Hebrew word · H4455

מַלְקוֹחַ

malkoach

prey

Booty or spoil taken in war, including captured people and animals. Rarely used for food or prey in an animal's mouth.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 06, 2026

What it means

booty, prey

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

Range of meaning: Booty or spoil taken in war, including captured people and animals. Rarely used for food or prey in an animal's mouth.
Against the English: KJV 'prey' can suggest a hunted animal. 'Plunder/booty' is closer: the spoils of a military victory, with people counted among them.
Used elsewhere in the period: Num 31:11–12, 26–27 (war spoils, people and animals); Isa 49:25 repeats it. It comes from the root laqach, 'take.'

Range of meaning: A noun from laqach, 'to take', so literally 'a thing taken'. It means prey or booty, especially living captures: people and animals carried off in war. (A related dual form, malqochayim, means 'jaws' in Ps 22:15. That is a separate use of the root.)
Against the English: English versions use 'booty' (KJV, NASB), 'plunder' (BSB, NIV, ESV), or 'prey' (YLT) for this word and for baz almost interchangeably. In Numbers 31 the Hebrew keeps them apart: malqoach is the human and animal captives, while gold, silver and other goods are handled separately (vv. 50–54).
Used elsewhere in the period: Num 31:11–12 sets shalal (spoil) beside malqoach 'of man and beast'. Num 31:26: 'count the malqoach that was captured, of man and beast'. Isa 49:24–25: 'Can malqoach be taken from the mighty?', meaning captives snatched back from a conqueror. HALOT and BDB both give 'booty, prey', and the contexts point to living captives.

Numbers · 5

Numbers 31:11 הַמַּלְק֑וֹחַ the booty

and carried away all the plunder and spoils, both people and animals.
Numbers 31:12 הַמַּלְק֛וֹחַ the booty

They brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Numbers 31:26 מַלְק֙וֹחַ֙ [the] booty of

“You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the congregation are to take a count of what was captured, both of man and beast.
Numbers 31:27 הַמַּלְק֔וֹחַ the booty

Then divide the captives between the troops who went out to battle and the rest of the congregation.
Numbers 31:32 הַמַּלְק֔וֹחַ the booty

and this plunder remained from the spoils the soldiers had taken: 675,000 sheep,

Here: From the verb 'to take'. In this chapter it means the living captives, human and animal, that were brought back (vv. 11–12, 26). It is the subject of the sentence: 'the takings'.

Psalms · 1

Psalm 22:15 מַלְקוֹחָ֑י jaws my

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

Here: 'My jaws': a dual form for the paired jaws or gums, the inside of the mouth. This is the only place in the Bible where the word has this sense. Elsewhere the same spelling means 'plunder, prey'.

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 49:24 מַלְק֑וֹחַ booty

Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?

Here: Literally 'what has been taken.' This is the haul a victor carries off after battle: goods, animals and people (Num 31:11–12, 26–27). Here it stands for Zion's exiled children.
Isaiah 49:25 וּמַלְק֥וֹחַ and [the] booty of

Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

Here: 'And the booty', literally 'what has been taken', from the same root as yuqqach. Spoil, including human spoil. Hebrew hearers would catch the sound-play: the 'taken' will be 'taken' back.

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