Hebrew word · H4780

מַרְדּוּת

hamardut

rebellious

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Its root marad means 'to rebel, revolt', and is used for vassal kings throwing off an overlord (2 Kgs 18:7; 24:1) and for rebellion against God (Josh 22:16–19). The noun means 'rebelliousness, revolt'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

rebellion, rebelliousness

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 1 Samuel 20:30

Range of meaning

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Its root marad means 'to rebel, revolt', and is used for vassal kings throwing off an overlord (2 Kgs 18:7; 24:1) and for rebellion against God (Josh 22:16–19). The noun means 'rebelliousness, revolt'.

Against the English

Most versions say 'rebellious'. That is accurate, but it can sound like a teenager's attitude. In a royal court the word means political revolt: treason.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Hebrew and Aramaic use the root in the same political sense. Because the word occurs only once, some scholars have proposed other derivations or emendations. The most common one follows the Greek and reads 'a rebellious servant-girl', which would make the insult a claim of slave birth.

Where it appears

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 20:30 הַמַּרְדּ֑וּת <the> rebelliousness

    Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?

    Here: 'Of the rebelliousness'. This noun appears only here in the Bible. It comes from marad, 'to rebel, revolt' against an overlord. For a king it amounts to calling his son a traitor: the 'woman of rebellion' has borne a rebel.

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