To plunder
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Bazaz names taking goods as plunder, usually in conflict, conquest, raid, or judgment. The verb identifies appropriation but does not erase the victims, approve every victor, or make possession morally innocent.
Reader summary
Full entry for בָּזַז (H962) · Open the biblical lexicon
Bazaz names taking goods as plunder, usually in conflict, conquest, raid, or judgment. The verb identifies appropriation but does not erase the victims, approve every victor, or make possession morally innocent.
The BSB source-word alignment has 43 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and plunder (3), plunder (3), and they plundered (2), plundered (2), and carried off (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 34:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (9), Ezekiel (6), 2 Chronicles (5), Deuteronomy (3).
Bazaz names taking goods as plunder, usually in conflict, conquest, raid, or judgment. The verb identifies appropriation but does not erase the victims, approve every victor, or make possession morally innocent. Genesis 34 reports Jacob's sons looting the city after a massacre carried out in response to Dinah's violation; the narrative must not be retold as uncomplicated heroism.
Isaiah 10 condemns rulers who deny justice and make widows and orphans their plunder, bringing predatory economics inside the word's moral field. Second Kings 7 describes starving Samaria taking provisions from the abandoned Aramean camp as the Lord's announced deliverance unfolds. Jeremiah 30 promises a reversal against those who plundered God's people. These contexts differ in speaker, covenant setting, victims, and evaluation.
Teachers should name violence and exploitation honestly, refuse to equate victory with righteousness, and trace any judgment claim through the passage's own prophetic authority rather than using plunder language to justify greed, retaliation, dispossession, or triumphalism.
Bazaz appears in accounts and prophecies of looting, military spoil, exploitation, and reversal. Some passages report plunder, some condemn predatory seizure, and some announce judgment on plunderers, so the verb's presence does not settle the moral evaluation.
Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.
Jacob's sons loot the city after slaughter, requiring the whole narrative's grief, violated honor, deception, and later patriarchal judgment to remain visible.
To deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
The prophet exposes officials who withhold justice and treat widows and orphans as plunder, directly condemning institutional predation against vulnerable people.
Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. It was then that a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
The besieged people take provisions from the abandoned Aramean camp as the prophetic word of relief is fulfilled within the narrative.
Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries—every one of them—will go off into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered, and all who raided you will be raided.
The restoration oracle promises that those who plundered Judah will themselves be plundered, placing reversal under prophetic judgment rather than private revenge.
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. Violent seizure of goods as spoils of war or conquest; often depicting God's judgment upon nations
Violent seizure of goods as spoils of war or conquest; often depicting God's judgment upon nations
to plunder BDB: spoil Usage: catch, gather, (take) for a prey, rob(-ber), spoil, take (away, spoil), × utterly.
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.
בָּזַז is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Bazaz forces readers to notice that violence often includes material seizure. Genesis 34 does not permit the looting after Shechem's destruction to be celebrated without the narrative's deception, excess, and Jacob's later condemnation of Simeon and Levi's violence. Isaiah 10 brings plunder into courts and policies, where widows and orphans become prey when leaders deny justice.
Second Kings 7 narrates desperate people receiving food from an abandoned enemy camp after God's promised deliverance, while Jeremiah 30 places reversal against plunderers in a prophetic restoration oracle. The same verb can therefore appear in report, accusation, relief, and judgment. Churches should not convert ancient conflict texts into permission for conquest, racial contempt, theft, or economic exploitation.
Nor should victims be told that loss is spiritually beneficial or that seeking restitution is unforgiving. Biblical justice names oppressors, protects the vulnerable, restrains greed, and leaves ultimate vengeance to God. Applications should support truthful lament, restitution, accountable institutions, generosity, and practical care for people whose homes, labor, or resources have been taken.
Isa.10.2
The Hebrew verb denotes plundering, looting, or carrying off spoil. Objects, agents, and affected people vary, and some translations use prey, spoil, raid, or carry off. The lexical meaning does not decide whether a reported act is commanded, condemned, permitted, or judged.
Luke 19:8 presents Zacchaeus promising fourfold restoration where he has defrauded anyone, and James 5:1-6 condemns wealth accumulated through withheld wages and oppression. These texts do not redefine H962, but they clarify the church's responsibility toward stolen resources, exploited labor, repentance, restitution, and protection of vulnerable people.