What does עוֹר (ʿwōr) mean in the Bible?
H5785 names human or animal skin and also a hide or leather made from it. Its uses are physical and varied, including clothing, sanctuary coverings, disease, bodily suffering, and violent metaphor.
Hebrew · H5785
עוֹר
Skin (as naked); by implication, hide , leather
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עוֹרH5785
Pronunciationʿwōr
What does עוֹר (ʿwōr) mean in the Bible?
H5785 names human or animal skin and also a hide or leather made from it. Its uses are physical and varied, including clothing, sanctuary coverings, disease, bodily suffering, and violent metaphor.
Reader summary
Full entry for עוֹר (H5785) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H5785?
The BSB source-word alignment has 99 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include on the skin (12), the skin (11), leather (10), . . . (9), vvv (7).
Where does עוֹר (ʿwōr) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 3:21. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (53), Exodus (17), Job (10), Numbers (8).
What This Word Actually Means
H5785 names human or animal skin and also a hide or leather made from it. Its uses are physical and varied, including clothing, sanctuary coverings, disease, bodily suffering, and violent metaphor. In Gen. 3. 21, the Lord makes garments of skin for the man and woman and clothes them after their disobedience and shame. In Exod. 22. 27, a poor person's garment is the only covering for the skin, so a creditor must return the pledged cloak and heed God's compassion.
In Ezek. 37. 6, skin covers restored bones, but life still depends on God's breath. H5785 opens teaching on embodied care, protection, poverty, and restoration. It does not settle questions about the garment's animal source, justify racial readings of skin, or reduce human life to outward bodily condition.
How the Bible Uses It
H5785 refers to bodily skin, animal hides, leather coverings, wounds, aging, disease, exposure, and metaphorical stripping. It keeps biblical persons materially embodied while context distinguishes protection, suffering, craft, and image.
- Gen.3.21
And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
God makes garments of skin and clothes the man and woman after judgment exposes their shame and mortality.
- Exod.22.27
Because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
A poor borrower's cloak covers the skin at night, and God says He will hear the person's cry because He is compassionate.
- Ezek.37.6
I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
In the dry-bones vision, tendons, flesh, and skin are restored before breath brings life and recognition of the Lord.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Iton the skin12×Leviticus 13:5, Leviticus 13:6, Leviticus 13:8, Leviticus 13:10
the skin11×Leviticus 13:4, Leviticus 13:12, Leviticus 13:20, Leviticus 13:21
leather10×Leviticus 11:32, Leviticus 13:49, Leviticus 13:51, Leviticus 13:52
. . .9×Exodus 26:14, Exodus 34:35, Exodus 35:23, Leviticus 13:11
vvv7×Exodus 25:5, Exodus 34:29, Exodus 34:30, Exodus 35:7
skins6×Exodus 25:5, Exodus 26:14, Exodus 35:7, Exodus 35:23
my skin4×Job 7:5, Job 19:20, Job 19:26, Job 30:30
on his skin4×Leviticus 13:2, Leviticus 13:3, Leviticus 13:4, Leviticus 13:7
skin3×Leviticus 13:2, Job 2:4
-2×Leviticus 13:39, Leviticus 13:48
and skin2×Lamentations 3:4, Ezekiel 37:8
its hide2×Exodus 29:14, Numbers 19:5
on someone’s skin2×Leviticus 13:18, Leviticus 13:24
Their skin2×Lamentations 4:8, Micah 3:3
with skin2×Job 10:11, Ezekiel 37:6
a skin1×Leviticus 13:43
all over his skin1×Leviticus 13:12
and leather1×Numbers 31:20
and the hide1×Leviticus 9:11
and their hides1×Leviticus 16:27
any article of leather1×Leviticus 13:48
But the hide1×Leviticus 4:11
by the skin1×Job 19:20
his body1×Exodus 22:27
his hide1×Job 41:7
his skin1×Jeremiah 13:23
it1×Leviticus 13:51
of his skin1×Job 18:13
of skin1×Genesis 3:21
or leather1×Leviticus 15:17
Our skin1×Lamentations 5:10
than the skin1×Leviticus 13:3
the hide1×Leviticus 7:8
the skins1×Genesis 27:16
with a leather1×2 Kings 1:8
with its hide1×Leviticus 8:17
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 3:21ע֖וֹרtoof skinNoun - masculine singularGenesis 27:16עֹרֹת֙tothe skinsNoun - masculine plural constructExodus 22:27לְעֹר֑וֹtohis bodyPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singularExodus 25:5וְעֹרֹ֨תtoskinsConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural constructExodus 25:5וְעֹרֹ֥תtovvvConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural constructExodus 26:14עֹרֹ֥תtoskinsNoun - masculine plural constructExodus 26:14עֹרֹ֥תto. . .Noun - masculine plural constructExodus 29:14עֹר֣וֹtoits hideNoun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singularExodus 34:29ע֥וֹרtovvvNoun - masculine singular constructExodus 34:30ע֣וֹרtovvvNoun - masculine singular construct
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 3:21
Aligned rows99
Books represented10
Genesis2Exodus17Leviticus53Numbers82 Kings1Job10Jeremiah1Lamentations3Ezekiel2Micah2
Source forms
ע֣וֹר9x‘ō·wrExodus 34:30, Leviticus 13:12, Numbers 4:6, Numbers 4:8
