גֹּ֫פֶר

From the study of Genesis 6:14

Range of meaning

It occurs only here, so its meaning cannot be checked against other passages. It is almost certainly a kind of timber or a way of preparing timber, but which one is unknown.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, NASB and BSB keep the Hebrew sound as 'gopher wood', which honestly shows the word is unknown. NIV and NLT say 'cypress wood', which is an educated guess. YLT saves 'cypress' for the last word of the verse (see textual notes).

How it drifted

'Gopher wood' sounds to English readers like a recognised kind of tree. It is not one; the English phrase is just the Hebrew sound with 'wood' added. (It has nothing to do with the animal.)

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has 'squared timbers'; the Vulgate has 'planed (smoothed) timbers'; Targum Onqelos, an ancient Aramaic translation, has qadrôs, usually taken as cedar. Modern proposals include: cypress (because of a supposed sound link with Greek kyparissos, and because the Phoenicians built ships from cypress); a resin-rich wood (linked with kōper, 'pitch'); or a foreign technical term whose source has not been found. HALOT and BDB both list it as uncertain.