Hebrew word · H1573

גֹּ֫מֶא

gome'

reed

Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), a tall water plant, often over 3 metres high. In antiquity it grew in the Nile delta and in the Huleh marshes of northern Israel. It was used for boats, baskets and writing material.

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

What it means

rush, reed, papyrus

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 Isaiah 35:7

Range of meaning

Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), a tall water plant, often over 3 metres high. In antiquity it grew in the Nile delta and in the Huleh marshes of northern Israel. It was used for boats, baskets and writing material.

Against the English

KJV and WEB have "rushes," NIV and BSB "papyrus." "Rushes" makes a reader think of small pond-edge plants. Papyrus is a giant, dense, marsh-forming plant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 2:3 (Moses' basket of gōmeʾ). Isa 18:2 (papyrus boats of Cush). Job 8:11: "Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish without water?"

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 2:3 גֹּ֔מֶא papyrus

    But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

Job · 1

  1. Job 8:11 גֹּ֭מֶא papyrus

    Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 18:2 גֹמֶא֮ papyrus

    which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

  2. Isaiah 35:7 וָגֹֽמֶא׃ and papyrus

    The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.

    Here: "And papyrus." This is the giant water plant of Egypt's marshes, the same material as the basket for baby Moses (Exod 2:3). Papyrus cannot grow without a swamp (Job 8:11), so its appearance in jackal country shows that the desert has become wetland.

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