Word study
Garment
10 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: garments, garment. 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 “garment” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בֶּגֶד begedtreacherytranslated this way 80 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H899Noun · Translated: clothes 76, garments 61, clothing 16, garment 13Full study and all 189 verses →
Genesis 38:14 she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.
Exodus 28:2 Make holy garments for your brother Aaron, to give him glory and splendor.
- לְבוּשׁ lebûshgarment, clothing, raimenttranslated this way 10 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H3830Noun · Translated: clothing 7, garments 4, robe 4, garment 3Full study and all 32 verses →
Genesis 49:11 He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
2 Samuel 1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and luxury, who decked your garments with ornaments of gold.
- כְּתֹנֶת kethônethtunictranslated this way 4 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H3801Noun · Translated: robe 13, tunic 6, tunics 5, garments 4Full study and all 26 verses →
Genesis 3:21 And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
Ezra 2:69 According to their ability, they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priestly garments.
- שִׂמְלָה simlâhwrapper, mantletranslated this way 4 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H8071Noun · Translated: clothes 9, clothing 8, cloak 3, garment 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Genesis 9:23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Judges 8:25 “We will give them gladly,” they replied. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw an earring from his plunder onto it.
- סָדִין sâdînlinen wrappertranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5466Noun · Translated: linen garments 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Judges 14:12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.
Proverbs 31:24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchants.
- צֶבַע tsebadye, dyed stufftranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6648Noun · Translated: dyed garments 1, garments 1Full study and its 1 verse →
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?’
- מֶדֶו medevgarmenttranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4063Noun · Translated: garments 2Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Samuel 10:4 So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
1 Chronicles 19:4 So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved their beards, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
- שַׂלְמָה salmâhid.translated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H8008Noun · Translated: cloak 4, clothes 4, clothing 3Full study and all 16 verses →
Exodus 22:9 In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item that someone claims, ‘This is mine,’ both parties shall bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges find guilty must pay back double to his neighbor.
Song of Solomon 4:11 Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
- תַּחֲרָא tachărâcorselettranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8473Noun · Translated: garment 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Exodus 28:32 with an opening at its top in the center. Around the opening shall be a woven collar with an opening like that of a garment, so that it will not tear.
Exodus 39:23 with an opening in the center of the robe like that of a garment, with a collar around the opening so that it would not tear.
- כָּנָף kânâphwing, extremitytranslated this way 2 times of its 96 uses · Strong’s H3671Noun · Translated: wings 53, wing 12, corners 4, corner 3Full study and all 79 verses →
Ruth 3:9 “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.”
Ezekiel 5:3 But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἱμάτιον himátionouter garmenttranslated this way 20 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s G2440Noun · Translated: cloak 13, garments 12, clothes 8, cloaks 7Full study and all 55 verses →
Matthew 9:16 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and a worse tear will result.
Mark 2:21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.
What the Bible says about garment: passages by topic →
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.