StrongerBible

bat

בַּת

HebrewH1323daughter, village, ...

Appears 588 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 5:4Gen 5:7Gen 5:10Gen 5:13Gen 5:16Gen 5:19Gen 5:22Gen 5:26Gen 5:30Gen 6:1Gen 6:2Gen 6:4Gen 11:11Gen 11:13Gen 11:29Gen 17:17Gen 19:14Gen 19:16Gen 19:30 (2×)Gen 19:36Gen 20:12 (2×)Gen 24:3Gen 24:13Gen 24:23Gen 24:24Gen 24:37Gen 24:47 (2×)Gen 24:48Gen 25:20Gen 26:34 (2×)Gen 27:46 (3×)Gen 28:1Gen 28:2Gen 28:6Gen 29:6Gen 29:23Gen 29:24Gen 29:28Gen 29:29Gen 30:21Gen 31:55(32:1)Gen 34:5Gen 34:9Gen 34:16Gen 34:21Gen 36:6Gen 37:35Gen 46:7Gen 46:15 (2×)Gen 46:18
Names & words formed with this
Word studybahtnoun

What bat means

daughter: a female child in relation to her parents

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its core this is the female counterpart to son. It names a girl or woman by her place in a family: someone's daughter. From that anchor the word stretches outward in natural steps. It widens from a direct child to any female descendant, and from one family to a whole group of women belonging to a people or a town. Hebrew also leans on it as a flexible way to say a female who belongs to a category, which produces a cluster of set phrases.

Two of those phrases are worth watching. Hebrew often measures age by saying a person is the daughter (or son) of so many years, so a woman ninety years old is literally a daughter of ninety years. And Hebrew describes character by belonging, so a worthless woman can be called a daughter of worthlessness, a foreign woman a daughter of a foreign god. In each case the family word is doing the work of a relationship marker, not pointing to literal parentage.

The most striking extension is poetic. Prophets and poets address a city or nation as a single woman, the Daughter of Zion, the daughter of my people, the daughter of Babylon. This is not a separate word but the same daughter spoken as tender personification: the community pictured as a vulnerable, beloved, or grieving young woman.

A practical use grows from the same root idea. A walled mother-city with its smaller dependent settlements around it speaks of those settlements as its daughters, the villages that belong to and shelter under it.

Nuances

1aa man's or woman's female child
Gen 11:29Gen 20:12 (2×)Gen 24:24Gen 25:20Gen 30:21Exo 2:5Num 27:8Jdg 11:34Rut 2:2Rut 3:102Sa 12:3Est 2:7
1ba more distant female descendant, a granddaughter or a woman of one's line
Gen 24:23Gen 24:47 (2×)Gen 24:48Exo 2:1Lev 18:10Lev 18:17Num 26:592Ki 8:262Ch 22:2
1cthe women of a place or people, taken collectively
Gen 6:2Gen 6:4Gen 24:3Gen 24:13Gen 24:37Gen 27:46 (3×)Gen 34:1Jdg 21:21Pro 31:29Sng 2:7Isa 3:16Isa 32:9
1dthe dependent villages or settlements belonging to a city
Num 21:25Num 21:32Jos 15:45Jos 17:11 (6×)Jdg 1:27 (5×)1Ch 7:28 (2×)Neh 11:25Ezk 16:46
1ea city or nation personified and addressed as a single woman
2Ki 19:21Psa 9:14Psa 137:8Isa 1:8Isa 47:1Isa 52:2Isa 62:11Jer 6:2Lam 2:13Mic 4:8Zep 3:14Zec 9:9
1fin a set phrase of age, a female of a stated number of years
Gen 17:17Lev 14:10Num 6:14Num 15:27
1gin a set phrase of character or belonging, a woman marked by the quality named
1Sa 1:16Sng 7:1Dan 11:17Mal 2:11

Uncategorized

Awaiting AI sense categorization.

