Hebrew word · H2405

חֲטֻבוֹת

chatuvot

colored

Uncertain because it occurs only here.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

coloured fabric, dark-hued stuffs

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 Proverbs 7:16

Range of meaning

Uncertain because it occurs only here. The main proposals are (1) cloth that is striped, patterned or dyed in many colors, the most common modern view, supported by cognates in other Semitic languages; (2) 'dark-colored stuffs', an older lexical suggestion; (3) 'hewn' or 'carved' things, from the verb ḥāṭab, 'to cut wood'.

Against the English

KJV has 'carved [works]', which turns the line from textiles to woodwork. YLT has 'Carved works'. WEB has 'striped cloths'. BSB has 'colored linen'. Modern versions mostly choose 'colored'.

How it drifted

The KJV tradition followed the derivation from ḥāṭab ('hew'). The supplied morphology, which tags the word as a passive participle, still reflects that derivation. Most modern lexicons prefer a textile meaning because the word stands right beside 'linen yarn of Egypt'.

Used elsewhere in the period

There are no other biblical occurrences. The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate both treat the line as being about fabrics and coverings from Egypt, not carved wood.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 7:16 חֲ֝טֻב֗וֹת colored fabrics

    I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt.

    Here: Occurs only here, so the meaning is uncertain. Most modern scholars take it as cloth woven in colored stripes or patterns. Older interpreters linked it to a root meaning 'to hew' and so got 'carved work'. Here it describes the coverlets as fancy dyed or patterned fabric.

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