To break out (in many applications, direct and indirect, literal and figurative)
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The Hebrew verb parats describes forcefully breaking out, bursting through, spreading beyond a boundary, or making a breach. Tamar's son unexpectedly breaks out first at birth, Israel multiplies despite oppression, walls are broken down, and a gate is opened for people to pass through.
Reader summary
Full entry for פָּרַץ (H6555) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb parats describes forcefully breaking out, bursting through, spreading beyond a boundary, or making a breach. Tamar's son unexpectedly breaks out first at birth, Israel multiplies despite oppression, walls are broken down, and a gate is opened for people to pass through.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and broke down (2), had burst forth (2), has burst out (2), [is] broken down (1), Although Absalom urged (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 28:14. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Chronicles (7), 1 Chronicles (5), 2 Samuel (4), Genesis (4).
The Hebrew verb parats describes forcefully breaking out, bursting through, spreading beyond a boundary, or making a breach. Tamar's son unexpectedly breaks out first at birth, Israel multiplies despite oppression, walls are broken down, and a gate is opened for people to pass through. The same verb can describe the Lord bursting out in judgment and David's battle victory pictured as a bursting flood.
These uses share movement beyond a limit, but the passage decides whether that movement is life-giving growth, dangerous intrusion, military destruction, judgment, or restored passage. A report that someone broke away does not by itself settle whether the action was faithful or rebellious. Battle texts do not license present violence, and Uzzah's death must not be reproduced as a threat against people who ask sincere questions.
Proverbs uses a breached city wall as an image of uncontrolled temper, but that comparison should invite wise self-government rather than shame people with trauma responses. Responsible teaching names the boundary, the agent crossing it, the result, and the narrator's moral evaluation before drawing an application.
Parats portrays movement that breaks a limit, opens a breach, or spreads beyond former bounds. Agent, boundary, result, and genre distinguish birth, population growth, escape, damaged defenses, divine judgment, military advance, abundance, and restored passage.
But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.
Perez receives his name after unexpectedly breaking out first when his brother withdraws his marked hand.
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
Israel multiplies and flourishes under oppression, so Egyptian attempts at control intensify their fear.
So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the Lord has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.
David describes the Lord's victory over the Philistines as water bursting through a barrier.
Then David became angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah. So he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.
David names Perez-uzzah after the Lord bursts forth against Uzzah beside the ark.
One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord as their leader.
Micah pictures one who opens the way as the gathered people pass through the gate behind their King.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who does not control his temper.
A person lacking self-control is compared with a city whose defensive walls have been breached.
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. Explosive outward movement—breaking through barriers, expanding forcefully, applied to flood waters, military breaches, and God's blessing overflow.
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 50 lexical occurrence verses.
פָּרַץ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Parats makes boundaries visible by showing what happens when they no longer hold. Genesis 38 uses the verb at a difficult birth and explains Perez's name without turning birth order into a technique for destiny. Exodus 1 shows oppressed Israel flourishing despite state violence. The growth witnesses to the failure of Pharaoh's policy, not a promise that every abused community will see immediate numerical increase.
Second Samuel 5 gives David a flood image for victory after he inquires of the Lord, yet the ancient battle account does not authorize religious violence now. First Chronicles 13 records Uzzah's death and David's anger within a larger correction about carrying the ark in the prescribed way. Teachers should acknowledge the severity and narrative questions without using the scene to frighten conscientious people into obedience to a leader.
Micah 2 places the breaker, the people, their King, and the Lord in a movement through the gate, offering restoration after the chapter's exposure of exploitation. Proverbs 25 turns breached walls into a wisdom image for lacking restraint. Faithful application protects healthy boundaries, resists oppression, repairs damage, practices accountable self-control, and refuses to call every forceful disruption divine.
Mic.2.13
Parats transliterates Hebrew פָּרַץ. Its forms can describe an agent breaking through, something spreading, a boundary being broken, or an event bursting out; syntax and context identify the boundary and whether the movement is welcomed, destructive, judicial, or restorative.
New Testament images of opened ways, fruitful growth, breached restraints, and Christ leading His people use different Greek vocabulary. Canonical comparison may illuminate themes of liberation and self-government, but it must not turn parats into a prediction about a modern movement or leader.