Hebrew word · H4656

מִפְלֶ֫צֶת

miflatzet

horror

The word occurs only here and in 1 Kgs 15:13. It comes from the root pls, 'to shudder, tremble' (Job 9:6; noun pallatsut, 'shuddering', Job 21:6; Ps 55:5; Isa 21:4). So it means 'a thing that makes one shudder, a horror, a monstrosity'.

Appears 4 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

horrid thing, horrible thing

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 2 Chronicles 15:16

Range of meaning

The word occurs only here and in 1 Kgs 15:13. It comes from the root pls, 'to shudder, tremble' (Job 9:6; noun pallatsut, 'shuddering', Job 21:6; Ps 55:5; Isa 21:4). So it means 'a thing that makes one shudder, a horror, a monstrosity'.

Against the English

BSB 'detestable [pole]', WEB 'abominable image', KJV 'idol', YLT 'horrible thing'. Other modern versions use words like 'repulsive image' or 'horrid image', and some paraphrases say 'obscene'. 'Idol' (KJV) loses the emotional force. 'Abominable' and 'detestable' sound like the technical Hebrew terms for ritual abominations (toʿebah, shiqquts), which are different words. 'Obscene' is a guess drawn from later Jewish interpretation, not from the word itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 44a) explains the word by a pun as something that 'increased licentiousness' and describes it as phallic. The Vulgate followed this ('simulacrum Priapi', an image of the fertility god Priapus). The Septuagint uses general terms. There is no archaeological or ancient Near Eastern evidence that identifies the object's shape.

Similar words

Where it appears

1 Kings · 2

  1. 1 Kings 15:13 מִפְלֶ֖צֶת מִפְלַצְתָּ֔הּ an abominable image, abominable image her

    He also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

2 Chronicles · 2

  1. 2 Chronicles 15:16 מִפְלָ֑צֶת מִפְלַצְתָּ֔הּ an abominable image, abominable image her

    King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

    Here: This word appears only here and in the 1 Kings parallel. It comes from a root meaning 'to shudder'. It is a scornful label that tells us how the narrator felt about the object, not what it looked like.

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