Hebrew word · H6181

עֶרְיָה

'eryah

nakedness

ʿeryāh means nakedness or bareness, specifically exposed skin. bōshet means shame or disgrace, the public loss of honour. In the Hebrew Bible bōshet is also sometimes used as a mocking substitute for the god's name Baal (Ishbosheth for Eshbaal), but nothing here points to that.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

nudity, nakedness

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 Micah 1:11

Range of meaning

ʿeryāh means nakedness or bareness, specifically exposed skin. bōshet means shame or disgrace, the public loss of honour. In the Hebrew Bible bōshet is also sometimes used as a mocking substitute for the god's name Baal (Ishbosheth for Eshbaal), but nothing here points to that.

Against the English

BSB's 'shameful nakedness', KJV's 'having thy shame naked' and WEB's 'in nakedness and shame' all catch the main sense. The Hebrew is even more compressed: two nouns side by side, 'nakedness-shame', with the nakedness being the shame.

How it drifted

Modern readers may hear 'nakedness' mainly as something sexual or private. In the ancient world, being publicly stripped was what happened to war captives and was a basic loss of social standing.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezek 16:7, 22, 39 and 23:29 use ʿeryāh for a woman stripped as punishment. Isa 20:4 says the king of Assyria will lead Egyptian captives away 'naked and barefoot … to the shame of Egypt'. Assyrian palace reliefs, including Sennacherib's Lachish reliefs, show deportees with little clothing and bare feet.

From the study of Habakkuk 3:9

Range of meaning

The root ʿ-r-(h/r/w) means 'to be naked, bare, exposed'. ʿeryāh is 'nakedness, bareness' (Ezek 16:7, 22, 39; Mic 1:11). The verb (here passive) means 'to be laid bare, stripped'. Put side by side, the two words from one root make a strong emphasis: 'utterly bared'.

Against the English

KJV's 'made quite naked' and YLT's 'utterly naked' keep the doubling. WEB/NIV 'uncovered' and ESV 'stripped the sheath from' spell out the picture. BSB 'brandished' gives the effect but drops the image of uncovering.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ancient Near Eastern chariots carried bows in cases fixed to the side of the car. Assyrian reliefs show them clearly. To 'bare' the bow is to draw it out for battle. Compare Isa 22:6, where Kir 'laid bare the shield' (the same root), meaning it took the shield out of its cover.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 4

  1. Ezekiel 16:7 וְעֶרְיָֽה׃ and bareness

    I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

    Here: 'And bareness.' A related noun added for emphasis, meaning 'stark naked, utterly exposed.' Ezekiel repeats the pair 'naked and bare' in 16:22 and 16:39 as a refrain.

  2. Ezekiel 16:22 וְעֶרְיָ֔ה and bareness

    And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

  3. Ezekiel 16:39 וְעֶרְיָֽה׃ and bareness

    Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

  4. Ezekiel 23:29 וְעֶרְיָ֑ה and bareness

    They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 1:11 עֶרְיָה־ nakedness

    Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.

    Here: Bodily exposure. Ezekiel uses the word for a woman stripped and exposed (Ezek 16:7, 22, 39). Here it is the stripping of war captives, not anything sexual.

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 3:9 עֶרְיָ֤ה bareness

    You brandished Your bow; You called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers.

    Here: Used as an adverb with the verb that follows, from the same root: 'in bareness', so 'stripped completely bare'. Doubling the root makes it emphatic: the bow is fully uncovered.

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