Hebrew word · H981

בָּטָה

levate'

to speak rashly

To speak thoughtlessly or impulsively; to blurt out. Its main legal use is the careless oath or vow, words 'uttered with the lips' without weighing what they commit one to. HALOT and BDB both give the core sense 'speak rashly, thoughtlessly'.

Appears 4 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to speak rashly or angrily, speak thoughtlessly

1a) (Qal) one that babbles, speaks rashly (part.)

1b) (Piel) to speak rashly, unadvisedly

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 Proverbs 12:18

Range of meaning

To speak thoughtlessly or impulsively; to blurt out. Its main legal use is the careless oath or vow, words 'uttered with the lips' without weighing what they commit one to. HALOT and BDB both give the core sense 'speak rashly, thoughtlessly'.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, NASB and ESV keep 'rash(ly)'. KJV has only 'speaketh', which drops the key quality: in KJV it sounds as if all speech wounds. NIV's 'the reckless' is close. NLT's 'make cutting remarks' changes the sense: it suggests deliberate barbs, while the Hebrew points at words spoken without thought.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lev 5:4: anyone who 'swears rashly with his lips' must bring a guilt offering once he realises it, so even unintended speech carries guilt. Num 30:6, 8 (Heb. 7, 9): mivṭāʾ sәfāteyhā, a woman's 'rash utterance of her lips' in a vow, which her father or husband can cancel. Ps 106:33: Moses 'spoke rashly with his lips' at Meribah, the act that cost him the land. Jerome's Vulgate reads the word here as 'one who promises' (qui promittit), following this vow sense.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 2

  1. Leviticus 5:4 לְבַטֵּ֨א יְבַטֵּ֧א by speaking rashly, he will speak rashly

    Or if someone swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do anything good or evil—in whatever matter a man may rashly pronounce an oath—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty in the matter.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 106:33 וַ֝יְבַטֵּ֗א and he spoke rashly

    For they rebelled against His Spirit, and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 12:18 בּ֭וֹטֶה [is one who] speaks rashly

    Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

    Here: An active participle: someone whose habit is to blurt things out without thinking. Elsewhere the verb is used for careless oaths and vows (Lev 5:4; Num 30:6, 8) and for Moses' hasty words at Meribah (Ps 106:33). The fault is thoughtlessness, not necessarily malice.

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