Hebrew word · H4871

מָשָׁה

meshitihu

to draw

To draw out, pull out, specifically from water. Only three occurrences: Exod 2:10 (Moses), 2 Sam 22:17, and Ps 18:16 (Hebrew v. 17).

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

1) to draw

1a) (Qal) to draw

1b) (Hiphil) to draw

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: To draw out, pull out, specifically from water. Only three occurrences: Exod 2:10 (Moses), 2 Sam 22:17, and Ps 18:16 (Hebrew v. 17).
Against the English: All major English versions say 'drew me out', which is accurate. What English cannot show is that the Hebrew word is the one behind the name 'Moses' (Mosheh), so an Israelite ear could hear an echo that an English reader misses.
Used elsewhere in the period: Exod 2:10: 'She named him Moses, saying, Because I drew him (meshitihu) out of the water.' Isaiah 63:11 also connects Moses' name with drawing out from the waters ('Where is he who brought them up out of the sea…'). This rare verb appears nowhere else.

Range of meaning: To draw out or pull out, specifically from water. It is extremely rare: Exodus 2:10, 2 Samuel 22:17, and its twin Psalm 18:16.
Against the English: All major versions say "drew me out." That is accurate, but English cannot show the link to the name Moses (Mosheh).
Used elsewhere in the period: Exodus 2:10: "She named him Moses (Mosheh), saying, 'Because I drew him (meshitihu) out of the water.'" The Egyptian name probably meant "son/born" (as in Thutmose). The Hebrew text explains it by this verb. In Isaiah 63:11 God is remembered as the one who "brought them up out of the sea."

Range of meaning: To draw out or pull out, especially from water. It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible: here, 2 Samuel 22:17, and its parallel Psalm 18:16 (Heb. 18:17).
Against the English: 'Drew out' (KJV, BSB, NASB, WEB, ESV) is accurate. NLT's 'lifted out' is close. 'Drew' should be heard as a physical pulling-up (as with a bucket or a rope), not 'attracted.'
Used elsewhere in the period: In both other places, God is the one who draws the speaker out of 'many waters,' a stock image for chaos and the danger of death. The Septuagint here translates with anaireō, 'take up.' In Greek legal papyri that verb is the technical term for picking up an abandoned infant to raise as one's own. Acts 7:21 picks up this wording: 'Pharaoh's daughter took him up and brought him up as her own son.'

Exodus · 1

Exodus 2:10 מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ׃ I drew him

When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”

Here: 'I drew him out.' This is a rare verb, found elsewhere only in 2 Sam 22:17 / Ps 18:16, where God 'drew me out of many waters.' Its sound matches the name Mosheh. That wordplay is the point of the verse.

2 Samuel · 1

2 Samuel 22:17 יַֽמְשֵׁ֖נִי he drew me

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.

Here: A rare verb that means pulling someone out of water. Outside this song (here and Psalm 18:16) it appears only in Exodus 2:10, where Pharaoh's daughter names Moses because "I drew him out of the water."

Psalms · 1

Psalm 18:16 יַֽ֝מְשֵׁ֗נִי he drew me

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.

Here: 'He drew me out': a very rare verb used in the Hebrew Bible only here, in the parallel 2 Samuel 22:17, and in Exodus 2:10, where Pharaoh's daughter names Moses because 'I drew him out of the water.' It is specifically pulling someone out of water.

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