Midvash

נָטַשׁnâṭash

leave, forsake, permit

Pronunciation: naw-tash' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H5203

Meanings

Qal

1. leave, let alone (Exodus 23:11; Nehemiah 10:32; Numbers 11:31)

2. forsake, abandon (1 Samuel 10:2; Proverbs 17:14; Judges 6:13)

3. permit (Genesis 31:28; 1 Samuel 4:2; Judges 15:9)

Niph`al

1. be forsaken (Amos 5:2)

2. be loosened or loose, (properly be let alone, left to hang down) (Isaiah 33:23)

3. be let go, spread abroad (Judges 15:19; 2 Samuel 5:18; 2 Samuel 5:22)

Pu`al: are abandoned, deserted (Isaiah 32:14)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 40 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 31:28 Why didn’t you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly!
  • Exodus 23:11 but let the land be renewed and lie uncultivated during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest whatever grows on its own. Leave the rest for wild animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves.
  • Numbers 11:31 Now the Lord sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground.
  • Deuteronomy 32:15 “But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
  • Judges 6:13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
  • Judges 15:9 The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).