Word study

Attire

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “attire”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “attire” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מַלְבּוּשׁ malbûshraiment, attiretranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4403Noun  ·  Translated: attire 3, garments 1, wardrobe 1, clothes 1

    1 Kings 10:5 the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the service and attire of his attendants, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he presented at the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.

    2 Chronicles 9:4 the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the service and attire of his attendants, the attire of his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he presented at the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • בֶּגֶד begedtreacherytranslated this way 2 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H899Noun  ·  Translated: clothes 76, garments 61, clothing 16, garment 13

    1 Kings 22:10 Dressed in royal attire, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.

    2 Chronicles 18:9 Dressed in royal attire, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.

    Full study and all 189 verses →
  • מַד madmeasuretranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H4055Noun  ·  Translated: tunic 2

    2 Samuel 20:8 And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • שִׁית shîthgarmenttranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7897Noun  ·  Translated: garment 1, attire 1

    Proverbs 7:10 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.