H5708 H5708
menstruation, menstrual period (metaphorical)
A plural noun denoting menstruation or the menstrual period, used metaphorically in Isaiah for ritual impurity. The prophet compares Israel's best deeds to 'a garment of menstruation'—stained, unclean, utterly defiled. The image is deliberately repulsive, emphasizing that even the nation's righteousness is contaminated by sin. The word evokes the ceremonial uncleanness associated with menstrual flow in Levitical law.
Senses
1. sense 1 — The menstrual stain metaphor in Isaiah 64:6, where the prophet confesses, 'All our righteous deeds are like a garment of menstruation.' The image shocks: what Israel considers good works are, before God's holiness, as unclean as a cloth stained with menstrual blood. The plural form may intensify the sense of defilement. The parallel with 'we all are unclean' shows this is about pervasive ritual and moral pollution. 1×
AR["حِيضٍ"]·ben["রজঃস্বলার"]·DE["[עדים]"]·EN["menstruation"]·FR["[עדים]"]·heb["עידים"]·HI["मैले"]·ID["kotor"]·IT["[עדים]"]·jav["reged"]·KO["더러운"]·PT["imundice"]·RU["запачканная"]·ES["inmundicia"]·SW["chafu"]·TR["kirli"]·urd["گندا"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [עִדָּה] n.f. menstruation, so Vrss (proposes time, period);—pl. abs. בֶּגֶד עִדִּים Is 64:5 i.e. stained garment (fig. of best deeds of guilty people; ‖ טָמֵא).