Hebrew word · H1430

גָּדִישׁ

gadish

stack

A stack or shock of cut sheaves heaped in the field, and more broadly a heap or mound.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

heap, stack, pile

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

From the study of Job 5:26

Range of meaning

A stack or shock of cut sheaves heaped in the field, and more broadly a heap or mound.

Against the English

KJV "shock of corn" is accurate in old English but misleads today (see Drift). YLT "stalk" is too small: the word means a whole heap of sheaves, not one stalk. BSB "sheaf" is close, but strictly a gadish is a stack made of many sheaves.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 22:6 (22:5 in Hebrew), where fire spreads to "stacked grain"; Judg 15:5, where Samson's foxes burn "the shocks and the standing grain." Job 21:32 says of the wicked man: "he is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over the gadish," where the word seems to mean the tomb mound.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 22:6 גָּדִ֔ישׁ a heap of sheaves

    If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 15:5 מִגָּדִ֥ישׁ from [the] heap of sheaves

    Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Job · 2

  1. Job 5:26 גָּדִ֣ישׁ a heap of sheaves

    You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.

    Here: A pile of harvested sheaves standing in the field before threshing (Exod 22:6; Judg 15:5). In Job 21:32 the same word seems to mean a grave mound, so the picture of a heap of sheaves may already suggest a burial heap.

  2. Job 21:32 גָּדִ֥ישׁ a tomb

    He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.