Garment or clothing can name a needed covering, a public mark of honor or an image used to describe something else. Job speaks of people without clothing in the cold and, in his defense, describes warming a needy person with his sheep's fleece.
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Full entry for לְבוּשׁ (H3830) · Open the biblical lexicon
Garment or clothing can name a needed covering, a public mark of honor or an image used to describe something else. Job speaks of people without clothing in the cold and, in his defense, describes warming a needy person with his sheep's fleece.
The BSB source-word alignment has 33 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the robe (3), clothing (2), my clothing (2), . . . (1), anyone wearing (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 49:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (7), Esther (6), Psalms (6), Isaiah (3).
Garment or clothing can name a needed covering, a public mark of honor or an image used to describe something else. Job speaks of people without clothing in the cold and, in his defense, describes warming a needy person with his sheep's fleece. Esther records Mordecai arrayed in a royal robe for a public procession. Proverbs says strength and honor are a woman's clothing, making the comparison explicit instead of describing a fabric.
The garment noun does not make wealth, status or outward appearance a verdict on a person's worth. Attend to who wears or lacks the covering and what the account says it does. A poor person's lack of clothing is a need to recognize, while ceremonial dress communicates a particular honor in its narrative. Figurative clothing must be interpreted through the quality or subject the passage actually names, rather than an unlimited symbolic code.
Job's needy people, Mordecai's public robe, Proverbs' strength-and-honor image and the psalms' garments show concrete and figurative settings. Wearer, material need and stated comparison determine each passage's teaching.
If I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,
Job's conditional defense names someone perishing for lack of clothing and a needy man without a cloak, then speaks of warming him with fleece.
So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!”
Haman arrays Mordecai in the royal robe and publicly announces the king's honor, while the account distinguishes each man's role and response.
Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the days to come.
Strength and honor are expressly called her clothing, with wisdom and household care nearby; the comparison is about named qualities rather than a prescribed wardrobe.
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. Garment as covering, extending figuratively to wife as one who clothes or covers a man.
Garment as covering, extending figuratively to wife as one who clothes or covers a man.
a garment (literally or figuratively); by implication (euphemistically) a wife BDB: garment Usage: apparel, clothed with, clothing, garment, raiment, vestment, vesture.
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 33 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Clothing must be read through the person and purpose it serves. Job's account of cold and missing coverings makes an ordinary garment a matter of vulnerability, not fashion. His defense then names warming a needy person, keeping practical help visible. Esther's royal robe marks the honor the king orders for Mordecai, and its public presentation belongs to that particular reversal involving Haman.
Proverbs supplies a different movement by calling strength and honor clothing while also describing actual linen and purple elsewhere in the portrait. A teacher should identify these distinctions before assigning significance to dress. Recognize material need, retain the named ceremonial setting and explain only the comparison the passage provides. Do not make costly clothing proof of righteousness, turn poverty into shame, or infer a complete marriage doctrine from one broader lexical gloss.
Job.31.19
The licensed Hebrew evidence supports literal and figurative garment language. These selected passages establish coverings and explicit comparisons; a broader source gloss does not make every occurrence a marriage term or turn every piece of clothing into an identical theological symbol.
John 19:23-24 explicitly quotes the garment-and-lots line while describing the soldiers' actions at Jesus' crucifixion. Hebrews 1:10-12 quotes the psalm's wearing-out creation comparison concerning the Lord. These are traceable canonical uses, not a general rule that every garment in Scripture represents the same thing or a new merger of Hebrew and Greek identities.