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Rags

Rags [Heb. qera'im, begged, malakh]. Worn-out clothes usually associated with poverty.

The NJKV uses the term "rags" in three contexts: in an instruction against drinking and gluttony, which lead to poverty and "clothe a man with rags" (qera'im, Prov 23:21); in Isaiah 64:6, where human righteousness is compared to "filthy rags" (beged) to suggest humans inability to save themselves; and in Jeremiah 38:11-12, where Jeremiah was pulled out of the dungeon with ropes and "old clothes and old rags" (malakh) under his armpits.

C. Adelina Alexe

Citation

Footnote:

C. Adelina Alexe, “Rags,“ Seventh-day Adventist International Biblical-Theological Dictionary (2026-), ed. Daniel K. Bediako and Keldie Paroschi, https://dictionary.adventist.org/rags, accessed October 28, 2026

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