Word study

Embroidered

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “embroidered”. 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 “embroidered” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • רִקְמָה riqmâhvariegated stufftranslated this way 8 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7553Noun  ·  Translated: embroidered 4, embroidered cloth 2, embroidered work 2, stones of various colors 1

    Judges 5:30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil— a girl or two for each warrior, a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera, the spoil of embroidered garments for the neck of the looter?’

    Ezekiel 16:10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • רָקַם râqamvariegatetranslated this way 6 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H7551Verb  ·  Translated: embroidered 6, embroiderers 1, embroiderer 1, woven together 1

    Exodus 26:36 For the entrance to the tent, you are to make a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen.

    Exodus 27:16 The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • מַעֲשֶׂה maăsehdeed, worktranslated this way 1 time of its 223 uses · Strong’s H4639Noun  ·  Translated: work 71, works 38, deeds 8, made 7

    Exodus 28:6 They are to make the ephod of finely spun linen embroidered with gold, and with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn.

    Full study and all 211 verses →
  • זָהָב zâhâbgoldtranslated this way 1 time of its 377 uses · Strong’s H2091Noun  ·  Translated: gold 352, golden 8, pure gold 2, like gold 2

    Exodus 39:2 Bezalel made the ephod of finely spun linen embroidered with gold, and with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn.

    Full study and all 335 verses →
  • מִשְׁבְּצָה mishbetsâhbrocade, settingtranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H4865Noun  ·  Translated: filigree settings 6, settings 1, filigree 1, embroidered 1

    Psalm 45:13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber; her gown is embroidered with gold.

    Full study and all 9 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.