Hebrew word · H8247

שָׁקֵד

shaked

almond

The almond tree or its nut (Gen 43:11; Eccl 12:5). It sounds like the verb shaqad, 'to be awake, keep watch' (Jer 1:11-12). The related term meshuqqadim, 'almond-shaped', describes the cups of the sanctuary lampstand (Exod 25:33-34; 37:19-20).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) almond tree, almonds

1a) almond (the nut)

1b) almond-tree

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 17:8

Range of meaning

The almond tree or its nut (Gen 43:11; Eccl 12:5). It sounds like the verb shaqad, 'to be awake, keep watch' (Jer 1:11-12). The related term meshuqqadim, 'almond-shaped', describes the cups of the sanctuary lampstand (Exod 25:33-34; 37:19-20).

Against the English

'Almonds' is accurate. What English cannot show is how the almond already belonged to the sanctuary's own imagery.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 1:11-12 plays on shaqed/shoqed ('almond'/'watching'). The lampstand that stood in the Holy Place had almond-blossom cups. In Israel the almond blooms first, around January-February, while other trees are still bare. Later Jewish interpretation (Rashi on this verse) explains the almond as the fastest fruit to ripen, a warning that challenging the priesthood brings swift consequences. That is a later reading, not the plain sense.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 12:5

Range of meaning

Shaqed is the almond tree. Its name is linked to the verb shaqad, 'to be wakeful, watch', because it 'wakes' first, blooming in late January–February. That wordplay is used in Jeremiah 1:11–12. Yanetz is most likely 'blossoms' (from n-ts-ts, cf. Song 6:11; 7:13), despite a spelling that suggests n-'-ts, 'spurn'.

Against the English

KJV 'flourish', BSB/ESV/NIV/WEB 'blossoms', YLT 'is despised' (following the spelling). NLT makes the white-hair reading explicit in the text.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has 'the almond blossoms' (anthēsē to amygdalon), and the Vulgate florebit amygdalum. In the Talmud (b. Shabbat 151b–152a) the almond is read as part of the aging body; later Jewish and Christian interpreters widely took it as white hair.

From the study of Jeremiah 1:11

Range of meaning

The almond tree (Amygdalus communis, today Prunus dulcis), its nuts or its wood. The noun is generally linked to the verb shaqad (H8245), 'to keep watch, be awake, be alert'. That gives the tree the sense of the 'wakeful tree' or 'the waker'. It earned the name by blooming in the Levant in late January or February, before its leaves come and before any other fruit tree stirs.

Against the English

Every English version has to say 'almond', and that is accurate. But in English 'almond' has no link to 'watching', so the pun at the center of vv. 11–12 disappears. God's reply in v. 12 ('you have seen well, for I am watching') then sounds like a jump in logic instead of the punch line it is.

How it drifted

Not drift in the sense that the meaning changed. It is loss in translation: the sound play cannot be carried into another language.

Used elsewhere in the period

Almonds appear in Genesis 43:11 as a choice product of Canaan. The cups of the tabernacle lampstand were shaped like almond blossoms (Exodus 25:33–34). Aaron's staff 'sprouted, budded, blossomed and bore almonds' (Numbers 17:8 [Heb. 17:23]). Ecclesiastes 12:5 uses the white almond blossom as a picture of old age. The verb shaqad means 'watch' in Jeremiah 5:6 (a leopard watching cities), 31:28 and 44:27 (God watching over Israel to harm or to build), Psalm 127:1 and Proverbs 8:34. Jeremiah 31:28 deliberately echoes 1:10–12.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 43:11 וּשְׁקֵדִֽים׃ and almonds

    Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

    Here: Almonds, an early-blooming tree of the hill country (compare Jer 1:11–12; Num 17:8). It closes the list with a second nut.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 17:8 שְׁקֵדִֽים׃ almonds

    The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.

    Here: Ripe almonds, the final stage. The almond is the first tree to bloom in Israel's late winter, and the sanctuary lampstand's cups were shaped like almond blossoms (Exod 25:33-34).

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:5 הַשָּׁקֵד֙ the almond tree

    when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

    Here: The first tree in Israel to bloom each year, in late winter, with blossoms that fade to white. Most readers since antiquity have taken it as a picture of white hair. Others read it as spring returning to nature while the human being does not get a spring.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 1:11 שָׁקֵ֖ד an almond tree

    And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied.

    Here: 'Of almond', meaning almond wood. It is the key to the verse. The name sounds almost exactly like *shoqed*, 'watching, wide awake', which God says in v. 12. The almond was known as the tree that wakes up first after winter.

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