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/mkjv'>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 answered them, If you are a great people, and if mount Ephraim is too narrow for you, get up to the forest and cut down more for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants.
But the mountain shall be yours, for it is a forest, and you shall cut it down. And the outer limits of it shall be yours. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have iron chariots and though they are strong.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not stay in the stronghold. Leave and go into the land of Judah. And David left and came into the forest of Hareth.
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a woods.
And the people went out into the field against Israel. And the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
For the battle was scattered there over the face of all the country. And the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fish.
And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And he went up from there to Bethel. And he was going up in the highway. And little boys came out from the city and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, bald head! Go up, bald head! And he turned behind him and saw them, and declared them vile in the name of Jehovah. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two boys of them.
And he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built palaces and towers.
and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which belong to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king granted me what I asked, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
I made gardens and orchards for myself, And I planted trees in them, of all fruit. I made pools of water for myself, to water the forest shooting forth trees.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; with henna and spikenard,
And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a boy might write them.
Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the lofty ones shall be cut down, and the proud shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
At evening time, behold, terror! Before the morning, he is not! This is the lot of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted as a forest?
until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is thought to be a forest.
He cuts down cedars, and takes cypress and oak, which he makes the trees of the forest strong for him; he plants a tree, and the rain makes it grow.
Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, and a wolf of the deserts shall rob them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them shall be torn in pieces, because their sins are many and their backslidings are multiplied.
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, So says Jehovah of Hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house like the high places of a forest.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, They are my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
I will be as the dew to Israel; he shall grow as the lily and cast out his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he goes through, both tramples and tears in pieces. And there is none to snatch back.
Howl, juniper; for the cedar has fallen; because the majestic trees are devastated. Howl, O oaks of Bashan; for the inaccessible forest has come 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 answered them, If you are a great people, and if mount Ephraim is too narrow for you, get up to the forest and cut down more for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants. And the sons of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us. And all the Canaanites who live in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, those who are of Beth-shean and its towns, and those who are of the valley of Jezreel. read more. And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, You are a great people and have great power. You shall not have one lot. But the mountain shall be yours, for it is a forest, and you shall cut it down. And the outer limits of it shall be yours. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have iron chariots and though they are strong.
And the name of his first-born was Joel, and the name of his second was Abiah, judges in Beer-sheba.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not stay in the stronghold. Leave and go into the land of Judah. And David left and came into the forest of Hareth.
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a woods.
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a woods.
And the people went out into the field against Israel. And the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
But he said, Yet whatever, let me run! And he said to him, Run. And Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and ran past the Cushite.
And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which belong to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king granted me what I asked, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
And it shall burn up the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a sick one faints.
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three ripe olives in the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in the fruit-tree branches of it, says Jehovah, the God of Hosts.
In that day his strong cities shall be like a forsaken branch, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the sons of Israel; and it will become a ruin.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted as a forest?
until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is thought to be a forest.
Though it hails, when the forest is felled, and the city laid low.
By your servants you have mocked Jehovah and have said, by my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and its choice fir trees; and I will go to its greatest height, the forest of its Carmel.
Behold, Assyria was like a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade, and of great height. And his top was among 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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even he who goes into the wood with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand brings a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the wood and lights on his neighbor so that he dies; he shall flee to one of those cities and live,
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a woods.
And he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built palaces and towers.
And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?
I made gardens and orchards for myself, And I planted trees in them, of all fruit.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; with henna and spikenard,
They shall cut down her forest, says Jehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the locusts and cannot be counted.
Therefore, on account of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house into high places 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/mkjv'>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 the men of Ephraim were called together and went northward, and said to Jephthah, Why did you go over to fight against the sons of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house upon you with fire. And Jephthah said to them, My people and I were at great strife with the sons of Ammon. And when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. read more. When I saw that you did not deliver me, I took my life in my hand and passed over against the sons of Ammon, and Jehovah delivered them into my hand, and why have you come up against me, to fight against me today? And Jephthah called up all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites. And the Gileadites took the fords of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it happened that when one of those Ephraimites who had escaped said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And he said, No. And they said to him, Please say Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth, for he could not manage to pronounce it right. Then they took him and killed him at the passages of Jordan. And there fell at that time forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not stay in the stronghold. Leave and go into the land of Judah. And David left and came into the forest of Hareth.
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a woods. And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.
And the two of them cut a covenant before Jehovah. And David stayed in the forest, and Jonathan went to his house. And the men of Ziph came up to Saul, to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the forest, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the wilderness?
And the people went out into the field against Israel. And the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
For the battle was scattered there over the face of all the country. And the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest. And they laid a very great heap of stones upon him. And all Israel fled, each one to his tent.
And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was counted nothing in the days of Solomon.
You have mocked Jehovah by your messengers, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down its tall cedar trees, its choice fir trees. And I will enter into the lodgings of its borders, its densest forest;
And he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built palaces and towers.
and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which belong to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king granted me what I asked, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
The burden against Arabia: You shall stay in the forest of Arabia, O traveling companies of Dedanites.
By your servants you have mocked Jehovah and have said, by my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and its choice fir trees; and I will go to its greatest height, the forest of its 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.