Hebrew word · H7242

רָבִיד

revid

necklace

Necklace, neck-chain or collar; perhaps a band of linked or beaded pieces. It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 24, 2026

What it means

chain (ornament for neck-necklace)

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: Necklace, neck-chain or collar; perhaps a band of linked or beaded pieces. It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible.
Against the English: "Chain" (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) is the traditional rendering and goes back to Genesis 41:42 ("a gold chain about his neck"). "Necklace" (used by several modern versions) is equally accurate and keeps a reader from imagining a fetter. In context nobody is meant to think of chains as bondage.
Used elsewhere in the period: Genesis 41:42: Pharaoh puts his signet ring on Joseph's hand, dresses him in fine linen (šēš) and puts the rĕbid hazzāhāb, 'the chain of gold', on his neck, installing him as ruler. Egyptian art shows this kind of gold collar being given as a reward for honoured officials.

Range of meaning: A neck ornament: necklace or collar. Found only here and in Ezek 16:11, where God adorns Jerusalem with bracelets on her arms and a rābîd on her neck. It is probably related to the root rbd, 'to spread, bedeck' (Prov 7:16, 'I have spread my couch'), which suggests something laid across the neck and chest, like a collar.
Against the English: Most English versions have 'gold chain' (KJV, BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV, YLT). NASB has 'gold necklace'. 'Chain' brings to mind interlocking metal links, or a modern mayor's chain of office, which is not necessarily the shape of the object.
How it drifted: 'Chain' goes back to the Geneva Bible and KJV and stuck. Neither the Hebrew word nor the Greek and Latin versions point specifically to links. The LXX has klóios, 'collar', and the Vulgate torques, 'neck-ring, torc'.
Used elsewhere in the period: Egyptian reliefs from the New Kingdom (about 1550–1070 BC) show the king rewarding officials with the 'gold of honour' (šbyw), heavy necklaces of gold disc-beads, sometimes several at once, put around the neck at a public ceremony. Examples are Ay at Amarna and Horemheb. Daniel 5:29 has a close Babylonian parallel: Daniel is clothed in purple with a gold neck ornament (hamnîkā) and given rank in the kingdom.

Genesis · 1

Genesis 41:42 רְבִ֥ד [the] chain of

Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

Here: A rare word, found only here and in Ezek 16:11. It means a neck ornament: a collar or necklace rather than a chain of interlocking links. In Egypt, gold collars and necklaces were royal rewards of honour.

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 16:11 וְרָבִ֖יד and a chain

I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.

Here: "And a necklace." A rare word: elsewhere in the Bible it appears only as the gold chain Pharaoh put on Joseph's neck when he made him second in Egypt (Gen 41:42). It suggests honour and high status, not just prettiness.

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