Hebrew word · H8299

שָׂרִיג

sarigim

tendril

"Tendril, shoot, twig" of a vine: the long canes that grow from the main stock and carry the grape clusters. It occurs only three times: Gen 40:10, 40:12 and Joel 1:7 (where locusts strip the vine and leave its sarigim white).

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

tendril, twig, branch

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 Genesis 40:12

Range of meaning

"Tendril, shoot, twig" of a vine: the long canes that grow from the main stock and carry the grape clusters. It occurs only three times: Gen 40:10, 40:12 and Joel 1:7 (where locusts strip the vine and leave its sarigim white).

Against the English

"Branches" (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV etc.) is acceptable but can call up tree limbs. The Hebrew picture is a grapevine's canes, which bud, flower and set fruit within one season.

Used elsewhere in the period

Joel 1:7 places it among vine vocabulary. The Septuagint of Genesis 40 appears to render it pythmenes ("stems, stocks"), and the Vulgate propagines ("shoots, layers"). HALOT and BDB both define it as vine-tendril or shoot.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 40:10 שָׂרִיגִ֑ם branches

    and on the vine were three branches. As it budded, its blossoms opened and its clusters ripened into grapes.

  2. Genesis 40:12 הַשָּׂ֣רִגִ֔ים the branches

    Joseph replied, “This is the interpretation: The three branches are three days.

    Here: The three shoots of the vine in the dream (v. 10), which budded, blossomed and ripened into grapes almost at once. These are vine canes, not tree branches.

Joel · 1

  1. Joel 1:7 שָׂרִיגֶֽיהָ׃ branches its

    It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

    Here: 'Her branches / shoots.' Elsewhere this word is used only for vine branches (the three branches in the cupbearer's dream, Gen 40:10, 12). 'Her' could therefore point to the fig tree or to the vine. The final picture probably takes in both plants.

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