Hebrew word · H1593

גַּנָּה

ganot

garden

A garden: an enclosed, usually irrigated plot, typically of fruit trees and vegetables. It is the feminine form of gan, the word used for the garden of Eden.

Appears 12 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

garden, orchard

Also means: gin.nah (גִּנָּה "garden" H1594)

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 Amos 9:14

Range of meaning

A garden: an enclosed, usually irrigated plot, typically of fruit trees and vegetables. It is the feminine form of gan, the word used for the garden of Eden.

Against the English

English "garden" suggests flowers or a small vegetable patch behind a house. Here it means productive orchard land, the kind an army would cut down or strip.

How it drifted

The modern ornamental or leisure garden is a later development. In Iron Age Israel a gannah was a working food plot near water.

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 4:9: "your many gardens (gannoteikhem) and your vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees, the locust devoured." Song of Songs 6:11 has "the garden of nuts." Isaiah 1:30 and Jeremiah 29:5 ("plant gardens and eat their produce") use the same pairing as this verse.

From the study of Isaiah 1:29

Range of meaning

A garden or orchard, usually enclosed and irrigated. The related word gan is used for Eden ('garden of Eden') and for royal gardens.

Against the English

'Gardens' is accurate. A modern reader may picture a home flower or vegetable plot rather than a walled, watered grove that could hold a shrine.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 65:3 and 66:17 describe gardens as places of illegitimate sacrifice and ritual. In the wider Near East, royal and temple gardens were places of luxury and of worship. Water was the precious resource that made a garden possible, which is the point of v. 30's 'garden without water.'

From the study of Isaiah 66:17

Range of meaning

An enclosed, planted plot, usually with trees and often with water. The word can be entirely ordinary (Jeremiah 29:5 tells the exiles to plant gardens and eat their produce). Only the context makes a garden a place of worship.

Against the English

"Gardens" (KJV, WEB, YLT) is correct but sounds domestic and harmless. "Groves" (BSB) better conveys the trees and the sense of a cult place, though it slightly narrows the word.

How it drifted

To a modern reader a garden is a place of flowers or vegetables. The first hearers, who had heard earlier oracles against these places, would have understood a site of rival ritual.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 1:29 (shame over the gardens you have chosen), Isaiah 65:3 (sacrificing in gardens), and here. The same three-way link of gardens, tombs and forbidden food appears in 65:3-4. Kings Manasseh and Amon were buried in a royal garden (2 Kings 21:18, 26, using the related word gan), so some scholars connect such gardens with rites for the dead, but that is an inference.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 24:6 כְּגַנֹּ֖ת like gardens

    They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.

Job · 1

  1. Job 8:16 גַּ֝נָּת֗וֹ garden its

    He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden.

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 2:5 גַּנּ֖וֹת gardens

    I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees.

Isaiah · 5

  1. Isaiah 1:29 מֵהַגַּנּ֖וֹת from the gardens

    Surely you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be embarrassed by the gardens that you have chosen.

    Here: 'Because of the gardens.' These are enclosed, watered plantings, here places linked with worship outside the LORD's sanctioned cult. Verse 30 picks up the image: the people themselves will become 'a garden without water'.

  2. Isaiah 1:30 וּֽכְגַנָּ֔ה and like a garden

    For you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered, like a garden without water.

  3. Isaiah 61:11 וּכְגַנָּ֖ה and like a garden

    For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

    Here: 'And like a garden': a cultivated, enclosed and usually watered plot, as opposed to open fields. The picture moves from wild growth to tended growth.

  4. Isaiah 65:3 בַּגַּנּ֔וֹת in <the> gardens

    to a people who continually provoke Me to My face, sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on altars of brick,

    Here: 'In the gardens.' These are tree-planted enclosures used as open-air sanctuaries, not flower beds. Isaiah 1:29 and 66:17 condemn the same 'gardens' as places of rival worship.

  5. Isaiah 66:17 הַגַּנּ֗וֹת the gardens

    “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves—to follow one in the center of those who eat the flesh of swine and vermin and rats—will perish together,” declares the LORD.

    Here: "The gardens," with "the" implying that hearers knew which places were meant. In Isaiah these are sites of rival worship (1:29; 65:3), standing in place of the temple as the destination of the ritually prepared.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 29:5 גַנּ֔וֹת gardens

    “Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.

    Here: Enclosed, watered plots for growing food, often with fruit trees: orchards and kitchen gardens, not ornamental flower beds. Planting one is a long-term economic commitment.

  2. Jeremiah 29:28 גַנּ֔וֹת gardens

    For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’”

Amos · 2

  1. Amos 4:9 גַּנּוֹתֵיכֶ֧ם gardens your

    “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

    Here: Enclosed, often watered plots for vegetables and fruit, close to home: a household's intensive food supply.

  2. Amos 9:14 גַנּ֔וֹת gardens

    I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

    Here: Enclosed, usually watered plots of fruit trees and produce. In this verse they are orchards rather than flower beds.

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