Hebrew word · H4666

מִפְרָשׂ

mifresei-

spreading

A noun formed from pāraś, 'to spread out' (wings, hands, a garment, a net, a tent covering). It names the thing spread out or the act of spreading. It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible: here, and in Ezek 27:7, where it is the embroidered linen 'spread out' as the sail of the ship Tyre.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

spreading out, thing spread out

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 Job 36:29

Range of meaning

A noun formed from pāraś, 'to spread out' (wings, hands, a garment, a net, a tent covering). It names the thing spread out or the act of spreading. It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible: here, and in Ezek 27:7, where it is the embroidered linen 'spread out' as the sail of the ship Tyre.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT keep the noun ('spreadings'). BSB ('how the clouds spread out') makes the clouds the ones doing the spreading. NIV-style renderings ('how he spreads out the clouds') make God the one doing it. The Hebrew noun names neither. It just presents the spread-out cloud mass as something to marvel at.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezek 27:7 (a sail). The root pāraś is used for God spreading things in the sky elsewhere in this passage: Job 36:30, 'he spreads his light about him'. Compare also the related image in Ps 104:2 and Isa 40:22, where God stretches out the heavens like a tent curtain, though those verses use a different verb (nāṭâ). Job 37:16 has a near sound-alike, mifl'sê-'āv, 'the balancings/hoverings of the cloud', in a similar 'do you know…?' question.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 36:29 מִפְרְשֵׂי־ [the] spreading out<s> of

    Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

    Here: 'The spreadings of', a plural noun from the verb 'to spread out' (pāraś). It pictures the cloud mass unfurling across the sky like cloth or a sail, and it sets up the same root in v. 30, where God 'spreads' his light.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 27:7 מִפְרָשֵׂ֔ךְ sail your

    Of embroidered fine linen from Egypt they made your sail, which served as your banner. Of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah they made your awning.

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