מוּת

מוּת (mut) is the common Hebrew verb for dying. In causative forms it can describe causing death or putting someone to death. Its high-frequency uses include warnings, narrative reports of death, legal penalties, threats, prayers, and appeals to choose life rather than die. The related noun מָוֶת (māwet, H4194) means death and is a separate lexical identity.

Genesis 2:17 uses the infinitive absolute with a finite verb, mot tamut, to emphasize the certainty of the warning: the man will surely die if he eats from the prohibited tree. Genesis 3:4 directly negates the same construction in the serpent's response. The narrative later describes exile from the tree of life and eventual human death. Questions about whether the warning includes immediate judgment, mortality, spiritual alienation, or more than one dimension require contextual and theological argument beyond the grammar alone.

Genesis 5 repeatedly uses the verb in the mortality refrain, and Deuteronomy 34:5 reports the death of Moses. Exodus 21:12 uses the verb in a legal statement about a fatal assault and a death penalty. These contexts show why H4191 cannot be reduced to one doctrine: ordinary mortality, narrated death, killing, and judicial language all occur.

Ezekiel 18:4 says that the person who sins will die, while Ezekiel 33:11 records the Lord's declaration that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and calls the house of Israel to turn and live. Those direct verbal occurrences belong to prophetic arguments about accountability, repentance, and covenant judgment. Isaiah 25:8, Psalm 116:15, Isaiah 53:9, and Hosea 13:14 use the H4194 noun rather than H4191 and must be treated as sibling-lexeme parallels.

The local artifact counts about 839 H4191 occurrences. The verb spans death warnings, human mortality, killing, legal execution, reported deaths, prophetic judgment, pleas for life, and calls to repentance.