To gird is to secure clothing around a person, and the setting explains whether that preparation is for service, a stated spiritual comparison or visionary dress. Jesus tells His hearers to be dressed for service while awaiting the returning master.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for περιζώννυμι (G4024) · Open the biblical lexicon
To gird is to secure clothing around a person, and the setting explains whether that preparation is for service, a stated spiritual comparison or visionary dress. Jesus tells His hearers to be dressed for service while awaiting the returning master.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (1), around (1), buckled around (1), dress yourself (1), girded with (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 12:35. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Revelation (2), Ephesians (1).
To gird is to secure clothing around a person, and the setting explains whether that preparation is for service, a stated spiritual comparison or visionary dress. Jesus tells His hearers to be dressed for service while awaiting the returning master. In the same account He describes the master dressing himself to serve the watchful servants, making the surprising action part of the blessing.
Paul speaks of the belt of truth within the armor of God, while Revelation describes golden sashes in particular visions. The verb therefore does not carry one hidden role or ceremonial meaning everywhere. Follow who is clothed, what is secured and what the passage says that person will do. Readiness must retain Jesus' stated call and His promised blessing rather than becoming an excuse to exhaust workers, assign every garment a mystical code or permit violence against people.
Dressed servants, a master prepared to serve them and truth pictured as a secured belt provide distinct uses of girding. Revelation's golden sashes belong to its described visions rather than determining a universal clothing practice.
Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
The command to be dressed for service and keep lamps burning introduces servants ready to open the door when their master returns, with the timing explicitly unexpected in the following teaching.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds on watch when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table, and he himself will come and wait on them.
The returned master dresses himself to serve and has the watchful servants recline at table; the text's blessing includes his service rather than only their continuing labor.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
Truth is pictured as a belt within the armor argument, alongside righteousness, readiness of peace, faith and prayer; the preceding statement says the struggle is not against flesh and blood.
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. To gird loins or garments in preparation for action or service, often figurative for readiness.
To gird loins or garments in preparation for action or service, often figurative for readiness.
(see Veitch, see word), [in LXX chiefly for חָגַר, also for אָזַר, etc. ;] to gird (with dupl, accusative, as ὁ περιζωννύων με δύναμιν, Psa.18:32): pass., αἱ ὀσφύες περιεζωσμέναι, Luk.12:35; π. ζώνην χρυσῆν, Rev.1:13 15:6 (but see infr.). Mid., to gird oneself: Luk.12:37 17:8 (and so perh. Re, ll. with supr., cf. 1Ki.2:4); with accusative of thing(s) (figuratively), τ. ὀσφύν, Eph.6:14 (before ἐν, cf. 1Ch.15:27).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I gird round
Read verseI gird round
Read verseI gird round
Read verseI gird round
Read verseI gird round
Read verseI gird round
Read verseI gird round
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.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 6 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
περιζώννυμι is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jesus' account begins with servants dressed and waiting so that they can open the door promptly. The blessing then includes a striking reversal: the master dresses himself to serve them and brings them to the table. A teaching focused only on demanding more labor would miss the action Jesus expressly promises. The surrounding call to readiness names the Son of Man's unexpected arrival rather than a date a reader can calculate.
In Ephesians, girding appears within a different comparison, where truth is pictured as a belt and the whole argument includes peace, faith and prayer. Revelation uses the verb in described visionary clothing, without instructing every reader to adopt those garments. The common action of securing clothing must therefore remain connected to each stated purpose.
It can make preparedness concrete while the account or argument determines what readiness means and what it does not authorize.
Luke.12.37
The licensed Greek verb concerns girding or securing clothing, including preparation for service and the explicit truth comparison. The BSB rendering dressed for service communicates the action in Luke. Actor, garment and surrounding purpose must be read from each sentence without deriving a new canonical sense or a complete role from the verb alone.
Exodus 12:11 specifies clothing prepared for travel, sandals and staff within the Lord's Passover instruction. That Hebrew setting provides a concrete comparison for preparedness without making it the same lexical identity or equating Israel's departure, Jesus' returning-master account and Paul's armor argument in every detail.