a God-given sign or wonder: a striking act, event, or person meant to point beyond itself and demand attention
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This is not any ordinary sign but a striking one, something that stops people short and points them to God. It travels almost everywhere alongside the plainer Hebrew word for a sign, in the famous pairing "signs and wonders," and it carries the sense of a marvel that is meant to be read rather than merely admired.
The word works in three overlapping ways. Most often it names a mighty act, above all the plagues and the rescue from Egypt, by which God puts his power on open display. Sometimes it names a confirming token, a wonder given so that people know a word is truly from God or that a promised event will surely happen. And sometimes the wonder is a person: a prophet or a whole nation whose life, actions, or fate God turns into a living sign for everyone watching.
What holds these together is that in every case the wonder is meant to teach, warn, or confirm. It is a sign with a message attached, aimed at the people who see it.
Nuances
1aa wonder or miracle: a mighty act by which God displays his power, above all in the plagues and the rescue from Egypt
The Hebrew word can be a person or a symbolic act rather than a supernatural event, as when a prophet's own life becomes the signIsa 20:3
Both
Both can name a mighty act that puts divine power on displayExo 11:10
Only miracle
"Miracle" carries the modern idea of a break in the laws of nature, a category the Hebrew word does not press
“sign”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“portent”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“token”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How mophet differs from similar Hebrew words
אוֹתThe plainer word for a sign: any mark or token that signals something (a rainbow, a festival, a banner), while this word marks the striking, wonder-working sign that arrests attention.
A person can be made a living portent whose own life or fate is itself the sign others are meant to read, as the prophet and his children are set up to be.Isa 8:18Ezk 12:6Ezk 24:24Zec 3:8
Always names a startling display or omen, never an ordinary token: the staff that became a serpent before Pharaoh and the altar that split apart at the man of God's word.Exo 7:91Ki 13:3
Both
Together they form the fixed pairing for God's mighty acts of deliverance in Egypt, the great signs and wonders worked against Pharaoh.Exo 7:3Deu 6:22
Both name the demonstrations of power Israel was to remember as proof that the LORD redeemed them with an outstretched arm.Deu 4:34Deu 26:8
Both can warn rather than save: a sign or wonder that comes true is no proof a prophet speaks for God if he then calls Israel to other gods.Deu 13:1Deu 13:2
Covers ordinary, non-miraculous markers: the sun, moon, and stars set as signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.Gen 1:14
Names a lasting token or pledge of a relationship: the rainbow and circumcision as covenant signs, and the Sabbath as a standing sign between God and Israel.Gen 9:13Gen 17:11Exo 31:13
Marks something for protection or identification, like the mark placed on Cain so no one would kill him and the family banners the Israelites camped under.Gen 4:15Num 2:2
Serves as a guarantee given on request to confirm a promise will come true, such as the sign Hezekiah asked for and the sign offered to Ahaz.2Ki 20:8Isa 7:11
פֶּלֶאA marvel seen as extraordinary and beyond human power in itself, while this word views the extraordinary thing as a sign that points to or confirms something.
Names a wonder that works as an authenticating sign or portent, a proof performed before a human audience to validate a messenger or a coming event.Exo 7:9Deu 13:1
Can be embodied in a person or a staged act, so that a prophet, his children, or a symbolic gesture becomes a living portent pointing beyond itself.Isa 8:18Ezk 12:6Zec 3:8
Clusters in the Exodus deliverance as the mighty demonstrations God worked against Egypt to force Pharaoh's hand.Exo 4:21Exo 11:10Deu 6:22
Both
Both name God's mighty deeds in the Exodus generation and become material the Psalms recount to later worshipers.Psa 78:43Psa 78:12
Both are rendered "wonder" in English and denote extraordinary acts of God that provoke astonishment.Psa 105:5Exo 15:11
Names the marvel purely as astonishing, prized for its own surpassing greatness rather than offered as proof of anything.Psa 77:14Psa 89:5
Serves as a title or attribute of what defies human capacity, up to being a name given to the promised child.Isa 9:6Isa 25:1
Reaches into the unfathomable and hidden, wonders questioned as to whether they are known among the dead or in the dark.Psa 88:10Psa 88:12
mophet in the other biblical languages
τέραςGreek“wonders”The Greek word for a wonder or portent that pairs with the word for a sign in the New Testament phrase "signs and wonders," just as this Hebrew word pairs with the Hebrew word for a sign.
Can name a person as a living portent, so that a prophet and his children, Ezekiel, and the high priest's companions become themselves a sign whose very lives enact God's message.Isa 8:18Ezk 12:6Ezk 24:24Zec 3:8
Is the signature word for the exodus deliverance: the wonders God multiplied against Pharaoh in Egypt, remembered ever after as Israel's founding rescue.Exo 7:3Deu 34:11Psa 78:43Psa 105:27
Can be a pledged token named in advance and later fulfilled to certify a prophet's word, the sign a man of God announces before it comes to pass.1Ki 13:31Ki 13:5
Both
Both are the wonders half of the fixed word-pair signs and wonders; the Greek phrase in Acts deliberately echoes the Hebrew idiom of the exodus.Deu 6:22Act 2:22
Both can be produced by a false agent, so that a wonder by itself never proves a message is from God; Scripture warns that even a deceiver's sign may come to pass.Deu 13:12Th 2:9
Names cosmic portents in the heavens, blood and fire and columns of smoke, as apocalyptic signs heralding the day of the Lord.Act 2:19
Authenticates the messengers of the new covenant: the wonders worked by Jesus and through the hands of the apostles, cited as the confirming marks of a true apostle.Act 2:22Act 2:43Act 5:122Co 12:12Heb 2:4
What scholars say about mophet
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT) treat מוֹפֵת as a single word covering wonder, sign, and portent, with the referent well settled even though its derivation is uncertain. Its most characteristic use is the fixed pairing with אוֹת, "signs and wonders," a near-hendiadys concentrated in the exodus and Deuteronomic tradition (Exod 7:3;Deut 4:34; 6:22; 7:19; 26:8; 34:11; cf. Ps 78:43; 105:27; 135:9; Neh 9:10). A second, well-attested use is the confirmatory or predictive token that authenticates a prophetic word (Exod 7:9;Deut 13:2;1 Kgs 13:3, 5; 2 Chr 32:24, 31), including the sober warning that a fulfilled מוֹפֵת does not by itself validate the prophet (Deut 13:2-3). A third, distinctively prophetic use makes a person or community the sign: Isaiah and his children (Isa 8:18), Isaiah himself (Isa 20:3), Ezekiel (Ezek 12:6, 11; 24:24, 27), and the priest Joshua and his companions (Zech 3:8);Deut 28:46 extends this to Israel as a warning portent, and Ps 71:7 to the individual sufferer. The Septuagint renders it chiefly by τέρας and σημεῖον, the pair carried into the New Testament formula σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα. On the relation of מוֹפֵת to אוֹת, see the discussion in TDOT.