Hebrew word · H7899

שֵׂךְ

lesikim

thorn

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "thorn, prick, splinter" and connect it to the root skk, "to screen, hedge": thorn bushes were used as hedges. The meaning comes from its pairing with tsenin ("thorn") and from the ancient versions.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thorn

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 33:55

Range of meaning

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "thorn, prick, splinter" and connect it to the root skk, "to screen, hedge": thorn bushes were used as hedges. The meaning comes from its pairing with tsenin ("thorn") and from the ancient versions.

Against the English

KJV/WEB "pricks", BSB/NIV/ESV "barbs". All capture something sharp. "Barbs" adds the idea of a hook that is hard to pull out, which suits the image but goes slightly beyond what we know of the word.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (Greek translation) renders it skolopes, "stakes, splinters, thorns". This is the same word Paul uses for his "thorn in the flesh" in 2 Cor 12:7, which may echo this verse's Greek, though the link is uncertain. Ezekiel 28:24 uses a similar picture with different words ("a pricking brier and a painful thorn") for hostile neighbours who will no longer trouble Israel.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 33:55 לְשִׂכִּים֙ <into> thorns

    But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.

    Here: With "to be", the preposition le means "become" or "serve as". The noun occurs only here in the Bible; from its pairing with "thorns" it means something sharp and piercing. Here it is lodged in the eye.

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