Hebrew word · H910

בָּדָד

badad

isolation

Separation or isolation, usually used as an adverb: 'alone, apart, by oneself'. The tone depends on context. It can be good: Israel 'dwelling alone' in safety, set apart from the nations (Num 23:9; Deut 33:28; Jer 49:31).

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) isolation, withdrawal, separation

1a) an isolated city

adv

2) alone

2a) security (fig.)

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 27:10

Range of meaning

Separation or isolation, usually used as an adverb: 'alone, apart, by oneself'. The tone depends on context. It can be good: Israel 'dwelling alone' in safety, set apart from the nations (Num 23:9; Deut 33:28; Jer 49:31). It can be grim: the leper who must live 'alone' outside the camp (Lev 13:46), the widowed city sitting 'alone' (Lam 1:1).

Against the English

KJV has 'desolate', NIV 'stands desolate', ESV/WEB 'solitary', NASB 'isolated', BSB 'lies deserted'. 'Solitary' and 'isolated' keep the idea of being alone. 'Desolate' and 'deserted' shift the focus to emptiness and lose the picture of a city cut off and left on its own.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lamentations 1:1 uses the same word for fallen Jerusalem, pictured as a widow sitting alone. In Deuteronomy 33:28 the same word describes Israel's blessed security. Its other main uses are legal or ritual (Lev 13:46).

From the study of Deuteronomy 33:28

Range of meaning

Separation, being on one's own, apart. Depending on context it can be:

  • Negative: isolation as exclusion or desolation. The skin-diseased person "shall dwell alone (badad) outside the camp" (Lev 13:46). Jerusalem "sits alone" like a widow (Lam 1:1).
  • Positive: being set apart, with no one to disturb you and no one you depend on. Balaam sees "a people dwelling alone, not counted among the nations" (Num 23:9). Kedar "dwells alone" with "neither gates nor bars" (Jer 49:31). God's flock "dwells alone in a forest" (Mic 7:14).
Against the English

"Alone" (KJV, WEB, YLT) is accurate but leans toward the feeling of loneliness. NASB's "secluded" and BSB/NJPS-style "untroubled" catch the positive sense of being unbothered.

How it drifted

In modern English "alone" mostly describes an emotion, being lonely. In Hebrew the word describes a position: set apart, with no one encroaching.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 23:9 is the closest parallel: in the same Torah a foreign seer describes Israel as the people that "dwells alone". Jer 49:31 pairs badad with betach ("at ease… securely") for a people so safe it needs no walls. Deut 32:12, in the Song just before, uses badad of God: "YHWH alone led him, no foreign god with him." Deut 33:28 echoes that: Israel lives apart because its God acted alone.

From the study of Jeremiah 15:17

Range of meaning

Isolation, separateness; used as an adverb, 'alone, apart'. It can be positive (Israel 'dwelling alone' in safety, Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28) or the isolation of the defiled, the mourning and the ruined (Leviticus 13:46; Lamentations 1:1; 3:28; Isaiah 27:10).

Against the English

Every major version has 'alone', which is accurate. What English cannot carry is the set of associations: in Hebrew, 'sitting alone' is the posture of the excluded and the grieving, not of peaceful retreat.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 13:46: the person with a skin disease 'shall dwell alone (bāḏāḏ yēšēḇ); outside the camp shall his dwelling be.' Lamentations 1:1: 'How she sits alone, the city once full of people.' Lamentations 3:28: the sufferer should 'sit alone and be silent.' Psalm 102:7: 'like a lonely bird on a roof.'

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 13:46 בָּדָ֣ד alone

    As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 23:9 לְבָדָ֣ד [which] <to> alone

    For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

    Here: "In solitude, apart." Used of Israel elsewhere, it means separate and also undisturbed and secure (Deut 33:28; compare Jer 49:31; Mic 7:14). It does not mean lonely or abandoned.

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 32:12 בָּדָ֣ד alone

    The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.

  2. Deuteronomy 33:28 בָּדָד֙ alone

    So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

    Here: "Apart, undisturbed." Israel lives on its own, without depending on allies and without being threatened by neighbours. It does not mean lonely. The Hebrew accents attach it to the following phrase: "alone is Jacob's spring."

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 4:8 לְבָדָ֑ד <to> alone

    I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

    Here: Either "you alone, LORD" (only God gives this security) or "you make me dwell apart", meaning secluded and undisturbed like the safe settlements in Deut 33:28 and Jer 49:31. The Hebrew allows both. See the debate below.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 27:10 בָּדָ֔ד [is] alone

    For the fortified city lies deserted—a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

    Here: A noun used as an adverb: 'in isolation, all alone'. Elsewhere it can describe Israel's safe separateness (Deut 33:28), but here it means stripped of people and allies. It is the same word as in Lamentations 1:1, 'How lonely sits the city.'

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 15:17 בָּדָ֣ד alone

    I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.

    Here: 'Alone, apart.' The word belongs to pictures of being cut off: the man with a skin disease who 'shall dwell alone' outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46), and ruined Jerusalem that 'sits alone' like a widow (Lamentations 1:1). It is put first for emphasis: 'alone I sat.'

  2. Jeremiah 49:31 בָּדָ֥ד alone

    Rise up, advance against a nation at ease, one that dwells securely,” declares the LORD. “They have no gates or bars; they live alone.

Lamentations · 2

  1. Lamentations 1:1 בָדָ֗ד alone

    How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.

    Here: "Alone, isolated, cut off." It describes a physical condition: emptied of people, abandoned, set apart. The same pair of words, 'alone' and 'sit', is used in Leviticus 13:46 for the person with a skin disease who must live outside the camp.

  2. Lamentations 3:28 בָּדָד֙ alone

    Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.

    Here: "Alone", meaning cut off and set apart. The same pairing "sit alone" describes the person with a skin disease living outside the camp (Lev 13:46), and the ruined city in this book's first line (Lam 1:1). This is the isolation of someone under affliction, not a chosen retreat.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 7:14 לְבָדָ֔ד <of> alone

    Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

    Here: "Alone": set apart and by itself. The word echoes the old blessings that Israel would "dwell alone" (Num 23:9; Deut 33:28). Here the people are also cut off and hemmed in.

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