הָע֔וֹר7xhā·‘ō·wrLeviticus 13:4, Leviticus 13:20, Leviticus 13:25, Leviticus 13:30
בָּע֑וֹר6xbā·‘ō·wrLeviticus 13:5, Leviticus 13:6, Leviticus 13:8, Leviticus 13:22
בָּע֔וֹר5xbā·‘ō·wrLeviticus 13:7, Leviticus 13:10, Leviticus 13:12, Leviticus 13:27
בְעוֹר־4xḇə·‘ō·wr-Leviticus 13:2, Leviticus 13:38, Leviticus 13:39
ע֖וֹר4x‘ō·wrGenesis 3:21, Exodus 34:35, 2 Kings 1:8, Ezekiel 37:8
ע֔וֹר4x‘ō·wrLeviticus 13:49, Leviticus 13:57, Leviticus 15:17, Ezekiel 37:6
עֹרֹ֥ת4x‘ō·rōṯExodus 26:14, Exodus 36:19
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular19xGenesis 3:21, Leviticus 11:32, Leviticus 13:48, Leviticus 13:49
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular15xLeviticus 13:5, Leviticus 13:6, Leviticus 13:7, Leviticus 13:8
Article | Noun - masculine singular14xLeviticus 9:11, Leviticus 13:4, Leviticus 13:20, Leviticus 13:21
Noun - masculine singular construct9xExodus 34:29, Exodus 34:30, Exodus 34:35, Leviticus 4:11
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct8xLeviticus 13:2, Leviticus 13:3, Leviticus 13:4, Leviticus 13:11
Noun - masculine plural construct7xGenesis 27:16, Exodus 26:14, Exodus 36:19, Exodus 39:34
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct6xExodus 25:5, Exodus 35:7, Exodus 35:23
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular5xExodus 29:14, Leviticus 8:17, Job 18:13, Job 41:7
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not use skin vocabulary, biblical geography, or curses to construct racial categories or assign spiritual value to skin color.
- Do not tell people with scars, skin conditions, disability, or chronic illness that bodily difference proves sin, shame, or deficient faith.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that H5785 means race or encodes a divinely ordered hierarchy of human groups.
- Do not claim that skin in Ezekiel 37 proves outward reconstruction alone creates spiritual life.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Skin as the vulnerable, exposed boundary of the body; extends to hides stripped and processed into leather
Source Gloss
skin (as naked); by implication, hide , leather
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Skin as the vulnerable, exposed boundary of the body; extends to hides stripped and processed into leather
skin (as naked); by implication, hide, leather BDB: skin Usage: hide, leather, skin.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Animal hides used for clothing, covering human nakedness
Human skin surface examined for disease, ritual purity assessment
Skin affected by boils or sores, determining ceremonial cleanness
Skin with white spots examined for leprosy classification
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 99 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
עוֹר is built from this root:
עוּרH5783
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
H5785 keeps theology close to vulnerable bodies. In Genesis, God clothes the ashamed pair with durable garments, an act of provision after judgment, although the text does not narrate how the skins were obtained. Exodus turns compassion into credit practice: a lender may not keep the poor person's only nighttime covering, because God hears the exposed borrower's cry.
Ezekiel's vision rebuilds bodies with sinew, flesh, and skin, yet even complete outward form remains lifeless until breath comes. Skin is therefore neither a disposable shell nor a marker of spiritual rank. It can be protected, wounded, diseased, aged, crafted into useful coverings, or used in poetry to describe severe suffering. Faithful application honors bodily dignity, shelter, medical care, and economic limits.
It refuses racial hierarchy and avoids treating restoration imagery as a promise that every present illness will be reversed immediately. The God who sees beneath appearances also cares about actual skin exposed to cold, violence, and pain.
Anchor passage
Exod.22.27
Doctrinal connections
- H5785: God addresses shame and bodily vulnerability with concrete covering even within a world under judgment.
- H5785: covenant compassion limits a creditor's rights when collateral is necessary for a poor person's bodily survival.
- H5785: God's hearing of the exposed borrower's cry joins economic justice to His compassionate character.
- H5785: restored bodily form in Ezekiel remains dependent on divine breath, holding embodiment and life-giving Spirit together.
- H5785: laments name damaged skin without denying faith, allowing suffering people truthful speech before God.
- H5785: human skin never supplies a biblical hierarchy of race, worth, holiness, intelligence, or divine favor.
H5785 is a Hebrew noun for skin or hide and can extend to leather material. Possessors and object descriptions identify human skin, animal hide, garments, sanctuary coverings, or figurative bodily language.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament continues Scripture's embodied concern through Jesus' touch, healing, clothing teaching, crucifixion wounds, and bodily resurrection. Christian hope values the body without turning every healing narrative into a present guarantee.