עֶרְוָה
ʻervâh · H6172 · Hebrew · 54 occurrences
Meanings
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nakedness
State in which the human body is insufficiently covered to the extent that the genitals are visible; regarded as exceedingly shameful
ExamplesGenesis 9:22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
Genesis 9:23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Exodus 20:26 ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’
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to have intercourse, to have sex
Literally: to uncover (someone's) nakedness; hence: euphemistic expression denoting the action by which humans have sexual relations with other humans
ExamplesLeviticus 18:6 ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the LORD.
Leviticus 18:7 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness.
Leviticus 18:8 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
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to have intercourse, to have sex
Literally: to see (someone's) nakedness; hence: euphemistic expression denoting the action by which humans have sexual relations with other humans
ExamplesLeviticus 20:17 ‘If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.
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disgrace, impropriety
Exact meaning unsure; literally: nakedness; hence, probably: state in which a situation is considered shameful
ExamplesDeuteronomy 23:14 “Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to defeat your enemies before you, your camp must be holy; so He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.
Deuteronomy 24:1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, that he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her away from his house,
1 Samuel 20:30 Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
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weak points
Literally: nakedness of country; hence: places where the defenses of a country are inadequate
ExamplesGenesis 42:9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land.”
Genesis 42:12 Yet he said to them, “No, but you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land!”
How it’s used In 5 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive
52 occurrences in 17 groups
- הּher 12
- אָבfather 7
- אָחוֹתsister 6
- ךְyour 5
- בַּתdaughter 4
- אָחbrother 3
- Other words · 10 groups that occur once or twice (15) 15
What it doesIt is the subject
4 occurrences in 1 groups
- גָּלָהto uncover, to reveal, to go into exile 4
What is done to itIt is the object
41 occurrences in 4 groups
- גָּלָהto uncover, to reveal, to go into exile 28
- רָאָהto see 9
- כָּסָהto cover 3
- מָצָאto find 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
3 occurrences in 2 groups
- הוּאhe, she, it 2
- הֵנָּהthey 1
In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- בָּשָׂרflesh 1
- בֹּשֶׁתshame 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 1 word
- קָלוֹן qâlôwn · H7036 · disgrace, shame, insult
- The target lexeme’s core sense is physical nakedness or exposure, with the attendant sense of shame, while קָלוֹן is the abstract sense of dishonor or ignominy; the two share the emotional and social dimension of shame, and could substitute for each other in contexts of disgrace.
In the other Testament 1 word
- ἀσχημοσύνη aschēmosýnē · G808 · to act shamefully, indecent behavior, shameful deed
- Greek ἀσχημοσύνη directly renders Hebrew עֶרְוָה in contexts of physical nakedness, sexual impropriety, and shame-bearing exposure, sharing the same semantic range of literal bodily uncoveredness and its metaphorical extensions to indecency and dishonor.
Semantic domains 4 entries
- Undress002003001017
- עֶרְוָה denotes nakedness, the uncovered state of the body, as when Ham sees his father Noah's nakedness and his brothers cover it.
- Copulate002003001004
- The phrase to uncover someone's nakedness is the standing legal euphemism throughout Leviticus's laws for engaging in forbidden sexual relations with a relative.
- Shame002001002025
- The word also denotes shame or disgrace, closely bound to the exposure and vulnerability of being uncovered.
- Unsafe002003003022
- עֶרְוָה can describe an unprotected, exposed condition, as when Joseph's brothers are accused of coming to see the undefended parts of the land.
Word family 9 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H6172. ervah עֶרְוָה54 noun feminine nakedness, pudenda; — absolute ׳ע Exo 28:42; Lev…
עֶרְוָה54 noun feminine nakedness, pudenda; — absolute ׳ע Exo 28:42; Lev 18:6; usually construct עֶרְוַת Gen 9:22 +, suffix עֶרְוָתְךָ Exo 20:23 (Ginsb), Lev 18:10; עֶרְוָתֵךְ Isa 47:3 +; ת֯וֺ Lev 20:17, תָ֯הּ Lev 18:7 +; suffix 3 feminine plural עֶרְוָתָן Lev 18:9; Lev 18:10; —
1 pudenda, of man ע ׳רָאָה implying shameful exposure Gen 9:22-23, (J); mostly of woman: figurative of Jerusalem (with רָאָה) Lam 1:3; Eze 16:37; usually with נלה ׃ literal ע ׳תִּגָּלֶה i.e. be exposed to view Exo 20:23 (Ginsb; van d. H. Exo 20:26; E), so, as shameful punishment, figurative of Egypt Isa 20:4 (gloss according to Du Che Di-Kit), Babylonian Isa 47:3, of Jerusalem Eze 16:37; Eze 23:10, Eze 23:29 (זְנוּנַיִךְ עֶרְוַת; all three object of active verb); chiefly euphemism for cohabitation, ע ׳גִּלָּה Lev 18:6 + (see גלה Pi`el 1 a; figurative of Jerusalem (verb passive) Eze 16:36; ע ׳רָאָה in same meaning Lev 20:17 (twice in verse) (H; of both sexes); ׳ע also Lev 18:8, Lev 18:10, Lev 18:16 (H); ע ׳כִּסָּה cover nakedness Gen 9:23 (J), Exo 28:42 (P; ע ׳בְּשַׂר), Hos 2:11 (figurative of Israel), Eze 16:8 (of Jerusalem); reviling words are ע ׳לְבשֶׁת אִמֶּ֑ךָ 1Sa 20:30 (compare DoughtyArab. Deserta i. 269).
2 דָּבָר עֶרְוַת nakedness of a thing, i.e. probably indecency, improper behaviour Deu 23:15; Deu 24:1 (see Dr).
3 figurative ׳ע הָאָרֶץ Gen 42:9, Gen 42:12 (E), i.e. its exposed, undefended parts (Arabic ).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 4 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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