Hebrew word · H2965

טָרָף

taraf

fresh-plucked

'Freshly plucked' (as an adjective) or 'fresh leaf, young leaf' (as a noun). The root ṭrp usually means 'tear', as in an animal tearing prey. Here it refers to tender new leaves.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

freshly picked, freshly plucked, fresh-plucked

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 Ezekiel 17:9

Range of meaning

'Freshly plucked' (as an adjective) or 'fresh leaf, young leaf' (as a noun). The root ṭrp usually means 'tear', as in an animal tearing prey. Here it refers to tender new leaves.

Against the English

KJV has 'leaves', BSB 'foliage', WEB 'fresh springing leaves'. WEB keeps the freshness best. 'Foliage' loses the sense of young, new growth.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 8:11: the dove returns with an olive leaf that is ṭārāp, 'freshly plucked', the sign of new life after the flood. Lexicons such as BDB list Ezek 17:9 as a noun use, 'fresh leaf'.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 8:11 טָרָ֣ף freshly plucked

    And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 17:9 טַרְפֵּ֤י [the] fresh [things] of

    So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.

    Here: 'The fresh leaves of'. The word is the same root as the 'freshly plucked' olive leaf of Gen 8:11. It means the young, green, tender growth.

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