to gird
cha.gar describes fastening clothing or equipment around the body, especially for dress, readiness, or mourning.
The verb most often describes fastening attire or equipment around the body: sashes, linen garments, belts, and weapons are put on for dress or readiness. A substantial group of passages specifies sackcloth in scenes of grief and mourning, while a few clauses apply the imagery to strength or to clothing-like covering.
Senses in use
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Fastening attire, belts, or weapons · dominant
In Leviticus 16:4, the imperfect form occurs in instructions for a man to fasten a linen sash as part of holy linen garments. In 1 Samuel 25:13, imperative and sequential forms occur as David and his men strap on swords; Judges 3:16 likewise places a sword fastened beneath Ehud's garment. Passive participles describe persons already equipped or clothed, as in 2 Samuel 20:8 and Daniel 10:5.
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Putting on sackcloth in mourning · common
Imperative forms call hearers to put on sackcloth in response to disaster or grief in Jeremiah 4:8, Jeremiah 6:26, and Joel 1:13. Perfect and sequential-perfect forms describe people who have girded themselves with sackcloth while weeping or mourning in Isaiah 15:3, Ezekiel 27:31, and Lamentations 2:10.
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Clothing-like figurative imagery · rare
In Proverbs 31:17, a perfect feminine-singular form accompanies the statement that a woman girds her loins with strength and strengthens her arms. In Psalm 65:13, the feminine-plural imperfect is used of meadows and valleys being covered with flocks and grain; the clause applies clothing imagery beyond a literal person fastening an item.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the action with “gird,” “girded,” or “strap on,” especially where sashes, belts, swords, or sackcloth are named. In some clauses it uses broader clothing language such as “armed” or “clothe themselves”; Those renderings show the verse context rather than a fixed English equivalent.