Hebrew word · H4499

מְנוּסָה

menusat-

fugitive

Flight, the act of fleeing, from nûs 'to flee'. It is used of routed soldiers and fugitives.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

flight, retreat

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 52:12

Range of meaning

Flight, the act of fleeing, from nûs 'to flee'. It is used of routed soldiers and fugitives.

Against the English

KJV 'by flight' and NASB 'as fugitives' keep the sense of escape. BSB's 'flee in haste' blends the two lines and moves the word 'haste' onto this one.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lev 26:36: under the covenant curses Israel will 'flee as one flees (mĕnusat) from the sword' when no one pursues. Compare Exod 14:5, 'the people had fled (bāraḥ)', the way Pharaoh saw the Exodus.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 26:36 מְנֻֽסַת־ a flight of

    As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

    Here: A noun from the same root as 'flee', so literally 'they will flee the flight of a sword'. Repeating the root makes the panic stronger: they run the way men run when a sword is at their backs.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 52:12 וּבִמְנוּסָ֖ה and in flight

    For you will not leave in a hurry nor flee in haste, for the LORD goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.

    Here: 'And in flight.' This is running away as a fugitive or a defeated army does (compare Lev 26:36). The exiles will not slip away as runaways chased by pursuers.

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