A snare or bait belongs to the language of catching and entangling, whether a passage describes hunting or compares conduct with a trap. Proverbs 29:25 calls fear of people a snare and contrasts it with trusting in the Lord.
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Full entry for מוֹקֵשׁ (H4170) · Open the biblical lexicon
A snare or bait belongs to the language of catching and entangling, whether a passage describes hunting or compares conduct with a trap. Proverbs 29:25 calls fear of people a snare and contrasts it with trusting in the LORD.
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a snare (7), and a trap (2), from the snares (2), the snares (2), [are] a snare (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 10:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (8), Psalms (6), Exodus (3), Job (2).
A snare or bait belongs to the language of catching and entangling, whether a passage describes hunting or compares conduct with a trap. Proverbs 29:25 calls fear of people a snare and contrasts it with trusting in the Lord. Judges 8:27 says Gideon's ephod became a snare after Israel turned to worshiping it. Amos 3:5 asks about a bird and a set trap; the selected word is rendered bait in that verse's hunting comparison.
These uses point to danger that draws in or holds a person, but their causes differ. Pressure from others, misdirected worship and an actual trapping image cannot be reduced to one hidden mechanism. A careful reader asks what makes the snare effective and which response the passage commends. The word does not identify every feared circumstance or unexpected setback as deliberate entrapment.
Fear that constrains action, Gideon's ephod drawing worship and Amos's baited bird-catching image give entanglement different causes. The noun's setting identifies the danger rather than licensing suspicion of every difficulty.
The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is set securely on high.
Fear of people is contrasted with trust in the Lord, exposing pressure that entangles decisions without labeling every experience of alarm an identical moral failure.
From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.
The ephod becomes a snare through Israel's worship of it and its effect on Gideon's household; the narrative identifies the concrete misdirected devotion.
Does a bird land in a snare where no bait has been set? Does a trap spring from the ground when it has nothing to catch?
The tagged H4170 word is bait within questions about catching a bird; the accompanying snare and trap words require their own identity tracing.
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. A trap that ensnares; figuratively, anything that lures one into destructive bondage or moral compromise.
A trap that ensnares; figuratively, anything that lures one into destructive bondage or moral compromise.
a noose (for catching animals) (literally or figuratively); by implication, a hook (for the nose) BDB: a bait Usage: be ensnared, gin, (is) snare(-d), trap.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 27 lexical occurrence verses.
מוֹקֵשׁ is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Gideon's ephod comes from the aftermath of victory, yet the narrative says it becomes a snare when Israel worships it. A connection with a good outcome does not make an object or practice permanently safe from misdirected devotion. Proverbs locates another entanglement in fear of people: another person's approval or threat can begin to govern a decision that should be shaped by trust in the Lord.
Amos's hunting questions make the catching image concrete without explaining every human difficulty as an intentional trap. Teachers should name the particular danger a text names, and avoid feeding unsupported suspicion. Romans quotes David's snare language within its own argument about Israel, then rejects the idea of a fall beyond recovery. That canonical use must retain Paul's stated question rather than becoming a blanket condemnation or an invented meaning of the Hebrew noun.
Prov.29.25
This noun can name the snare or its bait within a trapping scene and can describe figurative entanglement. Amos 3:5 renders the selected token bait, distinct from the nearby H6341 snare and trap tokens; similar English imagery does not merge their identities.
Romans 11:9-11 explicitly quotes David's snare language from Psalm 69:22 and places it within Paul's argument about Israel's stumbling and God's purpose. Paul immediately rejects a fall beyond recovery. That stated use deserves attention without converting the Hebrew noun into an irreversible judgment against a people or treating every present obstacle as the same kind of trap.