Loins
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G3751 is a Greek noun for the waist or loins, the middle of the body around which a belt or garment is secured. Luke 12:35 uses the idiom of dressed readiness to call servants to alert, faithful service while they await their master.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὀσφῦς (G3751) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3751 is a Greek noun for the waist or loins, the middle of the body around which a belt or garment is secured. Luke 12:35 uses the idiom of dressed readiness to call servants to alert, faithful service while they await their master.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (3), waist (3), [his descendants] (1), loin (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (2), 1 Peter (1), Acts (1), Ephesians (1).
G3751 is a Greek noun for the waist or loins, the middle of the body around which a belt or garment is secured. Luke 12:35 uses the idiom of dressed readiness to call servants to alert, faithful service while they await their master. Ephesians 6:14 tells believers to stand with truth belted around the waist within Paul's full image of God's armor. First Peter 1:13 draws on the same bodily preparation in an idiom rendered as preparing the mind for action, joining sober thinking with hope fixed on grace at Jesus Christ's revelation.
Other occurrences describe John the Baptist's leather belt and use loins in ancient genealogical language for descent from an ancestor. G3751 does not teach that physical posture produces spiritual power, nor does the armor image authorize aggression. It opens teaching on readiness, truth, sober hope, service, embodied imagery, and covenant descent. It corrects mystical readings of body parts and the misuse of readiness language to keep people anxious, overworked, or permanently available to human leaders.
G3751 literally names the waist or loins. New Testament writers use it for clothing, preparedness for service, the belt in the armor image, mental readiness, and genealogical descent. The concrete body term supplies the image, but the accompanying verbs and argument define its force.
Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
Jesus calls His servants to remain dressed for service with lamps burning as part of a larger teaching on watchful faithfulness.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
Truth is pictured as the belt secured around the believer's waist within the command to stand in the armor God provides.
Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The bodily idiom becomes a call to prepare the mind for action, remain sober, and set hope fully on coming grace.
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.
Greek word. loins
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the loins
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Read versethe loins
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
ὀσφῦς is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3751 turns the ordinary act of fastening clothing into a memorable call to readiness. In Luke, servants keep their clothing secured and lamps burning because faithful waiting is active and responsive, not speculative date-setting. In Ephesians, truth functions like the belt around the waist within armor supplied by God. The church stands against spiritual evil through truth, righteousness, gospel peace, faith, salvation, God's word, and prayer, not through coercive control of people.
First Peter makes the bodily idiom explicit in relation to the mind: prepare for action, remain sober, and place hope fully on grace. Readiness therefore combines clear thought, disciplined hope, and obedient service. Literal uses for John's belt keep the noun grounded in clothing, while Hebrews and Acts reflect an ancient way of speaking about descendants as coming from an ancestor's loins.
That genealogical idiom serves arguments about promise and priesthood; it is not a complete account of reproduction or inherited worth. G3751 invites believers to remove what hinders faithful action and stand firmly in what God provides. It must not be used to cultivate chronic fear, exhaustion, militarism, or dependence on a leader who demands perpetual access.
1Pet.1.13
G3751 denotes the waist or loins. Idioms about girding or belting this area arise from securing loose garments for action. In genealogical settings, loins can represent bodily descent. Translation often renders the intended action rather than preserving the body-part expression word for word.
Old Testament commands to gird the loins prepare the idiom of readiness used in the New Testament, and prophetic clothing helps frame John the Baptist's appearance. These canonical echoes illuminate the image without making every Hebrew waist term a lexical equivalent of G3751.