“Gird up your loins now, like a man”

“Gird up your loins now, like a man”(Job 38:3)

When God commissioned Jeremiah as a prophet to speak in his name he used the words: “Gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you” (Jer 1:17). And when God wanted to get Job’s attention, he said: “Gird up your loins now, like a man: I will question you, and you tell me the answers!” (Job 38:3). Jesus told the disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks” (Lk 12:35-36).

“Gird your loins,” though archaic, is still often retained in modern Bible translations because it is forceful and attention-getting. We know instinctively that it means “prepare yourself for action,” even though we may not know that to gird one’s loins means literally “fasten your belt.” The phrase takes on spiritual meaning in passages like “Stand fast with your loins girded in truth” (Eph 6:l4) and “Gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:13).