Hebrew word · H7180
קִשֻּׁאָה
hakishu'im
cucumber
A cucumber-like gourd. It occurs only here, though the related miqshāh, 'cucumber field,' appears in Isa 1:8 (a hut in a cucumber field). Jer 10:5 mentions 'a scarecrow in a cucumber field.'
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
cucumber
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 Numbers 11:5
- Range of meaning
A cucumber-like gourd. It occurs only here, though the related miqshāh, 'cucumber field,' appears in Isa 1:8 (a hut in a cucumber field). Jer 10:5 mentions 'a scarecrow in a cucumber field.'
- Against the English
Translated "cucumbers" everywhere. The modern salad cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is an Asian plant that some botanists think did not reach the Mediterranean until later. The ancient Near Eastern 'cucumber' was most likely the snake melon or chate melon (Cucumis melo varieties), long, ribbed and eaten unripe.
- How it drifted
European translators gave the ancient gourd the name of the cucumber they knew. The botany behind the name was not studied until modern times.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Septuagint σικύας, Vulgate cucumeres; compare Akkadian qiššû and Arabic qiththāʾ (still used for snake melon). Paris, Daunay and Janick (Annals of Botany, 2012) argue from ancient texts and images that the 'cucumber' of antiquity in this region was the snake melon.
Where it appears
Numbers · 1
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Numbers 11:5 הַקִּשֻּׁאִ֗ים the cucumbers
We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
Here: "The cucumbers." Most likely the long, thin, cucumber-like snake melon or chate melon grown along the Nile, eaten unripe and crisp. Cool and full of water, which matters given the 'dried-up' throat in v.6.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.