Hebrew word · H7730

שׂוֹבֶךְ

soekh

thicket

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons connect it with səvakh/sovekh, 'thicket, tangle of branches' (Gen 22:13; Isa 9:18; 10:34; Ps 74:5). It is spelled here with the letter śin instead of samekh, a spelling variant of the same root s-b-k, 'to interweave, entangle'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

network (of boughs)

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 Samuel 18:9

Range of meaning

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons connect it with səvakh/sovekh, 'thicket, tangle of branches' (Gen 22:13; Isa 9:18; 10:34; Ps 74:5). It is spelled here with the letter śin instead of samekh, a spelling variant of the same root s-b-k, 'to interweave, entangle'. Meaning: the thick, interlaced lower limbs of a tree.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'thick boughs', BSB 'thick branches', YLT 'an entangled bough'. YLT best preserves the idea of entanglement, which is the point of the scene.

Used elsewhere in the period

BDB s.v. שׂוֹבֶךְ, 'network of boughs'; HALOT, 'tangle of branches'. The Septuagint translates with a word for dense foliage or thicket. The same root appears in Gen 22:13, where a ram is 'caught in the thicket (səvakh) by its horns'.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 18:9 שׂוֹבֶךְ֩ [the] branche[s] of

    Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.

    Here: A word found only here in the Bible. It is related to səvakh / sovekh, 'thicket', and means the dense, interlaced lower boughs of a big tree. These are the kind of branches that snag a rider.

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