Hebrew word · H5520
סֹךְ
suko
lair
A covered, enclosed shelter: an animal's thicket or lair, or a booth or hut of branches. It is related to sukkah, 'booth', and to the verb sakhak, 'to screen, cover'. Psalm 76:2 (Heb 76:3) applies it to God's dwelling: 'his abode (sukko) is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.'
Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
thicket, lair, covert, booth
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
- Range of meaning
A covered, enclosed shelter: an animal's thicket or lair, or a booth or hut of branches. It is related to sukkah, 'booth', and to the verb sakhak, 'to screen, cover'. Psalm 76:2 (Heb 76:3) applies it to God's dwelling: 'his abode (sukko) is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.'
- Against the English
Translations give 'shelter' (BSB, ESV), 'pavilion' (KJV, WEB), 'dwelling' (NIV), 'tabernacle' (NASB, YLT). 'Shelter' is close. 'Pavilion' now suggests an open-sided park structure or a sports clubhouse, which is nearly the opposite of a screened, enclosed hiding place.
- How it drifted
'Pavilion' in 1611 still kept its sense of a large tent, often a royal or military tent (from Old French pavillon, 'tent'). Modern English has moved it toward open-air structures.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used of a lion's lair (Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38) and of God's dwelling at Zion (Ps 76:2). The related sukkah appears in the parallel Psalm 31:20 and in the Feast of Booths. Psalm 18:11 (Heb 18:12) also describes God making darkness 'his booth' (sukkato) around him.
- Range of meaning
A thicket, covert or lair made of tangled brush. It belongs to the root skk, 'to cover, screen, weave over', the same family as sukkâ, 'booth, shelter of branches'. Used of a lion's covert (Jeremiah 25:38) and figuratively of God's 'tent/booth' (Psalm 27:5; 76:2, as Salem).
- Against the English
KJV 'den' (from the Vulgate's spelunca, 'cave') suggests a rocky hole. The Hebrew is a screen of vegetation. Modern 'thicket', 'cover' and 'lair' are closer.
- How it drifted
The Latin 'cave' reading passed into the KJV. It doesn't change the sense much, but it moves the scene from brush to rock.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Jeremiah 25:38: 'like a lion he has left his covert (sukkô)'. Jeremiah 4:7 and 49:19 describe lions coming up out of thickets, including 'the jungle of the Jordan'. The Septuagint renders it mandra, 'enclosure, fold'.
- Range of meaning
From a root meaning 'to cover, screen, overshadow'. A covered or screened place: (1) the thicket or covert where a lion hides, as in Ps 10:9 ('he lurks in ambush like a lion in his covert') and Jer 25:38 ('like a lion he has left his covert'); (2) a booth or shelter, close to the more common sukkāh, the 'booth' of the Feast of Booths. In Lam 2:6 God 'laid waste his booth like a garden', meaning the temple; in Ps 27:5 God hides the psalmist 'in his shelter' on the day of trouble.
- Against the English
KJV, WEB, YLT and NASB say 'tabernacle', BSB and NIV say 'tent', and ESV says 'abode'. 'Tabernacle' makes English readers think of the Mosaic Tabernacle, but that is a different Hebrew word (miškān). 'Tent' suggests something portable and modest. Neither carries the predator's hideout that the word means in its closest parallels.
- How it drifted
Older English used 'tabernacle' for any dwelling or tent, following the Latin tabernaculum. Since then the word has narrowed to the wilderness sanctuary or to a church building, so the English now suggests a cultic structure the Hebrew word does not specifically name.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Hebrew Bible: Ps 10:9, Jer 25:38 (lion's covert), Ps 27:5 (shelter), Lam 2:6 (temple as booth), Job 38:40 (lions waiting 'in the thicket', the related sukkāh). Septuagint Ps 75:3 gives the neutral topos, 'place'. HALOT and BDB both list 'lair' or 'covert' alongside 'booth'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 3
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Psalm 10:9 בְסֻכֹּ֗ה in lair its
He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
Here: 'In his covert': a lion's lair in thick brush. It comes from the same root as sukkah, 'booth of branches', so the picture is woven cover, not a rock cave. The -ōh ending is an old poetic form of 'his'.
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Psalm 27:5 בְּסֻכֹּה֮ in refuge his
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.
Here: 'In his booth/shelter', a covered, enclosed shelter. Psalm 76:2 uses the same word for God's dwelling in Salem/Zion, so here it probably points to the sanctuary. The -oh ending is an old spelling of 'his'.
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Psalm 76:2 סֻכּ֑וֹ lair his
His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion.
Here: A screened, covered shelter. Elsewhere it is the thicket where a lion lies in wait (Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38), and it can also mean a booth or shelter, even the temple (Lam 2:6). Paired with 'den' and followed by the image of God as a predator coming down from 'the mountains of prey' (v. 4), it most likely pictures the lair of a lion.
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 25:38 סֻכּ֑וֹ lair his
He has left His den like a lion, for their land has been made a desolation by the sword of the oppressor, and because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.