Hebrew word · H4007

מַבָּט

mebatah

expectation

It is formed from the verb נָבַט (nabaṭ, 'to look, gaze, regard'), and means 'the thing looked at or looked to'. By extension it means an object of expectation or hope, the place where you turn your eyes for help. The word is rare: Isa 20:5, 20:6 and Zech 9:5.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

expectation, object of hope or confidence

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 20:5

Range of meaning

It is formed from the verb נָבַט (nabaṭ, 'to look, gaze, regard'), and means 'the thing looked at or looked to'. By extension it means an object of expectation or hope, the place where you turn your eyes for help. The word is rare: Isa 20:5, 20:6 and Zech 9:5.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'expectation' and ESV/BSB 'hope' are both fair. 'Hope' can sound vague or inward to modern ears. The Hebrew is concrete and visual: a power you keep watching. YLT's 'confidence' and NIV's verb 'trusted in' bring out the reliance but lose the picture of looking.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Isa 20:6 the coastlanders say 'See, such is our mabbat', taking up the same word. In Zech 9:5 Ekron's mabbat is put to shame. BDB and HALOT both give 'expectation, object of hope' from the root 'look'. Isaiah often uses verbs of looking for misplaced reliance: 31:1, 'woe to those who go down to Egypt for help… but do not look (שָׁעוּ) to the Holy One of Israel.'

From the study of Zechariah 9:5

Range of meaning

Literally 'a looking-to': the thing one fixes one's eyes on for help, an object of hope or reliance. It comes from nābaṭ, 'to look'.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'expectation', BSB/NIV 'hope', ESV 'hopes'. 'Hope' is acceptable but sounds to a modern reader like an inner attitude. The Hebrew points outward to a person or power one depends on.

How it drifted

English 'hope' has become mainly a feeling or a theological virtue. Here the word names a concrete political protector.

Used elsewhere in the period

It occurs only here and in Isa 20:5–6, where 'Cush their mabbāṭ' is the foreign power Ashdod and the coastland relied on against Assyria. In both passages the word belongs to Philistine reliance on a stronger ally.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 20:5 מַבָּטָ֔ם hope their

    Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

    Here: 'Their looked-to thing': the power they had their eyes fixed on, waiting for rescue. The noun comes from the verb 'to look', so the image is of anxious watchers scanning the horizon for the Nubian army.

  2. Isaiah 20:6 מַבָּטֵ֗נוּ hope our

    And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 9:5 מֶבָּטָ֑הּ object of confidence its

    Ashkelon will see and fear; Gaza will writhe in agony, as will Ekron, for her hope will wither. There will cease to be a king in Gaza, and Ashkelon will be uninhabited.

    Here: 'Her looked-to-thing.' It comes from the verb 'to look', so it means the power Ekron looked to for protection, most naturally Tyre (v. 3–4). It is an outside support, not an inner feeling, and it echoes the 'seeing' at the start of the verse.

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