To stretch or spread out; by implication, to bend away (including moral deflection); used in a great variety of application (as follows)
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H5186 describes extending, bending, inclining, or turning something and can portray an outstretched arm, an attentive ear, a pitched tent, a changed direction, or justice bent away from what is right. Because the verb serves physical extension, spatial movement, attentive response, and moral deflection, the actor, object, and direction must identify whether the movement protects, listens, settles, delivers, or.
Reader summary
Full entry for נָטָה (H5186) · Open the biblical lexicon
H5186 describes extending, bending, inclining, or turning something and can portray an outstretched arm, an attentive ear, a pitched tent, a changed direction, or justice bent away from what is right. Because the verb serves physical extension, spatial movement, attentive response, and moral deflection, the actor, object, and direction must identify whether.
The BSB source-word alignment has 214 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Incline (16), stretched out (9), I will stretch out (8), Stretch out (8), and an outstretched (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 12:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (29), Isaiah (26), Exodus (22), Jeremiah (22).
H5186 describes extending, bending, inclining, or turning something and can portray an outstretched arm, an attentive ear, a pitched tent, a changed direction, or justice bent away from what is right. Because the verb serves physical extension, spatial movement, attentive response, and moral deflection, the actor, object, and direction must identify whether the movement protects, listens, settles, delivers, or corrupts.
In Exod. 6. 6, the Lord promises to bring Israel out from forced labor, redeeming the people with an outstretched arm and acts of judgment. In Ps. 17. 6, david calls on God with confidence that He answers and asks Him to incline His ear to the words of the prayer. H5186 opens teaching on direction that becomes visible: God stretches out His arm to redeem, worshipers ask Him to incline His ear, and leaders can turn aside toward gain and bend justice.
It corrects abstract talk about spiritual direction that ignores power, money, judicial conduct, and the concrete ways a person or institution leans toward or away from faithfulness. H5186 gives direction moral and relational weight: the Lord promises redemption with an outstretched arm, the psalmist asks God to incline His ear to a prayer, and Samuels sons turn aside toward dishonest gain and pervert justice.
Extension can deliver or listen, while deflection can betray a public trust; the passages must govern which movement is active. For H5186, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. H5186 does not make every change of direction sinful, reduce divine power to a bodily mechanism, or allow a leaders claimed good intentions to excuse bribes, exploitation, or distorted judgment.
H5186 appears across passages that develop Gods outstretched deliverance, attentive prayer, moral direction, justice, dwelling, and embodied movement. For H5186, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
The Lord promises to bring Israel out from forced labor, redeeming the people with an outstretched arm and acts of judgment.
I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words.
David calls on God with confidence that He answers and asks Him to incline His ear to the words of the prayer.
But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice.
Samuels sons turn aside from his ways toward dishonest gain, taking bribes and bending justice in their entrusted office.
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. Stretching outward that bends or deflects; foundational for both physical extension and moral deviation or turning away.
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 216 lexical occurrence verses.
נָטָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The Lord’s extended hand signals active intervention in judgment.Isaiah 23:8-14
Affirms the Lord’s creative authority over the cosmos.Isaiah 44:24-28
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H5186 gives direction moral and relational weight: the Lord promises redemption with an outstretched arm, the psalmist asks God to incline His ear to a prayer, and Samuels sons turn aside toward dishonest gain and pervert justice. Extension can deliver or listen, while deflection can betray a public trust; the passages must govern which movement is active. H5186 describes extending, bending, inclining, or turning something and can portray an outstretched arm, an attentive ear, a pitched tent, a changed direction, or justice bent away from what is right.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Exod. 6. 6 shows that the Lord promises to bring Israel out from forced labor, redeeming the people with an outstretched arm and acts of judgment, while Ps. 17. 6 shows that david calls on God with confidence that He answers and asks Him to incline His ear to the words of the prayer. 1Sam. 8. 3 adds that samuels sons turn aside from his ways toward dishonest gain, taking bribes and bending justice in their entrusted office.
H5186 opens teaching on direction that becomes visible: God stretches out His arm to redeem, worshipers ask Him to incline His ear, and leaders can turn aside toward gain and bend justice. It corrects abstract talk about spiritual direction that ignores power, money, judicial conduct, and the concrete ways a person or institution leans toward or away from faithfulness.
A church teaching H5186 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support. H5186 does not make every change of direction sinful, reduce divine power to a bodily mechanism, or allow a leaders claimed good intentions to excuse bribes, exploitation, or distorted judgment.
Exod.6.6
H5186 is a Hebrew verb with a broad movement range including stretching, spreading, inclining, pitching, turning, and bending; its grammatical object and directional phrase usually clarify the active sense.
The Old Testament repeatedly joins Gods outstretched arm to exodus deliverance and asks for His inclined ear in prayer, while also warning against paths bent by injustice. The New Testament continues themes of divine rescue, attentive prayer, and straight conduct without making its distinct Greek verbs lexical copies of H5186.