Aramaic word · H5622

סַרְבָּל

besarbaleihon

mantle

An outer garment of uncertain kind. It is either loose trousers (if linked to a Persian word behind Greek sarabara, "Persian trousers") or a cloak or mantle (the meaning of sarbāl in later Jewish Aramaic and the Talmud).

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

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

What it means

1) mantle, coat

1a) meaning uncertain; perhaps also 'a babouche' (oriental slipper)

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 Daniel 3:27

Range of meaning

An outer garment of uncertain kind. It is either loose trousers (if linked to a Persian word behind Greek sarabara, "Persian trousers") or a cloak or mantle (the meaning of sarbāl in later Jewish Aramaic and the Talmud).

Against the English

KJV "coats", BSB/NIV "robes", ESV "cloaks", WEB "pants", NASB (1995) "trousers". The spread reflects genuine uncertainty, not error.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only in Daniel 3:21, 27. Theodotion's Greek keeps it as sarabara and the Vulgate as sarabala, both loanwords, which shows that early translators were also unsure. Greek writers use sarabara for the baggy trousers of Persians and Scythians.

Where it appears

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 3:21 בְּסַרְבָּלֵיהוֹן֙ in mantles their

    So they were tied up, wearing robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, and they were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.

  2. Daniel 3:27 וְסָרְבָּלֵיה֖וֹן and mantles their

    and when the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisers had gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.

    Here: "Their garments", the first item in the list of clothes they were bound in (3:21). The exact garment is uncertain (trousers or cloak), but loose cloth would catch fire easily.

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