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/ylt'>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 saith unto them, 'If thou art a numerous people, go up for thee to the forest, then thou hast prepared for thee there, in the land of the Perizzite, and of the Rephaim, when mount Ephraim hath been narrow for thee.'
because the mountain is thine; because it is a forest -- thou hast prepared it, and its outgoings have been thine; because thou dost dispossess the Canaanite, though it hath chariots of iron -- though it is strong.'
And all they of the land have come into a forest, and there is honey on the face of the field;
And Gad the prophet saith unto David, 'Thou dost not abide in a fortress, go, and thou hast entered for thee the land of Judah;' and David goeth and entereth the forest of Hareth.
And David seeth that Saul hath come out to seek his life, and David is in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest.
And the people goeth out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle is in a forest of Ephraim;
and the battle is there scattered over the face of all the land, and the forest multiplieth to devour among the people more than those whom the sword hath devoured in that day.
and he speaketh concerning the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that is coming out in the wall, and he speaketh concerning the cattle, and concerning the fowl, and concerning the creeping things, and concerning the fishes,
And he buildeth the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits is its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar-beams on the pillars;
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And he goeth up thence to Beth-El, and he is going up in the way, and little youths have come out from the city, and scoff at him, and say to him, 'Go up, bald-head! go up, bald-head!' And he looketh behind him, and seeth them, and declareth them vile in the name of Jehovah, and two bears come out of the forest, and rend of them forty and two lads.
and cities he hath built in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he hath built palaces and towers.
and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams for the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
I made for me gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit. I made for me pools of water, to water from them a forest shooting forth trees.
And the rest of the trees of his forest are few, And a youth doth write them.
Lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is lopping a branch with violence, And the high of stature are cut down, And the lofty are become low, And He hath gone round the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon by a mighty one falleth!
At even-time, lo, terror, before morning it is not, This is the portion of our spoilers, And the lot of our plunderers!
Is it not yet a very little, And turned hath Lebanon to a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned?
Till emptied out on us is the Spirit from on high, And a wilderness hath become a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned.
Cutting down to himself cedars, He taketh also a cypress, and an oak, And he strengtheneth it for himself Among the trees of a forest, He hath planted an ash, and the shower doth nourish it.
Therefore smitten them hath a lion out of the forest, A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them, A leopard is watching over their cities, Every one who is going out of them is torn, For many have been their transgressions, Mighty have been their backslidings.
'Micah the Morashtite hath been prophesying in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he saith unto all the people of Judah, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Zion is a plowed field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mountain of the house is for high places of a forest.
And made desolate her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, A gift they are to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And consumed them hath a beast of the field.
I am as dew to Israel, he flourisheth as a lily, And he striketh forth his roots as Lebanon. Go on do his sucklings, And his beauty is as an olive, And he hath fragrance as Lebanon.
Yea, the remnant of Jacob hath been among nations, In the midst of many peoples, As a lion among beasts of a forest, As a young lion among ranks of a flock, Which if it hath passed through, Hath both trodden down and hath torn, And there is no deliverer.
Howl, O fir, for fallen hath the cedar, For their honourable ones were destroyed, Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For come down hath the fenced forest,
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 saith unto them, 'If thou art a numerous people, go up for thee to the forest, then thou hast prepared for thee there, in the land of the Perizzite, and of the Rephaim, when mount Ephraim hath been narrow for thee.' And the sons of Joseph say, 'The hill is not found to us, and a chariot of iron is with every Canaanite who is dwelling in the land of the valley -- to him who is in Beth-Shean and its towns, and to him who is in the valley of Jezreel.' read more. And Joshua speaketh unto the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, 'Thou art a numerous people, and hast great power; thou hast not one lot only, because the mountain is thine; because it is a forest -- thou hast prepared it, and its outgoings have been thine; because thou dost dispossess the Canaanite, though it hath chariots of iron -- though it is strong.'
And the name of his first-born son is Joel, and the name of his second Abiah, judges in Beer-Sheba:
And Gad the prophet saith unto David, 'Thou dost not abide in a fortress, go, and thou hast entered for thee the land of Judah;' and David goeth and entereth the forest of Hareth.
And David seeth that Saul hath come out to seek his life, and David is in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest.
And David seeth that Saul hath come out to seek his life, and David is in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest.
