Hebrew word · H4589

מָעוֹר

me'oreihem

nakedness

Appears only here. It comes from the root ʿûr/ʿārâ, 'to be bare, exposed,' the family of ʿerwâ, 'nakedness' (the word of Genesis 9:22 and Leviticus 18). It means the exposed private parts, nakedness as shame.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

nakedness, pudendum

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 Habakkuk 2:15

Range of meaning

Appears only here. It comes from the root ʿûr/ʿārâ, 'to be bare, exposed,' the family of ʿerwâ, 'nakedness' (the word of Genesis 9:22 and Leviticus 18). It means the exposed private parts, nakedness as shame.

Against the English

'Nakedness' (KJV, BSB, ESV) is right. WEB's 'naked bodies' and NIV's similar wording are plainer. NLT adds 'shame,' which is interpretive but true to the cultural weight.

How it drifted

Modern readers can hear 'nakedness' as simply being unclothed, morally neutral or private. To an Israelite, exposure in front of others was public disgrace, and looking at someone's nakedness was a recognized way of violating or dominating them.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 9:20–25: Noah drunk and uncovered, and Ham 'saw the nakedness of his father.' Lamentations 4:21: Edom will 'become drunk and strip herself bare.' Nahum 3:5: 'I will show the nations your nakedness.' Isaiah 20:4: captives led away 'naked and barefoot, buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt.' In Leviticus 18 and 20, 'uncover / see nakedness' is the standard idiom for forbidden sexual relations (20:17 uses 'see'). The scrolls commentary reads 'festivals' and the Greek reads 'caves' here, showing ancient uncertainty over this rare word.

Where it appears

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 2:15 מְעוֹרֵיהֶֽם׃ nakedness<es> their

    Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

    Here: 'Their nakednesses': found only here in the Bible, from the root meaning 'to be bare.' It means the private parts exposed. In Israel's world that meant shame and often had a sexual edge. The plural fits the many victims, the many nations.

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