to strip something bare: to pull away what covers it so that it stands exposed
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The picture behind this word is always the same. Something that was covered has its covering taken off, and what was out of sight is suddenly in plain view. What changes from verse to verse is only what gets uncovered, and why.
A city pictured as a woman has her skirts pulled up over her face, so that her disgrace is on public display.
Captives are marched away with their clothing gone and their bodies uncovered.
Locusts leave a fig tree white and bare, with nothing at all on its branches.
A hunted nation is laid open so completely that its hiding places are gone and it has nowhere left to run. That last verse sets the word alongside another Hebrew word for uncovering (גָּלָה), which is the clearest sign of how close the two are.
The exposure is almost never gentle, and it is almost never chosen. Someone stronger does it to someone weaker, and the one exposed has no say in it. That is why the word turns up so often in speeches of judgment: to be stripped bare is to lose covering, dignity and defense all at once.
One use runs the other way. When God "bares his holy arm" in front of all the nations, he is pushing the sleeve back off his fighting arm, the way a worker or a soldier does before something that takes real strength. Here the uncovering is a promise rather than a punishment: the arm that has been out of sight is about to be seen at work. Ezekiel is told to prophesy against a model siege of Jerusalem standing in exactly that posture, with his own arm bared.
Nuances
1ato strip the clothing off a person so that their nakedness is exposed to public shame
Isa 20:4Isa 47:2Jer 13:26
1bto strip a tree or a stretch of woodland of its leaves and bark, leaving it bare
Psa 29:9*Jol 1:7 (2×)
1cto lay open what someone has hidden, so that there is nowhere left to hide
Jer 49:10
1dto bare the arm: to push the sleeve back as a sign of being ready to act with force
Isa 52:10Ezk 4:7
2
to draw off liquid: to scoop water or wine out of the vessel that holds it
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintyStrong
Twice the word describes taking liquid out of the place it sits. Isaiah pictures a clay jar smashed so thoroughly that not one piece is left big enough to scoop water from a cistern. Haggai describes a man coming to the winepress to draw off fifty measures and finding only twenty there.
The thread back to the word's usual sense is the act of removal: the liquid is lifted off and out of its container, much as a covering is pulled off a body. Hebrew dictionaries keep both uses under one word for that reason. English cannot follow them, though, because no single English verb covers both stripping a tree and scooping water, which is why the two are laid out here separately.
implies force, a covering torn or pulled away rather than politely lifted offPsa 29:9Isa 47:2
Both
both describe taking away what lies over something so that it can be seenJer 49:10Isa 20:4
Only uncover
English "uncover" often means to find something out by investigation, as in uncovering a plot, a sense of discovery the Hebrew word does not carry
“lay bare”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“make bare”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“draw”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ḥasaph differs from similar Hebrew words
גָּלָהthe broad word for uncovering and revealing, stretching from lifting a lid to disclosing a secret to carrying a people into exile; stripping bare is narrower, the forcible pulling away of what covers something, and the two stand side by side in Jeremiah 49:10
Is used of scooping liquid out of the vessel that holds it, drawing water from a cistern or wine from the press, an everyday act with no thought of shame or disclosure.Isa 30:14Hag 2:16
Strips vegetation, so a storm scours the woodland and locusts leave the fig tree with its bark peeled off and its branches white.Psa 29:9Jol 1:7
Describes baring the arm, pushing the sleeve back so the arm is free to strike, a picture of readiness for force rather than of something becoming known.Isa 52:10Ezk 4:7
Both
Both are used of stripping a person for public humiliation, and Isaiah's taunt against Babylon puts them side by side: the veil lifted, the leg bared, the thigh uncovered.Isa 47:2Ezk 16:37Isa 20:4
Both are used of leaving someone nowhere to hide, and the oracle against Edom pairs them: Esau is stripped bare and his hiding places are laid open.Jer 49:10
Both can name God himself as the one doing the stripping, so a nation's disgrace is presented as his own act of judgment rather than the accident of a war it lost.Isa 47:3Jer 13:26
Reaches past physical uncovering into telling: it is the word for letting a secret out, so a gossip "reveals" what was told in confidence and a trustworthy person keeps it covered.Pro 11:13Pro 20:19Pro 25:9
Is the standard word for God making himself, his word, or his saving power known, so what was hidden in heaven becomes visible on earth.1Sa 3:21Isa 40:5Amo 3:7
