Hebrew word · H7753

שׂוּךְ

sakhta

to hedge

To hedge, fence or wall in, especially with a barrier of brush or thorns. It is closely related to (and often treated alongside) סָכַךְ sākak, 'to screen, cover, shut in.' Depending on whose side you are on, the barrier can be protective (keeping danger out) or confining (keeping someone in).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

1) to hedge or fence up or about

1a) (Qal) to fence about, hedge up

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 Job 1:10

Range of meaning: To hedge, fence or wall in, especially with a barrier of brush or thorns. It is closely related to (and often treated alongside) סָכַךְ sākak, 'to screen, cover, shut in.' Depending on whose side you are on, the barrier can be protective (keeping danger out) or confining (keeping someone in).
Against the English: KJV, BSB, WEB and most modern versions say 'hedge,' which is accurate if you picture a field fence of thorny brush. NLT's 'wall of protection' makes the protective sense explicit but loses the rural fencing picture. In modern English a 'hedge' is usually a trimmed row of garden shrubs, which is far too decorative.
How it drifted: In 1611 'hedge' meant a working fence of bushes and thorns around fields and pasture. Since then the word has moved toward ornamental gardening, and devotional language has turned it into a fixed phrase, 'hedge of protection.'
Used elsewhere in the period: Hos 2:6 (Heb 2:8) uses the same root: 'I will hedge up her way with thorns,' a thorn barrier that blocks a path. Job 3:23 uses the related verb sākak with the same preposition baʿad: 'a man whom God has hedged in' (וַיָּסֶךְ אֱלוֹהַּ בַּעֲדוֹ). Lam 3:7 has the same idea with a different verb (gādar, 'he has walled me about'). The Vulgate renders the verb as vallasti, 'you have fortified with a rampart.'

Where it appears

Job · 1

Job 1:10 שַׂ֣כְתָּ have you put a hedge

Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Here: 'You have fenced.' The picture is a protective barrier, probably the thorn-brush fencing used around flocks and fields. The Hebrew past tense here describes a protection that is already in place and still standing.

Hosea · 1

Hosea 2:6 שָׂ֥ךְ [am] about to fence up

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.

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