Hebrew word · H4897

מֶ֫שִׁי

meshi

silk

A very costly fabric of uncertain identity, attested only in Ezekiel 16:10 and 13. Suggestions: silk (medieval Jewish exegesis, hence KJV); a very fine gauze-like cloth (Septuagint); a fine drawn thread, linking it to the root mšh, 'to draw out'; or an unknown Egyptian or foreign loanword.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 25, 2026

What it means

1) a costly material for garment

1a) perhaps silk

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 Ezekiel 16:10

Range of meaning: A very costly fabric of uncertain identity, attested only in Ezekiel 16:10 and 13. Suggestions: silk (medieval Jewish exegesis, hence KJV); a very fine gauze-like cloth (Septuagint); a fine drawn thread, linking it to the root mšh, 'to draw out'; or an unknown Egyptian or foreign loanword.
Against the English: KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB and WEB have 'silk', and YLT 'figured silk'. NIV has 'costly garments', which concedes the uncertainty and keeps the point of value.
How it drifted: 'Silk' is a traditional identification, not a demonstrated one. Silk was produced in China. A few early finds (such as silk fibres reported from an Egyptian burial of around 1000 BCE) show that some reached the west early, but it was extremely rare in the 6th-century BCE Near East. A reader who pictures Chinese silk brocade is reading in more certainty than the word can bear.
Used elsewhere in the period: Septuagint: trichaptō, a delicate fabric fine as hair (or woven from hair). Vulgate: subtilibus, 'fine (garments)'. The word appears nowhere else in Hebrew of the period.

From the study of Ezekiel 16:13

Range of meaning: Some costly fabric. It occurs only in Ezek 16:10 and 16:13, so its exact meaning cannot be checked against other passages. Proposals include a very fine, gauzy cloth, a particular luxury weave, or silk. HALOT and others raise the possibility of an Egyptian loanword, as with shesh.
Against the English: KJV, ESV and NASB say 'silk'. NIV has 'costly fabric', which is more cautious. 'Silk' gives a modern reader a specific picture of Chinese silk that the Hebrew does not secure.
How it drifted: 'Silk' comes from medieval Jewish interpretation, which Modern Hebrew follows (meshi now means silk). The early translators did not read it that way: the Septuagint has trichapta, 'hair-fine woven stuff'.
Used elsewhere in the period: Septuagint: τρίχαπτα (trichapta). Vulgate: polymitum, 'many-threaded' cloth. Silk fibres have been reported in the hair of an Egyptian mummy from about 1000 BC (Lubec et al., 1993). That shows silk could reach the Near East, but it does not prove that meshi means silk.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 2

Ezekiel 16:10 מֶֽשִׁי׃ silk

I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

Here: A precious, very fine material, found only here and in verse 13. 'Silk' is a medieval Jewish guess. The Greek translators understood it as a delicate fabric as fine as hair. All anyone can say for sure is that it was rare and expensive.
Ezekiel 16:13 וָמֶ֙שִׁי֙ and silk

So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen.

Here: A luxury cloth that appears only here and in v. 10. Nobody knows exactly what it was. 'Silk' is a later traditional guess, and the Greek translation took it as a very fine, hair-thin weave.

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