Hebrew word · H1103
בָּלַס
uvoles
to gather|tend figs
This participle occurs only here and its meaning comes from comparison: 'one who treats/tends (sycomore fruit)'. The best evidence points to the practice of nicking or gashing the young sycomore figs. Once gashed, it ripens within a few days into a sweeter, edible fig.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Qal) to gather figs, tend sycamore trees
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
This participle occurs only here and its meaning comes from comparison: 'one who treats/tends (sycomore fruit)'. The best evidence points to the practice of nicking or gashing the young sycomore figs. In the Levant the wasp that pollinates the tree is absent, and unless each fruit is cut it stays hard and bland. Once gashed, it ripens within a few days into a sweeter, edible fig.
- Against the English
KJV 'gatherer of sycomore fruit' guesses at picking. WEB 'farmer' and BSB 'tender' are general. ESV 'dresser' is close. 'Nicker' or 'slitter' would be most exact.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Septuagint knizōn, 'nipping, scratching'. Vulgate vellicans, 'plucking, pinching'. Theophrastus (Enquiry into Plants 4.2.1) and Pliny (Natural History 13.14) both describe scraping or scoring sycomore fruit with iron tools to make it ripen. Modern botanical study (Galil 1968) confirms the technique and why it works.
Where it appears
Amos · 1
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Amos 7:14 וּבוֹלֵ֥ס and a fig picker of
“I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.
Here: 'And one who tends / nicks (the fruit of).' This verb appears only here. Ancient translations and farming practice point to the specialized job of gashing sycomore figs so they ripen and become edible.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.