Turns the uncovering inward, onto the person who is to perceive: eyes and ears are opened so that someone can finally see or hear what was there all along.Num 22:31Psa 119:18Job 33:16
Is the fixed expression of the law codes for sexual relations, where "uncovering the nakedness" of a relative names the forbidden act itself rather than a literal removal of clothing.Lev 18:6Lev 20:11Deu 27:20
Carries a second, unrelated meaning that has nothing to do with covering: a people is removed from its land and taken away into exile.2Ki 17:6Amo 7:11Lam 1:3
עָרָהempties something out until nothing is left, whether a jar poured to the last drop or a life poured out in death; stripping bare is about removing the covering rather than draining the contents
Only this word bares an arm, the picture of someone pushing back a sleeve so the arm is free to strike. It is a display of readiness and force in front of watching nations, not an exposure that shames.Isa 52:10Ezk 4:7
Only this word is used for taking liquid out of a larger supply a scoopful at a time, so the source is drawn down rather than emptied: a piece of broken pottery skimming water from a cistern, or a man drawing off measures at the wine vat.Isa 30:14Hag 2:16
Only this word strips growing things of what covers them, the bark peeled off a fig tree and woodland left with its foliage torn away.Jol 1:7Psa 29:9
Both
Both describe a person stripped of clothing in public as an act of humiliation, usually in a scene of judgment on a proud city or a defeated people.Isa 47:2Jer 13:26Isa 3:17Lam 4:21
Both describe cover being pulled off a place so that what was hidden lies open to the eye, whether hiding holes in the rocks or the timbered inside of a ruined palace.Jer 49:10Zep 2:14
Only this word tips a container until nothing is left inside, whether water from a jar or coins from a collection chest. The attention falls on the emptied vessel, not on anything laid open to view.Gen 24:202Ch 24:11
That emptying carries over into what is poured out from a person or from heaven, so the word can describe a life poured out to the point of death and the Spirit poured out from above.Isa 53:12Isa 32:15
Only this word pulls a building down to its bare foundation, the demolition cry of enemies who want a city scraped back to the rock it stood on.Psa 137:7Hab 3:13
Only this word supplies the fixed legal wording for forbidden sexual relations, where uncovering the body of a close relative is the name of the offense itself.Lev 20:18Lev 20:19
פָּשַׁטthe everyday word for taking a garment off, and for soldiers stripping the dead after a battle; it keeps its eye on the clothing being removed, while stripping bare keeps its eye on the exposure that follows
Reaches past clothing to any covering pulled back so that what was hidden comes into open view, with the seeing as the whole point: the Lord bares his holy arm in front of every nation, and a prophet keeps his arm uncovered as a sign against the city he is preaching at.Isa 52:10Ezk 4:7
Used of trees and woodland left bare, the bark torn away and the branches thrown down white, so the land itself is what has been uncovered.Psa 29:9Jol 1:7
Carries a plain household sense with no undressing in it at all: to skim or draw liquid out of something, water out of a rain pit or wine out of a vat.Isa 30:14Hag 2:16
Both
Both describe a woman or a city stripped naked as a public disgrace in judgment, where the humiliation is in being seen.Isa 47:2Jer 13:26Ezk 16:39Hos 2:3
Both are used for losing whatever shelters or dignifies a person, so that he stands with nothing left over him: Esau with his hiding places opened up, and Job saying his honor was taken off him.Jer 49:10Job 19:9
The ordinary, undramatic word for getting clothing off a body, whether a man pulls his own robe over his head or others pull the coat off someone else.Gen 37:231Sa 18:4Sng 5:3
Used for the butchering work at the altar, pulling the hide off the sacrificial animal before the carcass is cut into pieces.Lev 1:62Ch 35:11
Used for going over a battlefield the morning after, taking armor and valuables off the bodies of the fallen.1Sa 31:82Sa 23:10
Carries a second sense with nothing to do with clothing: fighters fanning out across open country or against a town to raid and plunder it.Jdg 9:441Sa 27:81Ch 14:9Job 1:17
ḥasaph in the other biblical languages
ἀποκαλύπτωGreek“to reveal”the Greek word for uncovering or revealing; the Greek Old Testament uses it for the bared arm of Isaiah 52:10, though in the New Testament it leans toward disclosing what God had kept hidden rather than tearing a covering away
The covering that comes off is a physical one: clothing pulled away from a body, leaves and bark taken off a tree, the ground opened over a hiding place.Isa 47:2Jol 1:7Jer 49:10
The exposure is usually a public humiliation forced on someone weaker, who has no say in it at all.Jer 13:26Isa 20:4
It also carries a use with nothing to do with disclosure: scooping liquid out of the vessel that holds it.Isa 30:14Hag 2:16
Both
Both mean taking the covering off something, so that what was out of sight is suddenly in plain view.Jer 13:26Mat 10:26
Both are used when what someone deliberately kept hidden is laid open against their will, leaving them nowhere to hide.Jer 49:10Luk 12:2
