Hebrew word · H1261

בָּרֹד

uverudim

spotted

Mottled, dappled, flecked, probably 'hail-spotted' with pale flecks on a darker coat. It is linked to bārād, 'hail.' Outside this passage it is used only of horses (Zechariah 6:3, 6).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

spotted, marked

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 31:12

Range of meaning

Mottled, dappled, flecked, probably 'hail-spotted' with pale flecks on a darker coat. It is linked to bārād, 'hail.' Outside this passage it is used only of horses (Zechariah 6:3, 6).

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'grisled'/'grizzled' (streaked with grey). BSB has 'speckled' (and 'spotted' for the previous word), and NASB and ESV 'mottled.' All are reasonable guesses at the same idea.

How it drifted

'Grisled' is archaic. 'Grizzled' now suggests an old, grey-haired person.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 31:10, 12; Zechariah 6:3, 6 (the 'dappled' horses of the fourth chariot). In Jacob's earlier list the third colour word was ṭālûʾ, 'patched' (30:32, 35, 39). Here a different word takes its place.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 31:10 וּבְרֻדִּֽים׃ and mottled

    When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.

  2. Genesis 31:12 וּבְרֻדִּ֑ים and mottled

    ‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.

    Here: Probably 'hail-spotted,' since it sounds like the word for hail (barad): pale flecks scattered over a dark coat. Elsewhere the word only describes horses in Zechariah 6.

Zechariah · 2

  1. Zechariah 6:3 בְּרֻדִּ֖ים dappled

    the third white horses, and the fourth dappled horses—all of them strong.

  2. Zechariah 6:6 וְהַ֨בְּרֻדִּ֔ים and the dappled [horses]

    The one with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.