HARNESS

har'-nes: A word of Celtic origin meaning "armour" in the King James Version; it is the translation of shiryan, "a coat of mail" (1 Kings 22:34; 2 Chronicles 18:33); of nesheq, "arms," "weapons" (2 Chronicles 9:24, the Revised Version (British and American) "armor"); of 'acar "to bind" (Jeremiah 46:4), "harness the horses," probably here, "yoke the horses"; compare 1 Samuel 6:7, "tie the kine to the cart" (bind them), Genesis 46:29; another rendering is "put on their accoutrements"; compare 1 Macc 6:43, "one of the beasts armed with royal harness" (thorax), the Revised Version (British and American) "breastplates"; compare 1 Macc 3:3, "warlike harness"; 6:41 (hopla), the Revised Version (British and American) "arms"; 2 Macc 3:25, etc.; harnessed represents chamushim, "armed," "girded" (Exodus 13:18, "The children of Israel went up harnessed," the Revised Version (British and American) "armed"). Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva have "harnes" in Luke 11:22, Wycliff "armer."

W. L. Walker

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.