StrongerBible

mot

מוֹט

HebrewH4131“be moved, slip, ...”

Appears 38 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 25:35Deu 32:351Ch 16:30Job 41:23(15)Psa 10:6Psa 13:4(5)Psa 15:5Psa 16:8Psa 17:5Psa 21:7(8)Psa 30:6(7)Psa 38:16(17)Psa 46:2(3)Psa 46:5(6)Psa 46:6(7)Psa 55:3(4)Psa 55:22(23)Psa 60:2(4)Psa 62:2(3)Psa 62:6(7)Psa 82:5Psa 93:1Psa 94:18Psa 96:10Psa 104:5Psa 112:6Psa 125:1Psa 140:10(11)Pro 10:30Pro 12:3Pro 24:11Pro 25:26Isa 24:19 (2×)Isa 40:20Isa 41:7Isa 54:10 (2×)
Root family
Word studyResearch-grademohtverb

What mot means

to give way, to totter or slip out of a firm, fixed place; and so, of a person, to be shaken or brought down.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The picture underneath this word is always the same: something that ought to stand firm loses its footing and starts to go.

  • A foot slips on loose ground
  • a nailed-down idol works loose and wobbles
  • mountains slide
  • a city or the whole earth is jolted from the spot where it was set

From that one physical image the word reaches into a person's whole situation, where to totter means to be knocked off your secure standing, ruined, or overthrown.

Because the core image is so vivid, the Bible almost always uses it with a negative in the poetry: the thing in view will NOT be moved. That is the point of the great confidence verses of the Psalms. The person who trusts God, and the world God has founded, are pictured as planted so solidly that nothing can shake them loose. The threat the word names is real, which is exactly why the promise that it will not happen carries weight.

The senses below are the same action seen from different angles:

  • a literal slip of the feet
  • a loose object
  • the shaking of the earth and mountains
  • the figurative collapse of a person's security

English translators reach for several different words across these, from "slip" and "totter" to "be shaken" and "be moved," but the single Hebrew word holds them together as one idea of losing a firm place.

Nuances

1aof the body: a foot slips, a step gives way, one loses one's footing.
Deu 32:35Psa 17:5Psa 38:16(17)Psa 94:18Pro 24:11
1bof a fashioned object: to wobble or work loose; usually the point is that it is fastened down so it will not.
Job 41:23(15)Isa 40:20Isa 41:7
1cof the earth, mountains, or a city: to be shaken loose or dislodged from its fixed place.
1Ch 16:30Psa 46:2(3)Psa 46:5(6)Psa 46:6(7)Psa 60:2(4)Psa 82:5Psa 93:1Psa 96:10Psa 104:5Isa 24:19 (2×)Isa 54:10 (2×)
1dof a person or their standing: to be shaken, dislodged from security, brought down or overthrown.
Psa 10:6Psa 13:4(5)Psa 15:5Psa 16:8Psa 21:7(8)Psa 30:6(7)Psa 55:3(4)Psa 55:22(23)Psa 62:2(3)Psa 62:6(7)Psa 112:6Psa 125:1
1eof a person's means: the hand gives way, an image for falling into poverty.
Lev 25:35

What scholars say about mot

The major lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius) agree that מוט denotes unsteady motion: to totter, sway, waver, slip, or give way, with a concrete base (feet, hands, fashioned objects) extended figuratively to the earth and mountains and to the security of persons and nations. The niphal, dominant in the Psalms, is typically passive or stative (be shaken, be dislodged); the qal covers intransitive slipping, and a lone hiphil (Psalm 55:3) and a reduplicated hithpolel (Isaiah 24:19) sit within the same field. Comparative evidence places the root most securely in Northwest Semitic, with Jewish Aramaic מוּט "to totter" the closest parallel; proposed Arabic, Ethiopic, and Akkadian cognates are semantically or morphologically strained, and HALOT suspects some may belong to a separate root נוט. TDOT (Baumann) unites the verb with the nouns מוֹט "carrying-pole" and מוֹטָה "yoke-bar" through the shared image of a swaying object under load, while conceding the awkward fact that verb and nouns never occur in the same context; a minority voice (Puffe) presses the verb toward "collapse" and would sever it from the nouns as homonymy. The recurring negated formula, that the righteous or God's founded world will not be moved, is a figurative extension of the one concrete image of losing a fixed place, and it stands in deliberate antithesis to כון "to be firmly established" in the enthronement hymns.

Where scholars disagree about mot

Whether the verb names an unsteady swaying or slipping from a fixed place (a threat that can be resisted or denied) or, more strongly, a complete collapse.

  • majorityThe verb means to totter, sway, or slip from a firm position; this is the threat the poetry so often negates, and it does not by itself imply total collapse.; BDB, s.v. מוט; HALOT, s.v. מוט; A. Baumann, "מוט mwṭ," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. VIII, pp. 152-158
  • minorityThe verb consistently means to collapse rather than merely to be shaken, and should be kept distinct from the swaying-pole nouns as a separate word.; Paul Puffe, "מוט Means 'Collapse,' Not 'Be Shaken,'" Concordia Theological Journal 7:1 (2020): 77-92
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. מוטlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. מוטlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), s.v. מוטlexicon
  • A. Baumann, "מוט mwṭ," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. VIII, pp. 152-158theological-dictionary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מוֹט

niphal imperfect 3ms

יִמּוֹט

Job 41:23, Psa 15:5, Psa 21:7, Psa 112:6, Psa 125:1, Pro 10:30, Pro 12:3, Isa 40:20

niphal imperfect 1cs

אֶמּוֹט

Psa 10:6, Psa 13:4, Psa 16:8, Psa 30:6, Psa 62:2, Psa 62:6

niphal imperfect 3fs

תִּמּוֹט

1Ch 16:30, Psa 46:5, Psa 93:1, Psa 96:10, Psa 104:5

c s construct

בְּמוֹט, וּבְמוֹט

Psa 38:16, Psa 46:2

niphal imperfect 3mp

יִמּוֹטוּ

Psa 82:5, Psa 140:10

qal imperfect 3fs

תָּמוּט

Deu 32:35, Isa 54:10

qal infinitive-absolute absolute

מוֹט

Psa 55:22, Isa 24:19

qal perfect 3fs

מָטָה

Psa 60:2, Psa 94:18

hiphil imperfect 3mp

יָמִיטוּ

Psa 55:3

hithpael perfect 3fs

הִתְמוֹטְטָה

Isa 24:19

m p absolute

מָטִים

Pro 24:11

niphal perfect 3cp

נָמוֹטּוּ

Psa 17:5

qal consecutive-perfect 3fs

וּמָטָה

Lev 25:35

qal imperfect 3fp

תְּמוּטֶנָה

Isa 54:10

qal participle m s absolute

מָט

Pro 25:26

qal perfect 3cp

מָטוּ

Psa 46:6