Hebrew word · H5563

סְמַדֵר

semadar

blossom

Found only three times, all in the Song (2:13, 2:15, 7:12). It means the vine's blossom, or the blossom with the tiny grape just setting in it. Later rabbinic Hebrew uses it for the grape at the stage just after flowering.

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

What it means

grape blossom, grape bud

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 Song of Songs 7:12

Range of meaning

Found only three times, all in the Song (2:13, 2:15, 7:12). It means the vine's blossom, or the blossom with the tiny grape just setting in it. Later rabbinic Hebrew uses it for the grape at the stage just after flowering.

Against the English

BSB, WEB and most modern versions say "blossom." The KJV's "tender grape" follows the stage-after-flowering sense. YLT's "sweet-smelling flower" draws on 2:13.

Used elsewhere in the period

Song 2:13 links it with scent ("the vines in blossom give forth fragrance"), which suits flowers better than fruit. The Septuagint translates κυπρισμός, "blossoming (of the vine)." An 8th-century BCE jar inscription from Hazor reads lpqḥ smdr, perhaps a kind of wine or vintage. How to read that inscription is disputed.

Where it appears

Song of Songs · 3

  1. Song of Songs 2:13 סְמָדַ֖ר blossom

    The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come away, my darling; come away with me, my beautiful one.”

  2. Song of Songs 2:15 סְמָדַֽר׃ [are] blossom

    Catch for us the foxes—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom.

  3. Song of Songs 7:12 הַסְּמָדַ֔ר the blossom

    Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love.

    Here: "The grape blossom." This rare word means the vine's fragrant flower cluster, or the tiny grape just forming from it. In 2:13 it gives off scent, which makes "blossom" the likelier meaning.

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