פּוּץ
puts
to scatter
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of פּוּץ (puts) — "To Scatter" The Hebrew verb *puts* appears 62 times throughout the biblical text and carries the fundamental meaning of dispersal or spreading outward. This is a straightforward action verb denoting the physical scattering of objects, people, or substances across space. The word's consistent appearance across the biblical corpus suggests it was a common and readily understood term for describing displacement and distribution. The frequency of occurrence—62 instances—indicates that scattering was a concept significant enough to biblical writers to warrant repeated use. This suggests the verb was employed across various contexts and narratives, likely capturing everything from literal descriptions of scattered objects to metaphorical uses involving dispersed populations or broken groupings. The verb's simplicity in meaning belies its practical importance in describing both concrete physical phenomena and situations of disruption or division. Without access to specific contextual examples from the lexicon data provided, we can note that *puts* represents a basic action vocabulary item—the kind of fundamental verb that would naturally appear across multiple genres and historical periods within biblical literature. Its high frequency relative to more specialized terms suggests biblical authors drew on this word to convey dispersion in diverse situations.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
62 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
“Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you among the peoples;
Job 18:11Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.
Job 37:11Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
Job 38:24By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Job 40:11Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
Psalms 18:14He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them.
Psalms 68:1Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them who hate him also flee before him.
Psalms 144:6Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.
Isaiah 24:1Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.
Isaiah 28:25When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?
Isaiah 41:16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Jeremiah 9:16I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
Jeremiah 10:21For the shepherds have become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh. Therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks have scattered.
Jeremiah 13:24“Therefore I will scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.
Jeremiah 18:17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Jeremiah 23:1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 23:2Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 30:11For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.”
Jeremiah 40:15Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?”
Jeremiah 52:8but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
Ezekiel 11:16“Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.” ’
Ezekiel 11:17“Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”
Ezekiel 12:15“ ‘They will know that I am Yahweh when I disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries.
Ezekiel 20:23Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries;
Ezekiel 20:34I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.
Ezekiel 20:41I will accept you as a pleasant aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.
Ezekiel 22:15I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you.
Ezekiel 28:25“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.
Ezekiel 29:12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities among the cities that are laid waste will be a desolation forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.”
Ezekiel 29:13“ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered.
Ezekiel 30:23I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
Ezekiel 30:26I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
Ezekiel 34:5They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
Ezekiel 34:5They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
Ezekiel 34:6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”
Ezekiel 34:12As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
Ezekiel 34:21Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;
Ezekiel 36:19I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. I judged them according to their way and according to their deeds.
Ezekiel 46:18Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession. He shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not each be scattered from his possession.” ’ ”
Habakkuk 3:6He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
Habakkuk 3:14You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears. They came as a whirlwind to scatter me, gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret.
Zephaniah 3:10From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, even the daughter of my dispersed people, will bring my offering.
Zechariah 13:7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
Genesis 10:18the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.
Genesis 11:4They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:8So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.
Genesis 11:9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
Genesis 49:7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
Exodus 5:12So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
Numbers 10:35When the ark went forward, Moses said, “Rise up, Yahweh, and let your enemies be scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!”