Hebrew word · H4297
מֻטֶּה
muteh
perversion
Found only here in the Bible. It is formed from the verb naṭah, 'to stretch out, bend, turn aside'. In legal texts that verb, in its causative form ('to make something bend'), means perverting justice.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
a perversion, that which is perverted or warped, perverted
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
Found only here in the Bible. It is formed from the verb naṭah, 'to stretch out, bend, turn aside'. In legal texts that verb, in its causative form ('to make something bend'), means perverting justice. So muṭṭeh is 'something bent', with the sense of distorted justice and crooked judgment (BDB: 'perversion [of justice]').
- Against the English
'Perversity / perverseness / perversion' (BSB, KJV, WEB, NASB) is etymologically right but now sounds sexual or simply odd. 'Injustice' (NIV, ESV) gives the legal sense well but loses the vivid picture of something bent.
- How it drifted
From the 19th century on, English 'perversion' came to be used mainly for sexual deviance. 'Perversity' has come to mean stubborn contrariness. Neither is what the Hebrew means here.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The related verb is used in Exodus 23:6 ('you shall not bend the justice due your poor'), Deuteronomy 16:19; 24:17; 27:19 ('cursed is anyone who bends the justice of the foreigner, the orphan and the widow'), and Amos 2:7. The parallel in Ezekiel 7:23 pairs 'bloods' with ḥamas, 'violence', which has led some scholars to compare the two verses. The Septuagint renders it with two words, 'injustice and uncleanness'.
Where it appears
Ezekiel · 1
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Ezekiel 9:9 מֻטֶּ֑ה perverseness
He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’
Here: This word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the verb for 'bending' or 'turning aside', which the Law uses for twisting justice in court. The picture is a city full of crooked verdicts.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.