (Psalm 40:2; Jeremiah 38:6) and the dirt of the streets (Micah 7:10). It closes the line with a picture of utter helplessness.

  2. Isaiah 57:20 וָטִֽיט׃ and mud

    But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.

    Here: 'And mud, clay'. This is the same mire as the pit in Psalm 40:2 and Jeremiah's cistern (Jer 38:6). Paired with the previous word it paints the shoreline after a storm, fouled with sludge from the bottom.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 38:6 טִ֔יט בַּטִּֽיט׃ ס mud, in the mud

    So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

    Here: Wet clay or muck: the silt that settles at the bottom of a cistern.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 7:10 כְּטִ֥יט like [the] mud of

    Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

    Here: Wet mud or mire, the kind at the bottom of a cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). Nobody notices it and everybody steps in it.

Nahum · 1

  1. Nahum 3:14 בַטִּ֛יט in the clay

    Draw your water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Work the clay and tread the mortar; repair the brick kiln!

Zechariah · 2

  1. Zechariah 9:3 כְּטִ֥יט like [the] mud of

    Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.

  2. Zechariah 10:5 בְּטִ֤יט in [the] mud of

    They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the LORD is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.

    Here: Mud or mire. With 'streets' it is a set phrase for the filth everyone walks on, the lowest and most worthless thing there is.

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