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/wbs'>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 thou art a great people, then go up to the wood, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim is too narrow for thee.
But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the limits of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they are strong.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and come into the land of Judah. Then David departed, 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 wood.
So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping animals, and of fishes.
He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its hight thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And he went up from thence to Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, thou bald-head; go up, thou bald-head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two children of them.
Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water with them the wood that bringeth forth trees:
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard,
And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts will lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
And behold at the time of evening trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that ravage us, and the lot of them that 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 esteemed as a forest?
Until the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted for a forest.
He heweth down cedars for himself, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
Wherefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she hath said, These 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 forth his roots as 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 gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he goeth through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are laid waste: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is 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 thou art a great people, then go up to the wood, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim is too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Beth-shean and its towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel. read more. And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only: But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the limits of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they are strong.
Now the name of his first-born was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and come into the land of Judah. Then David departed, 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 wood.
And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.
So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;
But however, said he, let me run. And he said to him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and outran Cushi.
He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its hight thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches of it, saith the LORD God of Israel.
In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
Until the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted for a forest.
When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir-trees: and I will enter into the hight of its border, and the forest of its Carmel.
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shady cover, and of a high stature; 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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As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand maketh a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and falleth upon his neighbor, that he dieth: he shall flee to one of these 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 wood.
Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
And said to the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lieth waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?
I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard,
They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the 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/wbs'>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 assembled, and went northward, and said to Jephthah, Why didst thou pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee; we will burn thy house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. read more. And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: why then have ye come up to me this day, to fight against me? Then Jephthah collected all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites. And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites who had escaped, said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said to him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, No; Then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan. And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and come into the land of Judah. Then David departed, 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 wood. And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.
And they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house. Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.
He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its hight thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to 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 nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down its tall cedar trees, and its choice fir trees: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye traveling companies of Dedanim.
By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir-trees: and I will enter into the hight of its border, and 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.