Day 61 of 75 · Parables and teaching
L-B-Sh
lbusha: garment
לבש · לביש
ܠܒܫ · ܠܒܝܫ
The feel
Lbesh means to put on, wear, or clothe: a garment drawn over the body, a second skin that speaks. Soft robes signal a palace, clothing and sanity return in one breath, grass outshines Solomon, and a restored son receives the best robe before he can speak. Sometimes clothing is done to you.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| lbesh | Peal verb, perfect | lbesh | לבש ܠܒܫ | to clothe, put on | put on · wore (16 occurrences; PA / DJPA attested) |
| lbish | Peal passive participle | lbish | לביש ܠܒܝܫ | clothed, arrayed | dressed in · wearing (Matthew 11:8) |
| lbusha | noun, emphatic | lbushā | לבושא ܠܒܘܫܐ | garment, clothing | clothes: "the body more than clothes" (Matthew 6:25) |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary.
The verb stems
| Stem | Form | Sense |
|---|
| Peal | lbesh | to put on, wear: what a person does with a garment |
| Aphel | albesh | to clothe someone else: God dressing the grass (Matthew 6:30), the father's "put it on him" (Luke 15:22) |
| Ethpeel | — | to be clothed (grammar scaffold); not attested in this corpus |
| Pael / Ethpaal / Ettaphal | — | not attested in this corpus |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause. Note how the Aphel carries the teaching: the clothing that matters most is given, not grasped.
In his voice
Matthew 6:30 · interlinear
If God dresses the grass of the field like that, here today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, won't he do far more for you, you of little trust?
malbesh , the Aphel participle: God is the one doing the clothing, and the best-dressed things in Galilee never spun a thread.
Matthew 11:8 · interlinear
What did you go out to see, then? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothes are in the palaces of kings.
lbish , the passive participle "clothed, wearing": what a man has on locates him. John in the wilderness is placed, precisely, by what he does not wear.
Luke 15:22 · interlinear
But the father said to his slaves, 'Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
albshuhi , "clothe him": Aphel again. The son planned a speech; the father answers with a garment. Restoration arrives as something put on him, not something he earned back.
Practice
Tomorrow morning, feel each motion as you dress. Notice what your clothes ask others to see, then remember the returning son receiving a robe he neither chose nor put on himself.
Say lbesh slowly: let the word follow the motion of drawing on a garment.
Connections
Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.