Hebrew word · H5525

סֻכִּיִּים

sukiyim

Sukkiim

Found only here in the Bible. Proposals: (1) the Tjukten (ṯkten) of Egyptian texts, Libyan-type desert scouts and auxiliaries; (2) a link with sukkah, 'booth, tent', meaning tent-dwellers or nomads; (3) the LXX's 'Troglodytes', cave-dwellers of the Red Sea coast or Nubian desert.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

People descended from Sukki(?), only mentioned at 2Ch.12.3

§ Sukkiims = "booth dwellers"

a people who supplied warriors for the Egyptian army under Shishak

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 2 Chronicles 12:3

Range of meaning

Found only here in the Bible. Proposals: (1) the Tjukten (ṯkten) of Egyptian texts, Libyan-type desert scouts and auxiliaries; (2) a link with sukkah, 'booth, tent', meaning tent-dwellers or nomads; (3) the LXX's 'Troglodytes', cave-dwellers of the Red Sea coast or Nubian desert.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT transliterate ('Sukkiims', 'Sukkiim'). BSB has 'Sukkites'. No English version can do more than give the name, because its identity is uncertain.

Used elsewhere in the period

Egyptian military texts of the later New Kingdom mention Tjukten as scouts or frontier auxiliaries. The Septuagint (Greek translation) has Trōglodytai, and the Latin Vulgate follows it.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 12:3 סֻכִּיִּ֖ים Sukkites

    with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites.

    Here: This name appears only here in the Bible and its identity is uncertain. It is most often linked to the Tjukten, Libyan-type scouts and auxiliaries named in Egyptian texts. The Greek translators took them as 'cave-dwellers'.

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