12 verses
Gen 5:4Gen 5:7Gen 5:10Gen 5:13Gen 5:16Gen 5:19Gen 5:22Gen 5:26Gen 5:30Gen 6:1Gen 11:11Gen 11:13

What scholars say about bat

Standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) treat the word as a single noun, the feminine counterpart of son, with one literal core that fans out into recognized extended uses: female descendant, women of a group or place, the dependent villages of a mother-city, and the age and quality idioms (daughter of N years; daughter of worthlessness). The personified Daughter of Zion and daughter of my people are discussed at length in studies of prophetic poetry; the construction is widely read as a tender personification of the city or its population rather than a separate lexical sense.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. בַּתlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. בַּתlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. בַּתlexicon
  • H. Haag, "bath," TDOT 2:332-338dictionary

All attested forms of בַּת

f s construct

בַּת

Gen 11:29, Gen 17:17, Gen 20:12, Gen 20:12, Gen 24:23, Gen 24:24, Gen 24:47, Gen 24:47

f p construct

בְּנוֹת

Gen 6:2, Gen 6:4, Gen 19:36, Gen 24:3, Gen 24:13, Gen 24:37, Gen 27:46, Gen 27:46

f p absolute

בָּנוֹת

Gen 5:4, Gen 5:7, Gen 5:10, Gen 5:13, Gen 5:16, Gen 5:19, Gen 5:22, Gen 5:26

f p construct

בְּנוֹתֶיהָ, בְּנֹתֶיהָ

Jos 15:47, Jos 15:47, Jos 17:11, Jos 17:11, Jos 17:11, Jos 17:11, Jos 17:16, Jdg 1:27

f s construct

בִּתּוֹ

Gen 29:6, Gen 29:23, Gen 29:24, Gen 29:28, Gen 29:29, Gen 34:5, Gen 46:15, Gen 46:18

f p construct

בְּנוֹתֵיהֶם, בְּנֹתֵיהֶם, בְּנֹתָם

Jdg 3:6, Jdg 3:6, 2Ki 17:17, 2Ch 31:18, Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38, Jer 3:24, Jer 11:22

f p construct

בְּנֹתָיו, בְנוֹתָיו

Gen 19:14, Gen 19:16, Gen 19:30, Gen 19:30, Gen 36:6, Gen 37:35, Gen 46:7, Exo 2:20

f s absolute

בַּת

Gen 30:21, Exo 1:16, Exo 1:22, Exo 21:31, Lev 12:6, Num 27:9, Num 36:8, Jdg 11:34

f p construct

בְּנוֹתֵיכֶם, בְּנֹתֵיכֶם

1Sa 8:13, Ezr 9:12, Jer 9:20, Jer 29:6, Ezk 24:21, Hos 4:13, Hos 4:14, Jol 2:28

f s construct

בִּתִּי

Deu 22:16, Deu 22:17, Jos 15:16, Jdg 1:12, Jdg 11:35, Jdg 19:24, Rut 2:2, Rut 2:8

f p construct

בְנֹתֶיךָ, בְּנוֹתֶיךָ

Gen 19:12, Gen 19:15, Gen 31:41, Lev 10:14, Num 18:11, Num 18:19, Deu 28:32, Deu 28:53

f p construct

בְּנֹתֵינוּ, בְּנוֹתֵינוּ, בְנוֹתֵנוּ

Gen 34:9, Gen 34:16, Gen 34:21, Neh 5:2, Neh 5:5, Neh 5:5, Neh 10:30, Jer 35:8

f s construct

בִּתְּךָ, בִתֶּךָ

Gen 29:18, Lev 18:10, Lev 19:29, Deu 7:3, Deu 13:6, Deu 22:17, 2Ki 14:9, 2Ch 25:18

f p construct

בְּנֹתַי, בְנוֹתַי, בְנֹתָי

Gen 31:26, Gen 31:43, Gen 31:43, Gen 31:50, Gen 31:50, Rut 1:11, Rut 1:12, Rut 1:13

f p construct

בְּנוֹתַיִךְ, בְנֹתַיִךְ, בְנוֹתָיִךְ

Ezk 16:20, Ezk 16:55, Ezk 23:25, Ezk 26:8, Isa 49:22, Isa 60:4, Ezk 16:48

f s construct

בִּתָּהּ

Lev 18:17, Lev 18:17, Deu 28:56, Ezk 16:44

f s construct

בִּתֵּנוּ

Gen 34:17

f s construct

בִתְּכֶם

Gen 34:8