And the people goeth out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle is in a forest of Ephraim;
And, whatever it be, said he, let me run.' And he saith to him, 'Run;' and Ahimaaz runneth the way of the circuit, and passeth by the Cushite.
And he buildeth the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits is its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar-beams on the pillars;
and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams for the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
And the honour of his forest, and his fruitful field, From soul even unto flesh He doth consume, And it hath been as the fainting of a standard-bearer.
And left in him have been gleanings, As the compassing of an olive, Two -- three berries on the top of a branch, Four -- five on the fruitful boughs, The affirmation of Jehovah, God of Israel!
In that day are the cities of his strength As the forsaken thing of the forest, And the branch that they have left, Because of the sons of Israel, It also hath been a desolation.
Is it not yet a very little, And turned hath Lebanon to a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned?
Till emptied out on us is the Spirit from on high, And a wilderness hath become a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned.
And it hath hailed in the going down of the forest, And in the valley is the city low.
By the hand of thy servants Thou hast reviled the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of hills, The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the high place of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel.
Lo, Asshur, a cedar in Lebanon, Fair in branch, and shading bough, and high in stature, And between thickets hath its foliage been.
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 cometh in with his neighbour into a forest to hew wood, and his hand hath driven with an axe to cut the tree, and the iron hath slipped from the wood, and hath met his neighbour, and he hath died -- he doth flee unto one of these cities, and hath lived,
And David seeth that Saul hath come out to seek his life, and David is in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest.
and cities he hath built in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he hath built palaces and towers.
and say to the king, 'Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, is a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'
I made for me gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit.
They have cut down her forest, An affirmation of Jehovah -- for it is not searched, For they have been more than the grasshopper, And they have no numbering.
Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house is for high places of a 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/ylt'>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 are called together, and pass over northward, and say to Jephthah, 'Wherefore has thou passed over to fight against the Bene-Ammon, and on us hast not called to go with thee? thy house we burn over thee with fire.' And Jephthah saith unto them, 'A man of great strife I have been (I and my people) with the Bene-Ammon, and I call you, and ye have not saved me out of their hand, read more. and I see that thou art not a saviour, and I put my life in my hand, and pass over unto the Bene-Ammon, and Jehovah giveth them into my hand -- and why have ye come up unto me this day to fight against me?' And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead, and fighteth with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead smite Ephraim, because they said, 'Fugitives of Ephraim are ye Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim -- in the midst of Manasseh.' And Gilead captureth the passages of the Jordan to Ephraim, and it hath been, when any of the fugitives of Ephraim say, 'Let me pass over,' and the men of Gilead say to him, 'An Ephramite thou?' and he saith, 'No;' that they say to him, 'Say, I pray thee, Shibboleth;' and he saith, 'Sibboleth,' and is not prepared to speak right -- and they seize him, and slaughter him at the passages of the Jordan, and there fall at that time, of Ephraim, forty and two chiefs.
And Gad the prophet saith unto David, 'Thou dost not abide in a fortress, go, and thou hast entered for thee the land of Judah;' and David goeth and entereth the forest of Hareth.
And David seeth that Saul hath come out to seek his life, and David is in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest. And Jonathan son of Saul riseth, and goeth unto David to the forest, and strengtheneth his hand in God,
And they make a covenant both of them before Jehovah; and David abideth in the forest, and Jonathan hath gone to his house. And the Ziphites go up unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, 'Is not David hiding himself with us in fortresses, in the forest, in the height of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desolate place?
And the people goeth out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle is in a forest of Ephraim;
and the battle is there scattered over the face of all the land, and the forest multiplieth to devour among the people more than those whom the sword hath devoured in that day.
and they take Absalom and cast him in the forest unto the great pit, and set up over him a very great heap of stones, and all Israel have fled -- each to his tent.
And he buildeth the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits is its length, and fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar-beams on the pillars;
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon are of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon are of refined gold -- there are none of silver; it was not reckoned in the days of Solomon for anything,
By the hand of thy messengers Thou hast reproached the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains -- The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the lodging of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel.
and cities he hath built in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he hath built palaces and towers.
and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams for the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
The burden on Arabia. In a forest in Arabia ye lodge, O travellers of Dedanim.
By the hand of thy servants Thou hast reviled the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of hills, The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the high place of its extremity, 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.