They meet in the picture of the LORD baring his arm: the Hebrew word bares it in Isaiah, and the Greek word is the one the New Testament uses when it asks who has seen that arm.Isa 52:10Jhn 12:38
What it uncovers is usually knowledge rather than a body or a landscape: God brings to light truth that people could never have reached on their own.Mat 11:25Mat 16:171Co 2:10Gal 1:16
It looks forward to an appointed moment when someone or something now out of sight steps into open view, above all at the end of the age.Luk 17:302Th 2:81Pe 1:5
The uncovering is often welcome, even glorious, for the one being uncovered, which is the opposite of a shaming.Rom 1:17Rom 8:181Pe 5:1
ἀντλέωGreek“to draw”the ordinary Greek word for drawing water out of a well or jar, the counterpart to this word's second use, with none of its sense of stripping something bare
Its ordinary meaning is stripping something bare so that what was covered now stands exposed, whether a storm that sweeps the woods clean or locusts that leave a fig tree with its bark peeled and its branches white.Psa 29:9Jol 1:7
It is the regular word for shameful public exposure, the humiliation of prisoners marched off uncovered or of a proud city whose clothing is pulled away in front of everyone.Isa 20:4Isa 47:2Jer 13:26
It pictures God pushing back his sleeve and baring his arm to act, so that power once hidden is now in plain view.Isa 52:10Ezk 4:7
It can mean clearing out every hiding place a people had, so that no one is left with anywhere to shelter.Jer 49:10
Even where it does mean taking up liquid, the picture stays close to scraping or skimming: the water is dipped from a cistern with a broken piece of pottery, which is exactly why a smashed jar with no usable fragment left makes the point it does.Isa 30:14
Both
Both can name the plain act of taking liquid out of a container so that it can be used: water dipped from a cistern and wine taken from the vat on the Hebrew side, water and wine drawn from the well and the stone jars on the Greek side.Isa 30:14Hag 2:16Jhn 2:8Jhn 4:7
In both, what is drawn is then measured out or handed on rather than simply poured away: fifty measures were expected at the wine vat, and a cupful is carried straight to the man in charge of the feast.Hag 2:16Jhn 2:8
The whole word is about lifting liquid out of a well or a jar so that it can be used. It never carries any idea of tearing something open or leaving it bare.Jhn 2:8Jhn 4:7
It fits the ordinary daily errand of fetching water, the trip to the well with a jar that a household made over and over.Jhn 4:7Jhn 4:15
It covers drawing something out in order to serve it to another person, as the servants at the wedding draw from the stone jars and carry the drink to the man running the feast.Jhn 2:8Jhn 2:9
What scholars say about ḥasaph
BDB, HALOT and DCH all treat חשׂף as a single verb with two ranges: the primary "strip off, strip, make bare" and a secondary "draw (water, wine)" attested only at Isaiah 30:14 and Haggai 2:16. The bridge usually proposed between them is the notion of removal or skimming off, though the lexica do not press the etymology and no separate root is generally posited. The qal accounts for all the finite forms; Ezekiel 4:7 supplies a passive participle used adjectivally of the prophet's arm, and Isaiah 20:4 the construct plural חֲשׂוּפַי with שֵׁת, describing Egyptian and Cushite captives led away with buttocks uncovered (Wildberger). Joel 1:7 reinforces the finite verb with the infinitive absolute, giving the locust devastation of the fig tree its emphatic force (Wolff). Isaiah 52:10 is the theologically weighted occurrence: the baring of the arm is a gesture of readied force rather than of nakedness, and the Greek Old Testament renders it with ἀποκαλύπτω, the verb it also uses for uncovering more generally (Blenkinsopp). Jeremiah 49:10 sets the verb in direct parallel with גִּלֵּיתִי, which is the clearest textual indication of its semantic overlap with גלה; Holladay reads the pair as a single image of Edom left without cover. Psalm 29:9 is disputed at the level of its objects rather than its verb: Craigie surveys the proposal, argued on the strength of Ugaritic parallels, to repoint אַיָּלוֹת as "terebinths" so that both cola describe trees, and notes that the stripping of the forests is secure on either reading. At Haggai 2:16 Meyers and Meyers take לַחְשֹׂף as drawing off from the vat, with the shortfall of the yield as the point of the oracle.
Sources
BDB, s.v. חָשַׂףlexicon
HALOT, s.v. חשׂףlexicon
DCH, s.v. חשׂףlexicon
Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary 19 (Waco: Word Books, 1983)commentary
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55, Anchor Bible 19A (New York: Doubleday, 2002)commentary
Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 13-27, Continental Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997)commentary
Hans Walter Wolff, Joel and Amos, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977)commentary
William L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986)commentary
Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, Anchor Bible 25B (Garden City: Doubleday, 1987)commentary