Hebrew word · H6176

עֲרוֹעֵר

ka'aro'er

juniper

A rare word. (1) A desert shrub or small tree. Botanists often identify it as a juniper, especially the Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea), which grows in the rocky country of Edom south-east of the Dead Sea. The root means 'to strip bare' (compare Isaiah 32:11 and Jeremiah 51:58).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) naked, stripped, destitute

2) tree or bush

2a) probably juniper or cypress

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 17:6

Range of meaning

A rare word. (1) A desert shrub or small tree. Botanists often identify it as a juniper, especially the Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea), which grows in the rocky country of Edom south-east of the Dead Sea. (2) As an adjective or noun, 'stripped, destitute': Psalm 102:17 speaks of 'the prayer of the destitute (ha-ʿarʿar)'. The root means 'to strip bare' (compare Isaiah 32:11 and Jeremiah 51:58). The related form ʿaroʿer appears in Jeremiah 48:6 ('be like ʿaroʿer in the wilderness') and is also a place name, Aroer.

Against the English

KJV 'heath'. BSB 'shrub'. NIV, NASB and WEB 'bush'. NLT 'stunted shrubs'. YLT 'naked thing', which follows the root meaning 'bare'. The English versions choose either the plant or the idea of destitution. The Hebrew carries both at once.

How it drifted

The KJV's 'heath' was an attempt to name a low wild plant. To modern readers it suggests heather or open moorland, the opposite of a salt desert.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek translation (LXX) has agriomyrikē, 'wild tamarisk', a desert shrub. The Latin Vulgate has myrica, also tamarisk. For Jeremiah 48:6 the LXX has 'wild donkey' instead, which probably reflects a different reading of the Hebrew letters. Psalm 102:17 shows the 'destitute' sense in poetry.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 17:6 כְּעַרְעָ֣ר like a bush

    He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

    Here: A scrubby desert plant. The root means 'to be stripped or bare', so Hebrew ears heard 'a bare, stripped thing'. The same word means 'the destitute' in Psalm 102:17.

  2. Jeremiah 48:6 כַּעֲרוֹעֵ֖ר like a juniper bush

    ‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’

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