Hebrew word · H5844

עָטָה

'oteh-

to enwrap

To wrap, envelop or cover oneself, usually with a garment: wrapping a mantle around the body or drawing a cloth over the face. Figuratively, to be 'wrapped' in a quality, so that it covers you completely and is visible to everyone (shame, zeal, salvation).

Appears 17 times in 15 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to cover, enwrap, wrap oneself, envelop oneself

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to wrap, envelop oneself

1a2) to cover (the beard in mourning)

1a3) mourner, one who covers (participle)

1b) (Hiphil) to cover, enwrap, envelop

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 Psalm 104:2

Range of meaning

To wrap, envelop or cover oneself, usually with a garment: wrapping a mantle around the body or drawing a cloth over the face. Figuratively, to be 'wrapped' in a quality, so that it covers you completely and is visible to everyone (shame, zeal, salvation). The 'A' in the supplied Strong's number separates this verb from a rarer homonym (H5844B, often taken as 'to grasp' or 'to delouse', debated in Jer 43:12).

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'covers' is weaker. It can suggest merely hiding something, while ʿāṭāh pictures wrapping a cloak all the way around the body. BSB/NIV 'wraps himself' is closer. YLT keeps the participle: 'Covering himself'.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Sam 28:14: the apparition of Samuel is 'wrapped in a robe' (ʿōṭeh məʿîl), the same participle. Ps 109:19, 29: 'let him be wrapped in his shame as in a cloak'. Isa 59:17: God 'wrapped himself in zeal as a mantle'. Lev 13:45: the person with skin disease must 'cover the upper lip'. In the ancient Near East more widely, gods were described as wearing awe-inspiring radiance like a garment (Akkadian melammu).

From the study of Song of Songs 1:7

Range of meaning

To wrap, cover, enfold oneself in a garment (1 Sam 28:14, Samuel 'wrapped in a robe'; Ps 104:2, God 'wrapping himself in light'; Jer 43:12, 'as a shepherd wraps himself in his cloak'). Strikingly, the phrase 'cover the upper lip' (ʿāṭâ ʿal-śāpām) is the gesture of mourners, the unclean and the shamed (Lev 13:45; Ezek 24:17, 22; Mic 3:7).

Against the English

BSB, NIV 'veiled woman'; ESV, NASB 'one who veils herself'; WEB 'one who is veiled'; KJV 'one that turneth aside' (following a different reading, see textual notes); NLT goes further and says 'like a prostitute'.

How it drifted

Modern readers hear 'veiled' as either bridal or religious modesty. The original image is of someone muffled, covered, conspicuous for the wrong reasons: the question is what reason.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 38:14–15: Tamar covers herself with a veil (different verbs) and Judah takes her for a prostitute. Yet Rebekah veils herself before meeting Isaac (Gen 24:65), and the Middle Assyrian Laws (A §40) required respectable married women to veil in public and forbade prostitutes to do so. So veiling had no single meaning across the region.

From the study of Jeremiah 43:12

Range of meaning

Meaning I: to wrap oneself in, cover oneself with, put on, used of garments, mantles and shame. Psalm 104:2 is an example: God 'wraps himself in light as with a garment', with the same verb and a similar garment comparison. Meaning II (proposed in HALOT and others, and assumed by the Greek translators here): to delouse, pick clean of lice.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and BSB say 'array himself' or 'wrap himself'. The NRSV and ESV, and also NIV 2011 and the NLT, use the delousing picture: a shepherd picking or cleaning vermin from his cloak. These are two different pictures. One shows Egypt being put on like clothing, taken over as his own possession. The other shows Egypt being picked clean, stripped and searched thoroughly.

How it drifted

This is a real lexical uncertainty, not a case of English drift. The older English versions followed the common Hebrew meaning and the Latin ('amicietur', 'he will be wrapped'). Modern versions often follow the Greek.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (Jer 50:12 in its numbering) reads καὶ φθειριεῖ γῆν Αἰγύπτου ὥσπερ φθειρίζει ποιμὴν τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ: 'he will delouse the land of Egypt as a shepherd delouses his garment'. The verb φθειρίζω is rare and specifically means removing lice (φθείρ, 'louse'). The 'wrap' meaning is well attested elsewhere in Hebrew: Lev 13:45; 1 Sam 28:14; Ps 71:13; 104:2; 109:19, 29; Isa 59:17.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 13:45 יַעְטֶ֑ה he will cover

    A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

    Here: To wrap or envelop, as with a cloak or the edge of a garment drawn over the mouth.

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 28:14 עֹטֶ֖ה [is] wrapped

    “What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “And he is wearing a robe.” So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed facedown in reverence.

Psalms · 6

  1. Psalm 71:13 יַֽעֲט֣וּ may they cover themselves

    May the accusers of my soul be ashamed and consumed; may those who seek my harm be covered with scorn and disgrace.

    Here: 'May they wrap themselves in' or 'be wrapped in.' This is the verb for drawing on a mantle or cloak. Disgrace is pictured as a garment everyone can see them wearing.

  2. Psalm 84:6 יַעְטֶ֥ה it covers [it]

    As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; even the autumn rain covers it with pools.

    Here: "Wraps" or "cloaks". This verb is used for putting on a mantle. The early rain throws blessing over the valley the way a cloak is thrown over a body. "Fills" (KJV) loses the picture.

  3. Psalm 89:45 הֶֽעֱטִ֨יתָ you have wrapped

    You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah

  4. Psalm 104:2 עֹֽטֶה־ [you are] wrapping yourself

    He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

    Here: A participle (a verb form that works like '-ing'): '[the one] wrapping himself.' It is the word for throwing a mantle around your body, and it describes what God characteristically does, not a single past event. It picks up the clothing picture of v. 1 ('You are clothed with splendor and majesty').

  5. Psalm 109:19 יַעְטֶ֑ה [which] he wraps himself

    May it be like a robe wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.

  6. Psalm 109:29 וְיַעֲט֖וּ and may they be wrapped

    May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe.

    Here: "And may they wrap themselves." This verb is stronger than 'wear'. It pictures being wound in a large garment from shoulders to feet, as God is 'wrapped in light as a garment' (Ps 104:2). It repeats v. 19, where the enemy's cursing was to be the garment he wraps himself in (yaʿṭeh).

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 1:7 כְּעֹ֣טְיָ֔ה like a veiled [woman]

    Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

    Here: 'Like a woman wrapping/covering herself.' The picture is a woman muffled in her cloak, perhaps face covered. What that signalled (a mourner, a woman of doubtful reputation, someone hiding in shame) is debated; in every option it is a figure she does not want to be taken for.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 22:17 וְעֹטְךָ֖ עָטֹֽה׃ and [is] about to grasp you, completely <to grasp>

    Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,

  2. Isaiah 59:17 וַיַּ֥עַט and he wrapped himself

    He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.

    Here: To wrap or cover oneself in a garment. Psalm 104:2 uses it of God 'wrapping himself in light as a garment.' The picture is of something wound around the whole figure.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 43:12 וְעָטָה֩ יַעְטֶ֤ה and he will delouse, he delouses

    I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

    Here: The key word of the verse, and a disputed one. It is either 'wrap oneself in' (the usual meaning) or 'delouse, pick clean' (the Greek's reading and a second meaning proposed in the lexicons). Either way, Nebuchadnezzar handles Egypt as easily as a shepherd handles his cloak.

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 24:17 תַעְטֶה֙ you must cover

    Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”

  2. Ezekiel 24:22 תַעְט֔וּ you must cover

    Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 3:7 וְעָט֥וּ and they will cover

    Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

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