Hebrew word · H5189

נְטִישָׁה

netishotayikh

tendril

Tendrils or spreading shoots of a vine. From nāṭaš, 'to spread out, let go, leave loose'.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

twig, tendril, tendrils of a vine (as spread out)

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 Jeremiah 5:10

Range of meaning

Tendrils or spreading shoots of a vine. From nāṭaš, 'to spread out, let go, leave loose'.

Against the English

KJV's 'battlements' follows the same fortification reading as 'walls'. 'Branches' (BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV) is close. 'Tendrils' or 'shoots' is more exact: these are the new, sprawling growth a vinedresser cuts back.

How it drifted

KJV and the Greek Septuagint took the whole verse as describing a city's defences, so the plant word became 'battlements'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 18:5: before harvest God 'cuts off the shoots with pruning knives and removes the spreading branches (nəṭîšôt)'. Jeremiah 48:32: Moab's vine, 'your tendrils crossed the sea'.

From the study of Jeremiah 48:32

Range of meaning

The trailing shoots or tendrils of a vine. It comes from natash, 'to let go, leave, spread out', so it pictures branches let loose to run. The word is rare: Isaiah 16:8; 18:5; Jeremiah 5:10; 48:32.

Against the English

KJV 'plants' loses the picture. 'Branches' (WEB, YLT) is acceptable. 'Tendrils' (BSB) or 'shoots' best captures the sprawling growth of a vine.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Isaiah 18:5 the 'spreading shoots' are cut off by the pruner, which is also an image of judgment. In Jeremiah 5:10 the netishot of Israel's vine are stripped away.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 18:5 הַנְּטִישׁ֖וֹת the tendrils

    For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 5:10 נְטִ֣ישׁוֹתֶ֔יהָ vine tendrils its

    Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

    Here: 'Her tendrils': the long shoots a vine sends out. The word comes from a root meaning 'spread out' or 'let loose'. Isaiah 18:5 uses it for shoots that are cut away and removed, and Jeremiah 48:32 for the spreading branches of Moab's vine.

  2. Jeremiah 48:32 נְטִֽישֹׁתַ֙יִךְ֙ tendrils your

    I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah, more than I weep for Jazer. Your tendrils have extended to the sea; they reach even to Jazer. The destroyer has descended on your summer fruit and grape harvest.

    Here: 'Your tendrils'. These are the long trailing shoots of a vine, from a root meaning 'to let loose, spread out'. The picture is of vines spreading so widely that they run off across the land.

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