This verb describes escaping from danger or surviving destruction, appearing in Joshua's account of the conquest of the five Amorite kings. After Israel's great slaughter of enemy forces, the few who survived 'escaped' to fortified cities for refuge. The root conveys the sense of fleeing or slipping away from destruction, managing to survive when most perished. Cognate languages suggest connotations of being startled and fleeing in terror, running away like a frightened animal. The term captures both the act of escape and the survivor's status among the fallen.