Reference: Forest
Easton
Heb ya'ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all the great primeval forests of Syria (Ec 2:6; Isa 44:14; Jer 5:6; Mic 5:8). The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of Ephraim (8/6/type/juliasmith'>2Sa 18:6,8; Jos 17:15,18), which is probably the same as the wood of Ephratah (Ps 132:6), some part of the great forest of Gilead. It was in this forest that Absalom was slain by Joab. David withdrew to the forest of Hareth in the mountains of Judah to avoid the fury of Saul (1Sa 22:5). We read also of the forest of Bethel (2Ki 2:23-24), and of that which the Israelites passed in their pursuit of the Philistines (1Sa 14:25), and of the forest of the cedars of Lebanon (1Ki 4:33; 2Ki 19:23; Ho 14:5-6).
The house of the forest of Lebanon (1Ki 7:2; 10:17; 2Ch 9:16) was probably Solomon's armoury, and was so called because the wood of its many pillars came from Lebanon, and they had the appearance of a forest. (See Baalbec.)
Heb horesh, denoting a thicket of trees, underwood, jungle, bushes, or trees entangled, and therefore affording a safe hiding-place. place. This word is rendered "forest" only in 2Ch 27:4. It is also rendered "wood", the "wood" in the "wilderness of Ziph," in which david concealed himself (1Sa 23:15), which lay south-east of Hebron. In Isa 17:14 this word is in Authorized Version rendered incorrectly "bough."
Heb pardes, meaning an enclosed garden or plantation. Asaph is (Ne 2:8) called the "keeper of the king's forest." The same Hebrew word is used Ec 2:5, where it is rendered in the plural "orchards" (R.V., "parks"), and Song 4:13, rendered "orchard" (R.V. marg., "a paradise").
The forest of the vintage (Zec 11:2, "inaccessible forest," or R.V. "strong forest") is probably a figurative allusion to Jerusalem, or the verse may simply point to the devastation of the region referred to.
The forest is an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a cultivated field (Isa 29:17; 32:15; Jer 26:18; Ho 2:12). Isaiah (Isa 10:19,33-34) likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of some huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.
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And Joshua will say to them, If thou much people go up for thyself to the forest, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzite and of the Rephaims, if mount Ephraim was narrow to thee.
But the mountain shall be to thee, for it is a forest, and thou shalt cut it down; and its out-goings were to thee; for thou shalt drive out the Canaanite, if the chariot of iron is to him; if he is strong.
And all the land came into a thicket; and honey will be upon the face of the field.
And the prophet Gad will say to David, Thou shalt not dwell in the fortress; go, and come in for thyself to the land of Judah. And David will go and come to the thicket of Hareth.
And David will see that Saul went forth to seek his soul: and David in the desert of Ziph in a thicket
And the people will go forth to the field to the meeting of Israel: and the war will be in the forest of Ephraim;
And there the battle will be scattered upon the face of all the earth: and the forest will multiply to consume of the people above what the sword will consume in that day.
And he will speak concerning the woods, from the cedar which is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop which went forth on the wall: and he will speak upon the cattle, and upon the birds, and upon the creeping things, and upon the fishes.
And he will build the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and and thirty cubits its height, upon four rows of pillars of cedars, and cuttings of cedars upon the pillars.
And three hundred shields of beaten gold; three parts of gold will come up upon the one shield: and the king will give them to the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And he will go up from thence to the house of God: and he going up in the way, and little boys will come forth from the city, and will scoff at him, and say to him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he will turn behind him and see them, and he will curse them in the name of Jehovah. And, two she-bears will come forth from the forest and will rend of them forty and two children.
And he built cities in the mountain of Judah, and in the thickets he built fortresses and towers.
And a letter to Asaph watching the pleasure-grounds to the king, who shall give to me woods to frame the gates of the fortress that is to the house, and for the walls of the city, and for the house which I shall come into it And the king will give to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
I made to me gardens and pleasure grounds, and I planted in them a tree of all fruit I made to me pools of waters to water from them the forest, causing trees to spring forth.
Thy sendings forth a park of pomegranates, with most precious fruits, cypresses with spikenards,
And the remainder of the wood of his forest shall be of number, and a boy shall write them.
