What does בַּז (baz) mean in the Bible?
Baz names plunder, spoil or prey, including passages where people are exposed to others' taking or predation. In Numbers 14 the frightened community says its wives and children will become plunder.
Hebrew · H957
בַּז
Baz names plunder, spoil or prey, including passages where people are exposed to others' taking or predation. In Numbers 14 the frightened community says its wives and children will become plunder.
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בַּזH957
Pronunciationbaz
What does בַּז (baz) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for בַּז (H957) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H957?
The BSB source-word alignment has 24 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include plunder (7), prey (4), . . . (3), as plunder (3), a spoil (1).
Where does בַּז (baz) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Numbers 14:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (11), Jeremiah (5), Isaiah (3), Numbers (3).
What This Word Actually Means
Baz names plunder, spoil or prey, including passages where people are exposed to others' taking or predation. In Numbers 14 the frightened community says its wives and children will become plunder. God's later answer specifically promises to bring the children into the land their parents had rejected, so the repeated word belongs to a challenged expectation rather than an ownership claim over the children.
Ezekiel 34 describes a flock made prey because its shepherds feed themselves and fail to seek it. God promises rescue, judgment between sheep and security from nations and wild beasts. Isaiah 42 describes a plundered people trapped without anyone to rescue or demand their release, within a unit that includes judgment and a call to hear. The noun must therefore retain vulnerability, agency and the surrounding divine response.
It does not turn human beings into rightful possessions, justify ancient or present exploitation, or make every loss proof that the people harmed deserved it.
How the Bible Uses It
The selected plunder and prey witnesses contrast the community's fear for its families with God's answer, negligent shepherding, rescue and judgment, promised safety and unrescued captivity.
- Num.14.3
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
The claim that wives and children will become plunder belongs to the fearful community's complaint and desire to return to Egypt.
- Num.14.31
But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.
God answers the earlier claim by promising to bring the children into the land, explicitly identifying them as those called future plunder.
- Ezek.34.8
‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because My flock lacks a shepherd and has become prey and food for every wild beast, and because My shepherds did not search for My flock but fed themselves instead,
The flock has become prey because shepherds did not seek it and fed themselves, placing failed care and responsibility in the foreground.
- Ezek.34.22
I will save My flock, and they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.
God promises to save the flock from becoming prey and to judge between sheep, retaining accountability within rescue.
- Ezek.34.28
They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not consume them. They will dwell securely, and no one will frighten them.
Security from nations and wild beasts is promised within God's covenant-of-peace and shepherding restoration, not as every present leader's guarantee.
- Isa.42.22
But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”
The people are plundered, confined and without a rescuer or a voice demanding return; the surrounding unit calls its hearers to attention.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itplunder7×Numbers 14:3, Numbers 14:31, 2 Kings 21:14, Isaiah 10:6
prey4×Jeremiah 2:14, Ezekiel 34:8, Ezekiel 34:22, Ezekiel 34:28
. . .3×Isaiah 33:23, Jeremiah 30:16, Ezekiel 38:12
as plunder3×Jeremiah 15:13, Jeremiah 17:3, Ezekiel 7:21
a spoil1×Ezekiel 36:4
and plunder1×Ezekiel 23:46
became plunder1×Ezekiel 36:5
captives1×Deuteronomy 1:39
from the spoils1×Numbers 31:32
its plunder1×Ezekiel 29:19
loot1×Ezekiel 38:13
Show sample aligned rows
Numbers 14:3לָבַ֑זtoplunderPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singularNumbers 14:31לָבַ֣זtoplunderPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singularNumbers 31:32הַבָּ֔זtofrom the spoilsArticle | Noun - masculine singularDeuteronomy 1:39לָבַ֣זtocaptivesPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singular2 Kings 21:14לְבַ֛זtoplunderPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singularIsaiah 10:6בַּ֔זtoplunderNoun - masculine singularIsaiah 33:23בַֽז׃to. . .Noun - masculine singularIsaiah 42:22לָבַז֙toplunderPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singularJeremiah 2:14לָבַֽז׃topreyPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singularJeremiah 15:13לָבַ֥זtoas plunderPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowNumbers 14:3
Aligned rows24
Books represented6
Numbers3Deuteronomy12 Kings1Isaiah3Jeremiah5Ezekiel11
Source forms
לָבַ֣ז3xlā·ḇazNumbers 14:31, Deuteronomy 1:39, Jeremiah 17:3
לָבַֽז׃3xlā·ḇazJeremiah 2:14, Jeremiah 30:16, Ezekiel 36:5
לָבַ֑ז2xlā·ḇazNumbers 14:3, Ezekiel 34:22
בַּ֔ז1xbazIsaiah 10:6
בַּז֙1xbazEzekiel 34:28
בַּ֑ז1xbazEzekiel 38:12
בַּ֖ז1xbazEzekiel 38:13
בַֽז׃1xḇazIsaiah 33:23
Parsing patterns
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular16xNumbers 14:3, Numbers 14:31, Deuteronomy 1:39, 2 Kings 21:14
Noun - masculine singular5xIsaiah 10:6, Isaiah 33:23, Ezekiel 34:28, Ezekiel 38:12
Article | Noun - masculine singular1xNumbers 31:32
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular1xEzekiel 23:46
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular1xEzekiel 29:19
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Protect people exposed to exploitation while respecting their choices and truthful accounts of what happened.
- Investigate failures of care and shared power rather than assigning the whole responsibility to those harmed.
Avoid claiming...
- Plunder vocabulary cannot authorize trafficking, coerced possession or exploitation of a human being.
- The noun cannot establish that every loss or confinement is deserved punishment.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Spoils violently seized in warfare; connotes both the act of plundering and the material goods taken.
Source Gloss
plunder
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Spoils violently seized in warfare; connotes both the act of plundering and the material goods taken.
plunder BDB: spoiling Usage: booty, prey, spoil(-ed).
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Word Origins
בַּז is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Numbers 14 repeats the plunder claim so readers can hear both the people's fear and God's answer about their children. The children are not property available for a community to distribute; the narrative addresses what their parents fear will happen and what God promises instead. Ezekiel 34 presents predation as the consequence of shepherds failing to seek and feed the flock while feeding themselves.
Rescue includes removing those shepherds and judging between sheep that have injured the weak. A teacher must therefore resist making the flock solely responsible for exposure while ignoring those who used power badly. The chapter's security promise gives hope within God's restoration and covenant of peace, without licensing present leaders to claim they can guarantee every person's safety.
Isaiah 42 preserves the condition of people trapped with no one speaking for their return. Hearing them should move communities toward truthful advocacy, responsible protection and restored agency, rather than using plunder language to justify possession or to assign automatic guilt to everyone who has lost freedom or goods.
Anchor passage
Ezek.34.8
Doctrinal connections
- Numbers preserves the family-plunder fear as the community's complaint.
- God's answer promises entry for the children named in that fear.
- Ezekiel holds self-feeding shepherds responsible for the flock's exposure.
- God's rescue includes judgment between sheep that harm the weak.
- The covenant-of-peace promise joins restoration with security from predation.
- Isaiah keeps confined and unrescued people within its call to hear.
Baz is a masculine noun used for plunder or prey, often after a preposition describing what someone becomes. The human, flock or material referent and the speaker's purpose must be identified before drawing ethical conclusions.
From Old to New Testament
John 10:1-21 contrasts Jesus' good shepherding and laid-down life with theft, killing and hired abandonment. This thematic comparison answers the concern of Ezekiel's exposed flock without equating human leaders with Jesus, excusing neglect or promising that no follower will ever suffer injury.