Strong's Number: H4422
Original Word: malat
Usage Notes: "to escape, slip away, deliver, give birth." This word is found in both ancient and modern Hebrew. Malat occurs approximately 95 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The word appears twice in the first verse in which it is found: "Flee for your life; … flee to the hills, lest you be consumed" (Gen 19:17, rsv). Sometimes malat is used in parallelism with nûs, "to flee" (1Sam 19:10), or with barah, "to flee" (1Sam 19:12).
The most common use of this word is to express the "escaping" from any kind of danger, such as an enemy (Isa 20:6), a trap (2Kings 10:24), or a temptress (Eccl 7:26). When Josiah's reform called for burning the bones of false prophets, a special directive was issued to spare the bones of a true prophet buried at the same place: "… So they let his bones alone …" (2Kings 23:18; literally, "they let his bones escape"). Malat is used once in the sense of "delivering a child" (Isa 66:7).
