פָּלַט
pa.lat
to escape
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Pālat (פָּלַט): Escape and Deliverance The Hebrew verb *pālat* denotes the act of escaping or getting away from danger or confinement. With 26 occurrences across the biblical text, it represents a straightforward but significant concept: the successful flight from a threatening situation. The word captures the moment when someone manages to break free and achieve safety, whether from physical peril, enemies, or other forms of jeopardy. The relative frequency of this term—appearing in a modest but meaningful number of passages—suggests it was a common enough experience in the ancient Near Eastern context to warrant its own distinct verb. Rather than being specialized theological language, *pālat* functions as practical vocabulary describing situations where individuals or groups achieve survival through escape. This reflects the realities of ancient life, where flight from danger was a genuine survival strategy whether during warfare, persecution, or other threats. The word's presence throughout the biblical narrative indicates that escape and survival are recurring themes in the tradition. By having a dedicated verb for this action, Hebrew allowed writers to clearly distinguish successful escape from other outcomes like capture, death, or continued danger. This specificity makes *pālat* a useful marker in biblical texts for identifying moments where protagonists or communities achieve deliverance through their own movement away from threat.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
26 total occurrences across the text
Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
Job 23:7There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
Psalms 17:13Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;
Psalms 18:2Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
Psalms 18:43You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
Psalms 18:48He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
Psalms 22:4Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.
Psalms 22:8“He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
Psalms 31:1In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.
Psalms 37:40Yahweh helps them and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they have taken refuge in him.
Psalms 37:40Yahweh helps them and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they have taken refuge in him.
Psalms 40:17But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
Psalms 43:1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
Psalms 56:7Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God.
Psalms 70:5But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer. Yahweh, don’t delay.
Psalms 71:2Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
Psalms 71:4Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
Psalms 82:4Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
Psalms 91:14“Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name.
Psalms 144:2my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.
Isaiah 5:29Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.
Ezekiel 7:16But those of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity.
Micah 6:14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your humiliation will be within you. You will store up, but not save; and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
Micah 6:14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your humiliation will be within you. You will store up, but not save; and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
2 Samuel 22:2and he said: “Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
2 Samuel 22:44You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.