Hebrew word · H7551

רָקַם

rokem

to weave

A worker in variegated, multicolored fabric. Whether this means needle embroidery or patterned colored weaving is debated. The related noun riqmāh means multicolored fabric (Ezek 16:10; 27:7, 16). Psalm 139:15 uses the verb for a body being 'intricately woven' in the womb.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to variegate, mix colours

1a) (Qal) variegator (worker in colours) (participle)

1b) (Pual) to be skilfully wrought or woven

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 Exodus 35:35

Range of meaning

A worker in variegated, multicolored fabric. Whether this means needle embroidery or patterned colored weaving is debated. The related noun riqmāh means multicolored fabric (Ezek 16:10; 27:7, 16). Psalm 139:15 uses the verb for a body being 'intricately woven' in the womb.

Against the English

Most versions have 'embroiderer.' That is possible, but it may claim too much about the technique.

Used elsewhere in the period

'Work of a rōqēm' describes the tent-entrance screen, the gate of the courtyard and the priestly sash (26:36; 27:16; 28:39). Unlike the ḥōshēv work, it has no cherubim.

From the study of Psalm 139:15

Range of meaning

To work with colored threads: to embroider or weave patterned, multicolored cloth. The related noun riqmah means variegated or embroidered work, and by extension anything of many colors.

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'curiously wrought' (archaic for 'skilfully crafted'); BSB/WEB/NIV 'woven together'; ESV 'intricately woven'; NASB 'skillfully formed/wrought'. 'Woven' gets the textile image but loses the color and decoration, the sense of fine patterned work. 'Formed' loses the textile image entirely.

How it drifted

In 1611 'curiously' meant 'with care and skill' (Latin curiosus, 'careful'). Today it sounds like 'strangely', which hides the craftsman picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The participle roqem, 'embroiderer', names a skilled trade in the tabernacle instructions (Exod 26:36; 27:16; 28:39; 35:35; 38:23). Riqmah describes embroidered garments as war spoil (Judg 5:30), a bride's robes (Ps 45:14), fine clothing God puts on Jerusalem (Ezek 16:10, 13), an eagle's colorful plumage (Ezek 17:3), and stones of various colors (1 Chr 29:2). The passive verb form occurs only here. Job 10:11 uses a related weaving picture: 'you knit me together with bones and sinews.'

Where it appears

Exodus · 8

  1. Exodus 26:36 רֹקֵֽם׃ a worker in colors

    For the entrance to the tent, you are to make a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen.

  2. Exodus 27:16 רֹקֵ֑ם a worker in colors

    The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.

  3. Exodus 28:39 רֹקֵֽם׃ a worker in colors

    You are to weave the tunic with fine linen, make the turban of fine linen, and fashion an embroidered sash.

  4. Exodus 35:35 וְרֹקֵ֞ם and a worker in colors

    He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and as weavers—as artistic designers of every kind of craft.

    Here: A worker in multicolored fabric: either an embroiderer or a weaver of color patterns. This is the craft of the entrance screens and the sash (26:36; 28:39).

  5. Exodus 36:37 רֹקֵֽם׃ a worker in colors

    For the entrance to the tent, he made a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen,

  6. Exodus 38:18 רֹקֵ֔ם a worker in colors

    The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It was twenty cubits long and, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits high,

  7. Exodus 38:23 וְרֹקֵ֗ם and a worker in colors

    With him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen.

  8. Exodus 39:29 רֹקֵ֑ם a worker in colors

    and the sash of finely spun linen, embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 139:15 רֻ֝קַּ֗מְתִּי I was formed

    My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

    Here: 'I was embroidered / woven in many colors.' The word comes from the craft of the embroiderers who made the tabernacle curtains. It pictures sinews, veins and flesh worked together like rich, multicolored fabric.

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