Hebrew word · H3755

כָּרַם

lekhoremim

to tend vineyards

Vinedresser: one who cultivates, prunes and harvests a vineyard (kerem). The word is formed from the noun "vineyard" and used as a job title.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to tend vines or vineyards, to dress vines or vineyards

1a) (Qal) vinedressers (participle)

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 61:5

Range of meaning

Vinedresser: one who cultivates, prunes and harvests a vineyard (kerem). The word is formed from the noun "vineyard" and used as a job title.

Against the English

"Vinedressers" is accurate. WEB folds both jobs into "work your fields and your vineyards," which is fine for sense but drops the job titles.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Kgs 25:12 / Jer 52:16: after Jerusalem fell in 586 BC, the Babylonian commander "left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen" (the second word there is a near-synonym, yogevim). Also Joel 1:11 and 2 Chr 26:10, both paired with 'ikkarim.

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 25:12 לְכֹֽרְמִ֖ים to vinedressers

    But the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 26:10 וְכֹֽרְמִ֗ים and vinedressers

    Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 61:5 וְכֹרְמֵיכֶֽם׃ and vinedressers your

    Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.

    Here: "And your vinedressers": workers who prune, tend and harvest vineyards. A participle used as a noun for an occupation. The same pair of jobs appears where the Babylonians left Judah's poorest people as laborers (2 Kgs 25:12; Jer 52:16), so the verse reverses that humiliation.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 52:16 לְכֹרְמִ֖ים to vinedressers

    But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

Joel · 1

  1. Joel 1:11 כֹּֽרְמִ֔ים O vinedressers

    Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

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