Behold the Lord Jehovah of armies dividing the bough with sudden violence: and the high of stature hewn down, and the lofty shall be humbled. And he cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall with a lofty one.
For the time of evening, behold, terror; before morning he is not This the portion of those plundering us, and the lot of those spoiling us.
Is it not yet a very little and Lebanon turned back to Carmel, and Carmel shall be reckoned for a forest?
Until the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the desert be for Carmel, and Carmel be reckoned for a forest.
To cut down for him cedars, and he will take the fir tree and the oak, and he will strengthen for himself among the trees of the forest: he planted an ash and the rain will cause to grow.
For this, a lion from the forest struck them, a wolf of the deserts will destroy them, the panther watched over their cities: every one going forth from thence shall be torn in pieces; for their transgressions were multiplied, their turnings away were strong.
Micah the Morasthite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he will say to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus said Jehovah of armies: Zion shall be ploughed a field, and Jerusalem shall be ruins, and the mountain of the house for the heights of a forest
And I destroyed her vine and her fig tree, of which she said, They are wages to me which those loving me gave to me: and I set them for a forest, and the beasts of the field ate them.
I will be as the dew to Israel: he shall blossom as the lily and strike his roots as Lebanon. His sprouts shall go, and his strength shall be as the olive tree, and the odor to him as Lebanon.
And the remnant of Jacob was among the nations in the midst of many peoples as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he passed through, and he trod down and pulled in pieces, and none delivering.
Wail, O cypress, for the cedar fell; for the powerful ones were destroyed: wail, ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage went down.
Fausets
Palestine was more wooded very anciently than afterward; the celebrated oaks and terebinths here and there were perhaps relics of a primeval forest on the highlands. But in the Bible the woods appear in the valleys and defiles leading from the highlands to the lowlands, so they were not extensive. "The wood of Ephraim" clothed the sides of the hills which descend to the plain of Jezreel and the plain itself near Bethshah (Jos 17:15-18), and extended once to Tabor which still has many forest trees. That "of Bethel" lay in the ravine going down to the plain of Jericho. That "of Hareth" on the border of the Philistine plain in the S. of Judah (1Sa 22:5). That "of Kirjath Jearim" (1Sa 8:2; Ps 132:6), meaning" town of the woods", on the confines of Judah and Benjamin; "the fields of the wood" from which David brought up the ark to Zion mean this forest town.
That "of Ziph-wilderness," where David hid, S.E. of Hebron (1Sa 23:15, etc.). Ephraim wood, a portion of the region E. of Jordan near Mahanaim, where the battle with Absalom took place (2Sa 18:6,23), on the high lands, a little way from the valley of the Jordan. (See EPHRAIM WOOD.) "The house of the forest of Lebanon" (1Ki 7:2) was so-called as being fitted up with cedar, and probably with forest-like rows of cedar pillars. "Forest" often symbolizes pride doomed to destruction; (Isa 10:18; 32:19) the Assyrian host dense and lifted up as the trees of the forest; (Isa 37:24) "the forest of his Carmel," i.e., its most luxuriant forest, image for their proud army.
Forest also symbolizes unfruitfulness as opposed to cultivated lands (Isa 29:17; 32:15). Besides ya'ar, implying "abundance of trees", there is another Hebrew term, choresh from a root "to cut down," implying a wood diminished by cutting (1Sa 23:15; 2Ch 27:4). In Isa 17:9 for "bough" translated "his strong cities shall be as the leavings of woods," what the axeman leaves when he cuts down the grove (Isa 17:6). In Eze 31:3, "with a shadowing shroud," explain with an overshadowing thicket. A third term is pardeec, related to "paradise" (Ne 2:8), "forest") a park, a plantation under a "keeper." The Persian kings preserved the forests throughout the empire with care, having wardens of the several forests, without whose sanction no tree could be felled.
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And Joshua will say to them, If thou much people go up for thyself to the forest, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzite and of the Rephaims, if mount Ephraim was narrow to thee. And the sons of Joseph will say, The mountain will not suffice to us: and the chariot of iron among all the Canaanites dwelling in the land of the valley, to whom in the House of Rest and her daughters, and to whom in the valley of Jezreel. read more. And Joshua will say to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Much people art thou, and great power to thee: and one lot shall not be to thee: But the mountain shall be to thee, for it is a forest, and thou shalt cut it down; and its out-goings were to thee; for thou shalt drive out the Canaanite, if the chariot of iron is to him; if he is strong.
