Hebrew word · H4997

נֹאד

venodot

wineskin

A container made from an animal skin, usually a goat skin with the openings sewn shut, used for wine, milk or water.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 30, 2026

What it means

skin, bottle, skin-bottle

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

Range of meaning: A container made from an animal skin, usually a goat skin with the openings sewn shut, used for wine, milk or water.
Against the English: KJV 'wine bottles' (see drift). Modern versions say 'wineskins'.
How it drifted: In 1611 'bottle' could still mean a leather container. Today it suggests glass.
Used elsewhere in the period: Judg 4:19 (Jael's skin of milk), 1 Sam 16:20, Ps 119:83 ('like a wineskin in the smoke', shrivelled and dried out). The same picture of old skins splitting lies behind Jesus' saying about new wine and old wineskins (Mark 2:22), though there is no direct link to this verse.

Range of meaning: A container made from an animal skin, usually a whole goat-skin sewn shut with the neck as the spout. It held wine (Josh 9:4, 13; 1 Sam 16:20), milk (Judg 4:19) and other liquids. In Ps 119:83 'like a wineskin in the smoke' it is an image of something dried out and shrivelled. In everyday Israelite life it was a common, fairly large household and travelling vessel, used for keeping something valuable that could be drunk.
Against the English: KJV, ESV, NASB and BSB have 'bottle'. In 1611 'bottle' still commonly meant a leather bottle, as in 'new wine into old bottles' (Matt 9:17 KJV). A modern reader pictures glass. WEB's 'container' is accurate but loses the picture. NIV drops the vessel and has 'scroll' instead.
How it drifted: English 'bottle' moved from leather to glass. On top of that, 19th-century antiquarians labelled the small Roman-era glass flasks found in tombs 'lachrymatories', meaning tear-catchers. That label merged with this verse into the popular idea of an ancient custom of 'tear bottles'. Archaeologists now generally identify those flasks as unguentaria, small containers for perfumed oil.
Used elsewhere in the period: The word is used throughout the Hebrew Bible for skins of wine and milk. The Septuagint usually translates it askos ('leather bag', the word used for 'wineskins' in the Gospels). Skins as containers are well known across the ancient Near East.

Range of meaning: A leather container made from an animal skin, used for liquids: wine (Josh 9:4, 13; 1 Sam 16:20) or milk (Judg 4:19). Used in poetry for something shrivelled or fragile ('like a wineskin in the smoke', Ps 119:83) or for storing something precious ('put my tears in your skin', Ps 56:8).
Against the English: Modern versions say 'wineskins'. The KJV's 'bottles of wine' was ordinary English in 1611 for any container, leather ones included, but today it calls up glass bottles.
How it drifted: In 1611 'bottle' could mean a leather flask. Once glass became the normal material, the word narrowed and the KJV image stopped making sense: glass does not 'rend'.
Used elsewhere in the period: Skin containers are well attested across the ancient Near East and are still used by Bedouin. Job 32:19 uses a related word ('ov) for 'new wineskins' about to burst, which shows that splitting was a known way skins failed. The Greek Septuagint and the New Testament use askos (Matt 9:17: new wine in old skins), and the KJV says 'bottles' there too.

Joshua · 2

Joshua 9:4 וְנֹאד֥וֹת and skin-bottles of

acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

Here: 'And skins.' These are whole goat or sheep hides sewn up as containers for liquid. Leather like this cracks and splits with age and long use.
Joshua 9:13 נֹאד֤וֹת [the] skin-bottles of

These wineskins were new when we filled them, but look, they are cracked. And these clothes and sandals are worn out from our very long journey.”

Here: Containers made from a whole animal hide, usually goat, sewn shut with the neck or a leg left as the spout. 'Skins of the wine' means skins used for wine.

Judges · 1

Judges 4:19 נֹ֧אוד [the] skin-bottle of

Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

1 Samuel · 1

1 Samuel 16:20 וְנֹ֣אד and a skin-bottle of

And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and one young goat and sent them to Saul with his son David.

Psalms · 2

Psalm 56:8 בְנֹאדֶ֑ךָ in skin-bottle your

You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle—are they not in Your book?

Here: 'In your skin', meaning the goat-skin or sheep-skin container used in ancient Israel for wine, milk or water. It is not a small glass vial. The sound plays on nōdî ('my wandering'): nōd / nōʾd. The tears of the wanderer belong in God's own wineskin.
Psalm 119:83 כְּנֹ֣אד like a skin-bottle

Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.

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