Hebrew word · H8068

שָׁמִיר

shamir

thorn

Two words for thorny scrub, used as a pair. Neither can be matched to one plant with confidence. Likely candidates are the spiny shrubs that quickly cover abandoned land in the Judean hills, such as thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum) or Christ's-thorn (Paliurus).

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) thorn(s), adamant, flint

1a) thorns, thorn-bushes

1b) adamant (as sharp)

1c) a sharp stone, flint

1c1) perhaps a diamond

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 5:6

Range of meaning

Two words for thorny scrub, used as a pair. Neither can be matched to one plant with confidence. Likely candidates are the spiny shrubs that quickly cover abandoned land in the Judean hills, such as thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum) or Christ's-thorn (Paliurus). A different word shamir means "diamond, flint" (Jeremiah 17:1; Ezekiel 3:9).

Against the English

KJV "briers and thorns", BSB "thorns and briers". English versions put the two words in different orders and use different words, which is reasonable, since the Hebrew pair names a kind of growth rather than two species.

Used elsewhere in the period

The pair is unique to Isaiah: 5:6; 7:23, 24, 25; 9:18 (Heb. 9:17); 10:17; 27:4. It works almost as Isaiah's signature picture of a land under judgment, and of the people as fuel for fire (9:18; 10:17). Genesis 3:18 uses different words (qots vedardar) for the thorns of the curse on the ground.

From the study of Ezekiel 3:9

Range of meaning

There are two homonyms (identical words with unrelated meanings): (1) thorns or briers, usually paired with šayit, 'thistles' (Isa 5:6; 7:23–25); (2) an extremely hard stone used for engraving and cutting. Sense 2 appears in Jer 17:1 ('with an iron stylus, with a point of shamir'), Zech 7:12 ('they made their hearts shamir') and here. HALOT and most commentators identify the stone as emery or corundum. True diamond was not, as far as we know, worked in the ancient Near East.

Against the English

KJV 'adamant' (via the Vulgate's adamas, 'unconquerable [stone]'). BSB and WEB 'diamond.' ESV and NASB 'emery.' NIV 'the hardest stone.' All aim at the same idea, extreme hardness. 'Diamond' adds a modern picture of a precious, sparkling gem that the Hebrew does not carry.

How it drifted

Greek adamas first meant very hard metal or stone and only later came to mean diamond. Through Latin and early English translation, 'adamant' and then 'diamond' became the standard way to render shamir.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 17:1 uses it as an engraving point. Zech 7:12 uses it for hearts made hard against the Torah, the same kind of image used for Israel here. In later rabbinic tradition the shamir became a legendary creature or stone that could cut rock, which Solomon used to shape the Temple stones without iron tools (m. Avot 5:6; b. Gittin 68a–b; b. Sotah 48b). That legend grew out of the word's associations with hardness and cutting.

From the study of Isaiah 27:4

Range of meaning

Two words for thorny scrub and weeds, the plants that take over neglected farmland. As a pair they appear almost only in Isaiah: 5:6; 7:23, 24, 25; 9:18 [Heb 9:17]; 10:17; 27:4.

Against the English

Translations swap the order ('briers and thorns' / 'thorns and briers') and add an 'and' that the Hebrew leaves out. That is harmless, but it softens the abrupt 'thorn, thornbush!'

How it drifted

Modern readers tend to hear 'thorns' as a vague picture of hardship, or of an individual's personal 'thorn'. For Isaiah's hearers the pair was a signature image with a history: first the ruin of God's vineyard, then the fuel of judgment.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 5:6: the abandoned vineyard grows up in šāmîr wāšayit. Isaiah 10:17: 'the Light of Israel will become a fire… and it will burn and devour his [Assyria's] thornbush and thorn in one day.' Isaiah 9:18: wickedness 'burns like fire, it devours brier and thorn.' Compare Nahum 1:10 and 2 Samuel 23:6–7, where the wicked are thorns fit only for burning.

Similar words

Where it appears

Isaiah · 8

  1. Isaiah 5:6 שָׁמִ֖יר thorn[s]

    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: A collective noun for thorny scrub. It is the first half of a word pair that only Isaiah uses.

  2. Isaiah 7:23 לַשָּׁמִ֥יר <into> the thorn[s]

    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.

  3. Isaiah 7:24 שָׁמִ֥יר thorn[s]

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

  4. Isaiah 7:25 שָׁמִ֣יר thorn[s]

    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 שָׁמִ֥יר thorn[s]

    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: Thorny scrub, the dry undergrowth of the Judean and Ephraimite hills. Paired with shayit, it is Isaiah's stock image for land that has gone to waste (5:6; 7:23–25).

  6. Isaiah 10:17 וּשְׁמִיר֖וֹ and thorn[s] 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: Isaiah's stock partner for shayit: the briers that take over abandoned land. The pair is a set expression for useless, flammable growth. Elsewhere Isaiah usually puts shamir first; here the order is reversed.

  7. Isaiah 27:4 שָׁמִ֥יר thorn[s]

    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: Thorny scrub. Isaiah pairs this word with šayit again and again for land run wild under judgment, and for enemies who burn like dry brush.

  8. Isaiah 32:13 שָׁמִ֖יר thorn[s]

    and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

    Here: Isaiah's signature word for the scrub that takes over neglected vineyards (5:6; 7:23–25). Here it is set side by side with qôṣ and no 'and' between them, which piles the image up: thorn, brier.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 17:1 שָׁמִ֑יר flint

    “The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.

    Here: An extremely hard stone used for cutting, harder than flint (Ezek 3:9). It was probably emery or corundum, not a cut gem. The point is that it cuts and nothing cuts it.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 3:9 כְּשָׁמִ֛יר like diamond

    I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

    Here: 'Like shamir.' Here this is not the homonym meaning 'thorn' (the supplied lemma gloss). It is the hard stone used for engraving points (Jer 17:1), probably emery or corundum. It comes first in the sentence for emphasis: the hardness is the point.

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 7:12 שָׁמִ֗יר flint

    They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

    Here: Here the very hard stone used to cut and engrave other stones, which Ezekiel 3:9 calls 'harder than flint.' A heart made of it cannot be marked: nothing God says leaves an impression. The same Hebrew spelling also means 'thorn-bush' elsewhere, which is the gloss the data gives, but that sense does not fit here.

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