And the name of his son the firstborn will be Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: judges at the Well of the Oath.
And the prophet Gad will say to David, Thou shalt not dwell in the fortress; go, and come in for thyself to the land of Judah. And David will go and come to the thicket of Hareth.
And David will see that Saul went forth to seek his soul: and David in the desert of Ziph in a thicket
And David will see that Saul went forth to seek his soul: and David in the desert of Ziph in a thicket
And the people will go forth to the field to the meeting of Israel: and the war will be in the forest of Ephraim;
And what will be, I will run. And he will say to him, Run. And Ahimaaz will run the way of the circuit, and pass by Cushi.
And he will build the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and and thirty cubits its height, upon four rows of pillars of cedars, and cuttings of cedars upon the pillars.
And a letter to Asaph watching the pleasure-grounds to the king, who shall give to me woods to frame the gates of the fortress that is to the house, and for the walls of the city, and for the house which I shall come into it And the king will give to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
And the glory of his forest and his Carmel, from the soul and even to the flesh, he shall finish, and it was as he fainting pined away.
And he left in it gleaning, as the beating of the olive tree, two, three berries upon the head of the summit, four, five in the branches of its fruit, says Jehovah, God of Israel.
In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken thicket, and the summit which they forsook from the face of the sons of Israel: and it was a desolation.
Is it not yet a very little and Lebanon turned back to Carmel, and Carmel shall be reckoned for a forest?
Until the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the desert be for Carmel, and Carmel be reckoned for a forest.
And the hail hailing upon the forest; and the city shall be made low in lowness.
By the hand of thy servants thou didst reproach Jehovah, and wilt thou say, By the multitude of my chariots I came up to the height of the mountains, to the thighs of Lebanon; and I will cut down the stature of his cedars, the choicest of his cypresses: and I will go into the height of his extremity, the forest of his Carmel.
Behold, Assur a cedar in Lebanon, fair of branch, and a shading thicket, and high of stature; and his foliage was between the thick boughs.
Hastings
1. ya'ar (root meaning a 'rugged' place), De 19:5; 2Ki 2:24; Jer 46:23; Mic 3:12 etc. 2. horesh, 2Ch 27:4 etc.; tr 'wood,' 1Sa 23:15 (perhaps a proper name). 3. pard
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And who shall go with his friend into the forest to cut wood, and his hand thrust out with the axe to out down the tree, and the iron slipped from the wood and found his friend, and he died; he shall flee to one of these cities, and he lived:
And David will see that Saul went forth to seek his soul: and David in the desert of Ziph in a thicket
And he built cities in the mountain of Judah, and in the thickets he built fortresses and towers.
And saying to the king, O king, thou wilt live forever: wherefore shall not my face be sad when the city of the house of my father's sepulchres was laid waste, and its gates consumed with fire?
I made to me gardens and pleasure grounds, and I planted in them a tree of all fruit
Thy sendings forth a park of pomegranates, with most precious fruits, cypresses with spikenards,
They cut down her forest, says Jehovah, for it shall not be searched out, for they were many above the locust, and no number to them.
For this, on account of you Zion shall be ploughed a field, and Jerusalem shall be ruins, and the mountain of the house for the heights of the forest.
Morish
1. choresh, 'thick intricate wood,' 2Ch 27:4; also translated 'wood' in 1Sa 23:15-16,18-19.
2. yaar, a 'forest.' This is the word commonly used for both 'wood' and 'forest;' to be distinguished from a third word, pardes, Ne 2:8, which signifies 'a park,' with cultivated trees, whereas the other is wild.
Several forests are specified under the word yaar.
1. The forest in ARABIA, Isa 21:13; its situation is unknown.
2. The 'forest of his CARMEL.' 2Ki 19:23; Isa 37:24.This reads in the margin, and in the R.V., 'forest of his fruitful field,' and does not refer to any forest connected with Carmel.
