Slipping or being shaken describes instability or its denial through the subject and speaker the passage supplies. Leviticus directs help for a countryman who becomes destitute and cannot support himself, making vulnerability a call for support.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for מוֹט (H4131) · Open the biblical lexicon
Slipping or being shaken describes instability or its denial through the subject and speaker the passage supplies. Leviticus directs help for a countryman who becomes destitute and cannot support himself, making vulnerability a call for support.
The BSB source-word alignment has 38 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include be shaken (9), be moved (6), . . . (2), and cannot support himself (1), are shaken (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 25:35. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (24), Isaiah (6), Proverbs (4), 1 Chronicles (1).
Slipping or being shaken describes instability or its denial through the subject and speaker the passage supplies. Leviticus directs help for a countryman who becomes destitute and cannot support himself, making vulnerability a call for support. Psalm 94 names a slipping foot and the Lord's sustaining love alongside overwhelming anxiety. Psalm 16 voices confidence in the Lord, while Psalm 10 places a claim of never being moved in the wicked person's own speech.
Isaiah describes a craftsman securing an idol against toppling, and elsewhere contrasts shaken hills with enduring loving devotion. These different uses prevent stability from becoming a simple proof of righteousness. Read what is unstable, who speaks and what help or contrast is stated. A confident boast may be false, a person's difficulty may require care, and poetic assurance must not become a private promise that no faithful person can ever stumble, lose resources or experience distress.
Destitute vulnerability, a supported slipping foot, faithful confidence, wicked boasting, secured idols and shaken hills supply distinct subjects. Speaker and stated response govern the meaning rather than stability as automatic moral approval.
Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
The countryman's inability to support himself leads to a command to help him remain among the people, keeping material support rather than blame as the stated response.
If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O Lord, supports me.
The slipping-foot statement receives the Lord's sustaining loving devotion, with anxiety and consolation nearby, allowing need and received help to remain together.
He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”
The claim of never being moved belongs to the wicked person's own speech, followed by deceit and violence, so confidence must not be treated as narrator endorsement.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Loss of stability or secure position; foundational undermining rather than mere surface trembling or movement.
Loss of stability or secure position; foundational undermining rather than mere surface trembling or movement.
to waver; by implication, to slip, shake, fall BDB: totter Usage: be carried, cast, be out of course, be fallen in decay, × exceedingly, fall(-ing down), be (re-) moved, be ready, shake, slide, slip.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 39 lexical occurrence verses.
מוֹט is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The term emphasizes stability and firmness in life.Proverbs 10:30
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Stability is not one uniform verdict on a person's character. Leviticus treats inability to sustain oneself as a reason for help, not permission to shame or exploit the needy. Psalm 94 preserves slipping and anxiety beside sustaining love and consolation. Psalm 16 speaks of confidence in the Lord, but Psalm 10's similar-sounding claim is attributed to a wicked person whose conduct the poem exposes.
Isaiah's securely mounted idol also shows why an object remaining upright does not establish its truth or divinity. The shaken-hills comparison receives its meaning from the specifically named loving devotion and covenant promise. Keep these subjects, voices and responses visible. Teach responsible support and confidence where stated without guaranteeing that every believer avoids resource loss, bodily instability or distress, and do not use a present disaster to assign a hidden moral cause.
Ps.94.18
The licensed Hebrew verb includes wavering, slipping and being shaken. Actual subjects range from a person's support to a foot, hills or an idol, and a negative statement may be either faithful confidence or an exposed boast. Grammar alone does not certify the speaker's moral standing or promise bodily immunity.
Matthew 14:30-32 describes Peter beginning to sink and Jesus immediately taking hold of him before they return to the boat. This separate Greek account can be read beside Psalm 94's slipping-foot prayer as named need met with help, without treating instability as a complete judgment of faith. Keep the actual rescue and correction together rather than promising every present hazard has an identical outcome or withholding practical support.