† בֹּץ n.[m.] mire Je 38:22. H1206
In the mud, in the mire (prepositional phrase from the noun for mire/mud)
This word appears only in Jeremiah 38:22, where officials warn King Zedekiah that his advisors have misled him: 'your feet have sunk in the mud (ba-botz).' The noun 'botz' means mire or mud, and here it appears with the preposition 'in.' The context is both literal (Jeremiah was stuck in muddy cistern) and metaphorical (Zedekiah is in an impossible political situation). The image of sinking feet became proverbial for being trapped in difficulty.
Senses
1. sense 1 — A prepositional phrase meaning 'in the mud' or 'in the mire,' used in Jeremiah 38:22 to describe the king's predicament through the metaphor of feet stuck in mud. The immediate context involves Jeremiah's own literal experience in a muddy cistern (38:6), making this both concrete and symbolic. Multilingual renderings (en-el-lodo, in-the-mud) capture the physical image that conveys Zedekiah's hopeless political entrapment between Babylonian siege and Egyptian promises. 1×
AR["فِي-الْوَحْلِ"]·ben["কাদায়-"]·DE["[בבץ]"]·EN["in-the-mud"]·FR["[בבץ]"]·heb["ב-בוץ"]·HI["में-दलदल"]·ID["dalam-lumpur"]·IT["[בבץ]"]·jav["wonten-ing-bletèk"]·KO["에-진흡"]·PT["na-lama"]·RU["в-грязи"]·ES["en-el-lodo"]·SW["katika-matope"]·TR["çamura-"]·urd["کیچڑ-میں"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† בֹּץ n.[m.] mire Je 38:22.