Hebrew word · H5442

סְבַךְ

basevakh

thicket

'Thicket, tangle, interwoven branches', from a root meaning 'to interweave, entangle' (cf. Nah 1:10, 'entangled like thorns'). It is used of thick woodland (Isa 9:18; 10:34, 'he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron').

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thicket

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 Psalm 74:5

Range of meaning

'Thicket, tangle, interwoven branches', from a root meaning 'to interweave, entangle' (cf. Nah 1:10, 'entangled like thorns'). It is used of thick woodland (Isa 9:18; 10:34, 'he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron').

Against the English

'Thicket' (BSB, WEB, YLT) is accurate. 'Forest' (in some versions) loses the idea of dense, tangled growth. KJV's 'thick trees' is serviceable.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 22:13 (the ram caught by its horns in a thicket); Isa 9:18; 10:34; Jer 4:7. Isa 10:34 is especially close: thickets cut down with iron, an image of a conquering army.

From the study of Genesis 22:13

Range of meaning

A thicket or tangle of branches. It comes from a root meaning 'interweave, entangle' (compare Nahum 1:10, 'tangled like thorns', and Isaiah 9:18 and 10:34, 'thickets of the forest').

Against the English

'Thicket' is accurate. The Vulgate's inter vepres ('among thornbushes, brambles') narrowed the image to thorns. Later Christian reading took that up.

How it drifted

From early on, Christian writers (Melito of Sardis, Tertullian) read the ram held 'in a bush' or among thorns as a picture of Christ crowned with thorns. The Latin vepres strengthened this. That is a typological reading (one that sees the story as foreshadowing Christ), not something the Hebrew noun specifies.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint does not translate it. It transliterates: ἐν φυτῷ σαβεκ, 'in a sabek-plant', as if it were a plant name. That suggests the translators were unsure of the word. Later Greek translators (Aquila, Symmachus) rendered it as a thicket or tangle.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 22:13 בַּסְּבַ֖ךְ in the thicket

    Then Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. So he went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

    Here: A tangle of branches or undergrowth. The word is rare and does not in itself say 'thorns'.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 74:5 בִּֽסֲבָךְ־ in a thicket of

    like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

    Here: The prefix bə- ('in, into, against') plus 'thicket, tangle of branches', the same word as the thicket where Abraham's ram was caught (Gen 22:13). It pictures dense, interlaced growth that you have to hack your way through.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 9:18 בְּסִֽבְכֵ֣י <in> [the] thickets of

    For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

    Here: 'In the thickets of.' This is dense, interlaced growth, the same word as the thicket that caught Abraham's ram (Gen 22:13). Thickets like this make a fire impossible to stop.

  2. Isaiah 10:34 סִֽבְכֵ֥י [the] thickets of

    He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

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