When our children were at secondary school we would ask them what they had done during the day and generally received the reply stuff.

I think this may have resulted in some prejudice against the word on my behalf.

I think I also imagined that it was a relatively modern idea, so I was surprised when I discovered the word in the Bible. Though in fact you will not find it modern translations such as the NIV and ESV whilst the NKJV and NRSV only contain it once.

But in the King James Translation it occurs several times. In the Old Testament Hebrew it translates the word “kliy”, pronounced Kel-ee, and occurs 15 times in 12 verses. The King James also has it once in the New Testament. There are various other verses where the Hebrews is translated differently.

The word in Hebrew seems to be usable for all manner of things that might belong to or be carried by a person. So, in its first instance by Jacob, whose father-in-law Laban believed that someone in Jacob’s party had stolen his household gods (statues it would seem). When nothing is found (because Rachel was pretending to be in her period and was sitting on a saddle concealing the things) Jacob was angry and said “Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff?” Later translations will have the words goods or things, but kliy seems to very broad in its scope.