Hebrew word · H7754
שׂוֹךְ
sokhat
branch
Branch or bough, apparently a leafy, cut branch. It occurs only in this episode: sokhat 'etsim, 'a bough of trees' (v.48), and sokho, 'his bough' (v.49). It is related to other Hebrew words for thick branches and thicket.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
branch, brushwood, bough
Also means: so.khah (שׂוֹכָה "branch" H7754B)
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
- Range of meaning
Branch or bough, apparently a leafy, cut branch. It occurs only in this episode: sokhat 'etsim, 'a bough of trees' (v.48), and sokho, 'his bough' (v.49). It is related to other Hebrew words for thick branches and thicket.
- Against the English
'Bough' (KJV, WEB, YLT) and 'branch' (BSB) are both accurate. The point is that each man carries a load he can shoulder, not a whole tree.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Related words for branches and thicket appear elsewhere, for example in Isaiah 17:6.
Where it appears
Judges · 2
-
Judges 9:48 שׂוֹכַ֣ת a branch of
he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”
-
Judges 9:49 שׂוֹכֹ֗ה own branch his
So each man also cut his own branch and followed Abimelech. Then they piled the branches against the inner chamber and set it on fire above them, killing everyone in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women.
Here: 'His bough': a leafy branch big enough to carry on the shoulder (v.48). The word is very rare, found only here and in the feminine form in v.48.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.