StrongerBible

marvad

מַרְבָד

HebrewH4765“coverlet, tapestry”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Pro 7:16Pro 31:22
Root family
Word studyResearch-grademar-VAHDnoun

What marvad means

a bedspread: a decorative textile spread over a bed or couch

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names a covering laid across a bed or couch, what English would call a bedspread or coverlet. It is not a floor rug or a wall hanging; it belongs to the world of soft furnishings, the layer of cloth that makes a couch inviting to lie on. The word is built from a root meaning to spread something out, and in one of its two appearances it even pairs with the matching verb, so the phrase reads literally as spreading spreads over a couch.

The word turns up only twice in the Hebrew Bible, both times in Proverbs and both times as a plural, and both pictures are of luxurious, colorful cloth. In one scene a seductress boasts that she has draped her couch with imported spreads of Egyptian linen; in the other a hardworking wife weaves her own out of fine linen and purple. The object is the same in both places; what changes is how each woman came to own it.

Older translations reached for tapestry or carpet, and modern Hebrew has since turned the word into the ordinary term for a rug, which tempts readers to hear carpet here too. Both are later developments. In these two verses the picture is bedding, a cover spread over a place to lie down.

Pro 7:16Pro 31:22

What scholars say about marvad

מַרְבָד is a hapax dislegomenon (Prov 7:16; 31:22), a maqtāl noun from the root רבד II "to spread out" (BDB distinguishes this from a homonymous רבד I "to bind," the source of רָבִיד "collar, chain"). The modern consensus that it denotes a bed-covering rather than a carpet or tapestry rests decisively on the Ugaritic cognate mrbd "bedspread, counterpane," morphologically identical to the Hebrew and attested in a textile inventory (KTU 4.127; del Olmo Lete and Sanmartín, DUL 573; Tropper). The ancient versions struggled: the Septuagint is internally inconsistent, giving κειρίαι "bed-cords" at 7:16 and δισσὰς χλαίνας "double cloaks" at 31:22, and the Vulgate follows its lead, whereas the later Greek revisers (Aquila and Theodotion περιστρώματα, Symmachus ἀμφίταπους) and the Peshitta and Targum (tashwīthā / תַּשְׁוְיָתָא) consistently render "bed-covering." HALOT, DCH, and every major recent Proverbs commentary (Fox, Waltke, Longman, Clifford, Murphy) agree on "coverings, coverlets." The verb רבד becomes productive in Rabbinic Hebrew ("to spread, lay in tiers, pave"; noun רֹבֶד "pavement, layer"), and the modern Hebrew "carpet" sense is a later semantic development from the general notion of something spread out. TDOT has no article on the root, reflecting its marginality and lack of theological weight.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), 914-915, s.v. רבד, מַרְבָדlexicon
  • HALOT, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Brill), vol. II, s.v. מַרְבָדlexicon
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield), vol. V, s.v. מַרְבָד and רבד Ilexicon
  • R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, B. K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody, 1980), #2102theological-dictionary
  • G. del Olmo Lete and J. Sanmartín, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 573, s.v. mrbddictionary
  • J. Tropper, Kleines Wörterbuch des Ugaritischen (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008), 77, 159dictionary
  • S. Ribichini and P. Xella, La terminologia dei tessili nei testi di Ugarit (Rome, 1985), 50monograph
  • B. K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004-2005), ad 7:16 and 31:22commentary
  • M. V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9 and Proverbs 10-31 (Anchor Yale Bible 18A/18B; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, 2009), ad 7:16 and 31:22commentary
  • C. H. Toy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs (ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1899), 149commentary
  • F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1874-75), ad 7:16 and 31:22commentary
  • A. Wolters, "Proverbs XXXI 10-31 as Heroic Hymn: A Form-critical Analysis," Vetus Testamentum 38 (1988): 446-457journal-article
  • J. Cook, The Septuagint of Proverbs: Jewish and/or Hellenistic Proverbs? (VTSup 69; Leiden: Brill, 1997)monograph
  • M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York, 1903), s.v. רָבַד, רֹבֶד, תַּשְׁוְיָתָאdictionary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מַרְבָד

m p absolute

מַרְבַדִּים

Pro 7:16, Pro 31:22