3. The forest of HARETH, 1Sa 22:5: situated in Judah, but not known.
4. The forest of LEBANON. 1Ki 7:2; 10:17,21; 2Ch 9:16,20.
The context shows that these passages do not refer to the forest at Lebanon; but that Solomon had a house at Jerusalem built of the trees from Lebanon, and called it 'the house of the forest of Lebanon.' The actual forest at Lebanon is often referred to for its noble trees.
5. The wood of EPHRAIM in which Absalom was slain, on the east of the Jordan. 8/6/type/juliasmith'>2Sa 18:6,8,17. This has not been identified. It has been suggested that the pride and defeat of Ephraim mentioned in Jg 12:1-6 caused some forest to be called after the name of that tribe. This place, by its swamps, morasses and pits, 'devoured' the Israelites by preventing their escape.
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And a man of Ephraim will cry out and will pass over north, and they will say to Jephthah, Why didst thou pass over to war against the sons of Ammon and didst not call to us to go with thee? we will burn thy house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah will say to them, I was a man of strife, I and my people and the sons of Ammon greatly; and I shall cry out to you, and ye saved me not from their hands. read more. And I shall see that thou savest not, and I shall put my soul in my hand, and I shall pass over to the sons of Ammon, and Jehovah will give them into my hand: and wherefore came ye up to me this day to war against me? And Jephthah will gather together all the men of Gilead, and he will war with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead will strike Ephraim because they said, The escaped of Ephraim, ye of Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh. And Gilead will take the passages of Jordan before Ephraim: and it was that the escaped of Ephraim will say, I will pass over; and the men of Gilead will say to him, Thou an Ephrathite? and he will say, No. And they will say to him, Say now Shibboleth: and he will say, Sibboleth and he will not form to speak thus. And they will seize him and they will slaughter him at the passages of Jordan. And there will fall in that time of Ephraim forty and two thousand.
And the prophet Gad will say to David, Thou shalt not dwell in the fortress; go, and come in for thyself to the land of Judah. And David will go and come to the thicket of Hareth.
And David will see that Saul went forth to seek his soul: and David in the desert of Ziph in a thicket And Jonathan, son of Saul, will rise and go to David to the thicket, and he will strengthen his hand in God.
And they two will cut out a covenant before Jehovah: and David dwelt in the thicket, and Jonathan went to his house. And the Ziphites will go up to Saul to the hill, saying, Is not David hiding with us in the fastnesses in the thicket, in the hill of Hachilah, which is from the right of the desert?
And the people will go forth to the field to the meeting of Israel: and the war will be in the forest of Ephraim;
And there the battle will be scattered upon the face of all the earth: and the forest will multiply to consume of the people above what the sword will consume in that day.
And they will take Absalom and cast him in the forest into a great pit, and they will set upon him a very great heap of stones: and all Israel fled each to his tent.
And he will build the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and and thirty cubits its height, upon four rows of pillars of cedars, and cuttings of cedars upon the pillars.
And three hundred shields of beaten gold; three parts of gold will come up upon the one shield: and the king will give them to the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon, gold, and every vessel of the house of the forest of Lebanon, gold shut up; nothing silver: it was not reckoned in the days of Solomon for any thing.
By the hand of thy messengers thou didst reproach Jehovah, and thou wilt say, With the chariot of my horseman I came up upon the height of the mountains of the sides of Lebanon, and I said, I will cut off the height of the cedars and the chosen of its cypresses: and I will go in to the lodging-place of the extremity of the forest of its Carmel.
And he built cities in the mountain of Judah, and in the thickets he built fortresses and towers.
And a letter to Asaph watching the pleasure-grounds to the king, who shall give to me woods to frame the gates of the fortress that is to the house, and for the walls of the city, and for the house which I shall come into it And the king will give to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.
The burden of Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, ye wayfarers of Dedanim.
By the hand of thy servants thou didst reproach Jehovah, and wilt thou say, By the multitude of my chariots I came up to the height of the mountains, to the thighs of Lebanon; and I will cut down the stature of his cedars, the choicest of his cypresses: and I will go into the height of his extremity, the forest of his Carmel.
Smith
Forest.
Although Palestine has never been in historical times a woodland country, yet there can be no doubt that there was much more wood formerly than there is a t present, and that the destruction of the forests was one of the chief causes of the present desolation.