Hebrew word · H5630

סִרְיֹן

hasiryonot

armor

Body armour, especially a coat of mail made of overlapping metal scales attached to a leather or fabric backing. It is a spelling variant of širyôn/širyān (1 Sam 17:5, 38; 1 Kgs 22:34; Neh 4:16).

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

What it means

armour

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 Jeremiah 46:4

Range of meaning

Body armour, especially a coat of mail made of overlapping metal scales attached to a leather or fabric backing. It is a spelling variant of širyôn/širyān (1 Sam 17:5, 38; 1 Kgs 22:34; Neh 4:16).

Against the English

'Armor' (BSB) is generic. 'Coats of mail' (WEB, YLT) is closer to the actual object. NASB-style 'scale armor' is the most exact. KJV's 'brigandines' uses a late-medieval term for a padded cloth jacket with metal plates riveted inside it. The idea is similar, but the word is opaque to modern readers.

How it drifted

KJV translators used a piece of armour from their own era. The word has since dropped out of use, and readers may wrongly link it to 'brigand' (bandit).

Used elsewhere in the period

Goliath wore 'scale armor' (širyôn qaśqaśśîm, 'mail of scales') weighing 5,000 shekels (1 Sam 17:5). Ahab was struck 'between the scale armor and the breastplate' (1 Kgs 22:34). Archaeological finds of loose bronze and iron armour scales are common at Iron Age Levantine and Egyptian sites. Jer 51:3 uses the same spelling in the matching oracle against Babylon.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 46:4 הַסִּרְיֹנֹֽת׃ the armor

    Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!

    Here: Body armour: in this period, a coat of small metal scales sewn onto leather or cloth. This spelling occurs only here and in Jer 51:3. The more common spelling, širyôn, describes Goliath's scale armour in 1 Sam 17:5.

  2. Jeremiah 51:3 בְּסִרְיֹנ֑וֹ in armor his

    Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!

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