Garment

Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words

Beged ( בֶּגֶד , Strong'S #899), “garment; covering; cloth; blanket; saddlecloth.” This word appears in biblical Hebrew about 200 times and in all periods.

The word signifies any kind of “garment” or “covering,” usually for human wear. Beged first appears in Gen. 24:53: “And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments [KJV, “raiment”], and gave them to Rebekah.…” Here the word represents “garments made of precious materials.” The “garments” of widows, on the other hand, must have been quite common and valueless (Gen. 38:14). Certainly mourners’ “garments” must have been very plain, if not torn (2 Sam. 14:2).

Beged sometimes refers to “outer garments.” Thus in 2 Kings 7:15, the Syrian soldiers who fled from Jerusalem left behind their “clothes” and equipment; they left behind everything that would hinder their escape. Surely this did not include their essential “clothing.” In Judg. 14:12, however, the word is distinguished from linen wrappings (“outer garments”)—Samson promised the Philistines that if they would solve his riddle, he would give them “thirty linen wraps [KJV, “sheets”] and thirty change of garments” (cf. Judg. 17:10). The “holy garments” Moses was commanded to make for Aaron included everything he was to wear while officiating before the Lord: “… A breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and an embroidered coat, a mitre, and a [sash]; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron …” (Exod. 28:4).

In passages such as Num. 4:6, beged means “covering,” in the sense of a large flat piece of cloth material to be laid over something: “And [they] shall put thereon the covering of badgers’ skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue.…” When put over people, such clothes were probably “blankets”: “Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with blankets [KJV and NASB, “clothes”], but he gat no heat” (1 Kings 1:1). When put over beasts, such coverings were “saddlecloths” (Ezek. 27:20).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The wedding garment of Scripture, particularly spoken of, ( Matthew 22:11) hath been a subject of so much anxiety to many precious souls, that the matter itself ought to be put in the clearest light possible. The general belief is, that by it is meant Christ's person, work, and righteousness. And hence the church is represented as singing, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord: my soul shall be joyful it my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." ( Isaiah 61:10) And this corresponds to what the Lord Jesus counselled the church of Laodicea to buy of him "white raiment, that she might be clothed." ( Revelation 3:18) Hence, therefore, what is the garment, but Christ's righteousness, in which all the faithful are clothed, when justified in the perfect salvation of the Lord?

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

Clothing Luke 24:4Rv Mark 16:5 Matthew 22:11,12Apparel.

King James Dictionary

G`ARMENT, n. Any article of clothing, as a coat, a gown, &c. Garments, in the plural, denotes clothing in general dress.

No man putteth a piece of new cloth to an old garment.  Matthew 9

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Garment . See Dress.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

See Habits .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

See Clothes.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(represented by several Heb. and Greek words) [(See Apparel); (See Clothing: Dress); (See Raiment); (See Vesture) etc.]. For a list of modern Arabic garments, see Thomson, Land and Book, 1:167 sq. In  2 Kings 11:13, it is said, "Then they hasted and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehue is king." Here they laid down their garments instead of carpets. The usse of carpets was common in the East in the remoter ages. The kings of Persia always walked upon carpets in their palaces. Xenophon reproaches the degenerate Persians of his time that they placed their couches upon carpets, to repose more at their ease. The spreading of garments in the street before persons to whom it was intended to show particular honor was an ancient and very general custom. Thus the people spread their garments in the way before our Saviour ( Matthew 21:8), where some also strewed branches. In the Agamemnon of Aschylus, the hypocritical Clytemnestra commands the maids to spread out carpets before her returning husband, that, on descending from his chariot, be may place his foot "on a purple-covered path." We also find this custom among the Romans. When Cato of Utica left the Macedonian army, where he had become legionary tribune, the soldiers spread their clothes in the way. The hanging out of carpets, and strewing of flowers and branches in modern times, are remnants of ancient customs. (See Rending); (See Sewing).

A number of sumptuous and magnificent habits was, in ancient times, regarded as an indispensable part of the treasures of a rich man. Thus the patriarch Job, speaking of the riches of the wicked, says, "Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay" ( Job 27:16). Joseph gave his brethren changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave "three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment" ( Genesis 45:22). Naaman carried for a present to the prophet Elisha ten changes of raiment ( 2 Kings 5:5). In allusion to this custom, our Lord, when describing the short duration and perishings nature of earthly treasures, represents them as subject to the depredations of the moth, from which the inhabitants of the East find it exceedingly difficult to preserve their stores of garments: I "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust Adoth corrupt" ( Matthew 6:19). Paul, when appealing to the integrity and fidelity with which he had discharged his sacred office, mentions apparel with other treasures: he says, "I have coveted no man's gold, or silver, or apparel" ( Acts 20:33). The apostle James likewise (as do the Greek and Roman writers, when they particularize the opulence of those times) specifies gold, silver, and garments as the constituents of riches: "Go to now, ye rich men; weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments moth- eaten" ( James 5:1-2). We find that the custom of hoarding up splendid dresses still exists in Psalestine and the East. It appears that even Solomon received raitent as presents ( 2 Chronicles 9:24). Asiatic princes and grandees keep changes of raiment ready made, for presents to persons of distinction whom they wish particularly to honor. The simple and uniform shape of the clothes makes this custom practicable and accounts also for the change of one person's dress for another's, which is mentioned in sacred history. This will perhaps, apply to the parable of the wedding garment, and to the behavior of the king, who expected to have found all his guests clad in robes of honor ( Genesis 27:15;  Deuteronomy 22:5;  1 Samuel 18:4;  2 Kings 5:5;  2 Kings 5:22;  Matthew 22:11;  Luke 15:22). The "changeable suits of apparel" in  Isaiah 3:22, should be properly "embroidered robes." (See Banquet), etc.

Women were forbidden to wear male garments, and the reverse ( Deuteronomy 22:5; see Mill, De Commutatione Vestium Utriusq. Sexus, Utr. s.a.). On heterogeneous garments, (See Diverse).