Hebrew word · H7898

שַׁ֫יִת

shayit

thornbush

Thornbush and brier, scrub that takes over neglected or ruined land. Shayit is used only in Isaiah. Shamir also means a very hard stone ('flint, diamond', Jer 17:1; Ezek 3:9), but here it is the plant.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thorn bushes

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 Isaiah 10:17

Range of meaning

Thornbush and brier, scrub that takes over neglected or ruined land. Shayit is used only in Isaiah. Shamir also means a very hard stone ('flint, diamond', Jer 17:1; Ezek 3:9), but here it is the plant.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'thorns and briers', BSB 'thorns and thistles'. The exact plants cannot be identified, and any thorny-scrub word in English works. BSB adds 'Assyria's' to make clear whose thorns they are.

Used elsewhere in the period

It is Isaiah's fixed pair: the ruined vineyard grows up in 'briers and thorns' (5:6); the land after invasion becomes 'briers and thorns' (7:23-25); 'wickedness burns like fire, it devours briers and thorns' (9:18 Eng / 9:17 Heb); 'if only there were briers and thorns... I would burn them up together' (27:4). Everywhere else shamir comes first; here the order is reversed.

From the study of Isaiah 7:23

Range of meaning

"Thornbush," "thorny scrub." Found only in Isaiah, and always alongside shamir. The species cannot be identified.

Against the English

English "thorns" is adequate. Because the word belongs to Isaiah alone, its echo across the book is lost when versions use different English words for the same pair in different places.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 5:6; 7:23, 24, 25; 9:18; 10:17; 27:4. It does not appear in any other biblical book.

Similar words

Where it appears

Isaiah · 7

  1. Isaiah 5:6 וָשָׁ֑יִת and bush[es]

    I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

    Here: The second half of the pair. Together, shamir vashayit means "every kind of thorny growth". Its sound echoes ashitehu ("I will set it") at the start of the verse.

  2. Isaiah 7:23 וְלַשַּׁ֖יִת and <into> the> bush[es]

    And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.

    Here: The second half of the pair. Shayit occurs only in Isaiah. Together the two words mean thick, useless, thorny scrub.

  3. Isaiah 7:24 וָשַׁ֖יִת and bush[es]

    Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.

    Here: A second word for thorny scrub. It appears only in Isaiah and nearly always paired with shāmîr. The pair works as a single stock phrase meaning "thorny wasteland".

  4. Isaiah 7:25 וָשָׁ֑יִת and bush[es]

    For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

  5. Isaiah 9:18 וָשַׁ֖יִת and bush[es]

    For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

    Here: 'And thornbush.' A word found only in Isaiah, always alongside shamir. Together the pair means 'all the brush,' and the fire starts in it.

  6. Isaiah 10:17 שִׁית֥וֹ bush[es] his

    And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

    Here: 'His' now means the king of Assyria (v.12) and his empire. This scrub word is used only by Isaiah. It is a picture of the mass of Assyrian troops or people: dry, worthless brush that burns fast.

  7. Isaiah 27:4 שַׁ֙יִת֙ bush[es]

    I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.

    Here: The second half of Isaiah's own pair. There is no 'and' between the two words, which gives the line an abrupt, staccato feel: 'thorn, thornbush!'

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