Hebrew word · H1448

גְּדֵרָה

vegidrot

wall

A walled enclosure, especially a dry-stone wall around a sheepfold or field (Num 32:16, 'sheepfolds'). In general, a stone fence.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) wall, hedge

2) sheepfold (construct with 'sheep')

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 Jeremiah 49:3

Range of meaning

A walled enclosure, especially a dry-stone wall around a sheepfold or field (Num 32:16, 'sheepfolds'). In general, a stone fence.

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'hedges' suggests garden shrubbery. WEB 'fences' is closer. BSB 'within your walls' and similar renderings suggest city fortifications, which is not what this word normally means.

How it drifted

In 1611 'hedge' could mean any field boundary, including a fence. Modern English 'hedge' means planted bushes. 'Walls' without qualification now suggests city ramparts.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 32:16, 24, 36 ('folds for our flocks'); Ps 89:40 ('you have broken down all his walls'); 1 Chr 4:23. The landscape of the Transjordan plateau, where Ammon lay, is still crossed by such stone field walls.

Where it appears

Numbers · 3

  1. Numbers 32:16 גִּדְרֹ֥ת folds of

    Then the Gadites and Reubenites approached Moses and said, “We want to build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones.

  2. Numbers 32:24 וּגְדֵרֹ֖ת and folds

    Build cities for your little ones and folds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”

  3. Numbers 32:36 וְגִדְרֹ֥ת and folds of

    Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran as fortified cities, and they built folds for their flocks.

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 24:3 גִּדְר֨וֹת [the] folds of

    Soon Saul came to the sheepfolds along the road, where there was a cave, and he went in to relieve himself. And David and his men were hiding in the recesses of the cave.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 89:40 גְּדֵרֹתָ֑יו walls his

    You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 49:3 בַּגְּדֵר֑וֹת among the walls

    Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn; run back and forth within your walls, for Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.

    Here: 'Among the stone walls.' These are the low dry-stone walls of sheepfolds and fields, usually outside the city. The picture is of people scrambling around the open countryside, not standing behind fortifications.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 42:12 הַגְּדֶ֣רֶת the wall

    And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward.

Nahum · 1

  1. Nahum 3:17 בַּגְּדֵרוֹת֙ in the walls

    Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.

    Here: Low walls of piled stone around fields, vineyards and sheepfolds, where locusts cling on a cold day. Not shrubby 'hedges'.

Zephaniah · 1

  1. Zephaniah 2:6 וְגִדְר֥וֹת and folds of

    So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.

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