Dictionaries :: Loins

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Loins:

loinz (chalats, Aramaic charats, mothen, kecel, yarekh; osphus): This variety of Hebrew synonyms seems to be used rather promiscuously for the loins, though there is no little difference in the secondary meanings of these words. They represent various modes of expressing the loins as the seat of strength and vigor (Job 40:16, Hebrew mothen, here used of Behemoth), the center of procreative power, the portion of the body which is girded about, and is considered as specially needful of covering, even under primitive conditions of life (Job 31:20), and where painful disease most effectually unfits a man for work and warfare.

Jacob receives the Divine promise that "kings shall come out of (his) loins" (chalats, Ge 35:11), and we read of 66 souls "that came out of his loins" (yarekh) which went into Egypt (Ge 46:26). The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the Levites as having come out of the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:5).

As the seat of strength (compare LEG; THIGH), the loins are girded with belts of leather (2Ki 1:8; Mt 3:4), or cloth, often beautifully embroidered (Ex 28:39), or of costly material (Ex 39:29; Jer 13:1 f). Girded loins are a sign of readiness for service or endeavor (Ex 12:11; 1Ki 18:46; 2Ki 4:29; Job 38:3; Pr 31:17; Lu 12:35; 1Pe 1:13). Of God it is said that "he looseth the bond of kings, and bindeth their loins with a girdle," i.e. strengthens them (Job 12:18). On the loins the sword is worn (2Sa 20:8). It is a sign of mourning to gird the loins with sackcloth (1Ki 20:32; Isa 32:11; Jer 48:37; Am 8:10; see also the First Papyrus of Elephantine, l. 20). A man whose strength is in his attachment to truth, in other words is faithful, is spoken of as having his loins girt about with truth (Eph 6:14). Thus, the Messiah is described: "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins" (Isa 11:5). One of the most primitive modes of clothing consisted of a fleece tied around the loins (Job 31:20).

The condition of unfitness for service is described in that the loins (kecel) are filled with a burning (Ps 38:7, the King James Version "loathsome disease"), or that "a sore burden" is laid upon the "loins" (mothen, Ps 66:11). Thus the loins are made "continually to shake" (Ps 69:23), "the joints of (the) loins" (charats) are loosed (Da 5:6), the "loins are filled with anguish" (Isa 21:3). It is very likely that originally a disabling lumbago or the painful affections of the gall or the bladder (calculus, etc.) are meant, but very soon the expression becomes merely metaphorical to express personal helplessness, especially that which can but rely upon assistance and help from God.

Written by H. L. E. Luering

King James Dictionary

Loins: The Lower Back; Waist.

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his LOINS; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Loins:

is used

(a) in the natural sense in Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6;

(b) as "the seat of generative power," Hbr 7:5, 10; metaphorically in Act 2:30;

(c) metaphorically,

(1) of girding the "loins" in readiness for active service for the Lord, Luk 12:35;

(2) the same, with truth, Eph 6:14, i.e., bracing up oneself so as to maintain perfect sincerity and reality as the counteractive in Christian character against hypocrisy and falsehood;

(3) of girding the "loins" of the mind, 1Pe 1:13, RV, "girding," suggestive of the alertness necessary for sobriety and for setting one's hope perfectly on "the grace to be brought... at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (the present participle, "girding," is introductory to the rest of the verse).