Basic HTML Version
long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees … : for thou
mayest eat of them [literally, “… its tree or orchard … for you may eat from it …”] …”
(Deut. 20:19).
This word may signify a single “tree,” as it does in Gen. 2:9: “… The tree of life also
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
This word may be used of the genus “tree.” So Isa. 41:19 lists the olive “tree” and the
box “tree” in the midst of a long list of various species of trees.
,
can mean “wood.” Thus, Deut. 16:21 should read: “You shall not plant for
yourself an Asherah of any kind of wood” (
NASB
, “any kind of tree”). This word can
represent “wood” as a material from which things are constructed, as a raw material to be
carved: “… And in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship” (Exod.
31:5). Large unprocessed pieces of “wood or timber” are also signified by
&
“Go up to
the mountain, and bring wood [timber], and build the house …” (Hag. 1:8). The end
product of wood already processed and fashioned into something may be indicated by
&
“And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be
unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood …” (Lev. 11:32). This word means “stick” or
“piece of wood” in Ezek. 37:16: “… Thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write
upon it.…” This may also refer to a “pole” or “gallows”: “… Within three days shall
Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree [gallows or pole] …”
(Gen. 40:19).
,
once means “stalk”: “But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and
hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof” (Josh. 2:6).
(
, 352), “large, mighty tree.” This word occurs 4 times and only in poetical
passages. This does not mean a particular genus or species of tree but merely a large,
mighty tree: “For they shall be ashamed of the [mighty trees] [
KJV
,
RSV
,
NASB
, “oaks”]
which ye have desired …” (Isa. 1:29—the first biblical occurrence).
(
, 436), “large tree.” This noun is probably related to
, “large tree.”
,
occurs 10 times and only in relation to places of worship. It may well be that these
were all ancient cultic sites. The word does not represent a particular genus or species of
tree but, like the noun to which it is related, simply a “big tree”: “Gaal spoke again and
said, Look, men are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is
coming from the direction of the Diviners’ oak [
KJV
, “Meonenim”;
NASB
, “oak”]” (Judg.
9:37,
RSV
). Judg. 9:6 speaks of the “tree of the pillar” (
KJV
, “plain of the piilar”) in
Shechem where the men of Shechem and Beth-millo made Abimelech king.
TO TRESPASS
A. Verb.
(
, 4603), “to trespass, act unfaithfully.” This verb is not very common in
Hebrew, biblical or rabbinic. It occurs 35 times in the Hebrew Old Testament,
particularly in late Hebrew. Translations may give a separate translation of the verb and
the noun
, but most combine them into one phrase in which the verb takes the
meaning of “to act” or “to commit”—e.g., Josh. 7:1: “But the children of Israel
committed [
] a trespass [
] in the accursed thing …” (
KJV
); “But the Israelites