Hebrew word · H8362
שָׁתַל
shetulah
to transplant
"Transplanted, planted (deliberately)." The verb shatal is used for setting a plant in a chosen place: vines and cedar shoots in Ezekiel 17:8, 10, 22–23 and 19:10, the righteous in Psalm 92:13 ("planted in the house of the LORD"), and the tree in Psalm 1:3.
Appears 10 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Qal) to plant, transplant
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 Jeremiah 17:8
- Range of meaning
"Transplanted, planted (deliberately)." The verb shatal is used for setting a plant in a chosen place: vines and cedar shoots in Ezekiel 17:8, 10, 22–23 and 19:10, the righteous in Psalm 92:13 ("planted in the house of the LORD"), and the tree in Psalm 1:3.
- Against the English
English "planted" is accurate but can sound like the tree just grew there. The Hebrew implies someone placed it there on purpose.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Rare in the Hebrew Bible, and almost always about cultivated plants placed by a gardener or by God (Ezek 17; Ps 1:3; 92:13; Hos 9:13).
- Range of meaning
Qal passive participle of shatal, 'to plant, transplant, set out' a sapling or vine. It is a rarer and more specific verb than the common nata' ('plant'). It is used for deliberately placing a living plant in a chosen spot: a vine 'transplanted' into good soil by abundant waters (Ezek 17:8, 10; 19:10, 13), the cedar sprig God plants on a high mountain (Ezek 17:22–23), the righteous 'planted in the house of the LORD' (Ps 92:13 [Heb 92:14]), and the man who trusts in the LORD, 'like a tree planted by water' (Jer 17:8).
- Against the English
Every major English version says 'planted', which is not wrong. But English 'planted' can mean sowing a seed or just 'standing in' a place. The Hebrew shows that someone carefully moved a young tree to the water. The tree did not choose its place or put itself there.
- How it drifted
Not a drift in meaning so much as a lost detail. English has no single everyday verb for 'transplanted on purpose by a gardener'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In every one of its uses, shatal has an agent (whoever does the planting) and a place picked for its water or good soil. The Septuagint renders it 'planted' (pephuteumenon). In the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope (ch. 4), the self-controlled man is like a tree growing in a tended garden, which flourishes and stands before its lord. The hot-tempered man is like a tree in the open, which loses its foliage and ends up as timber. This shows the 'cared-for tree' was a recognised wisdom image in the ancient Near East.
- Range of meaning
To plant or transplant, especially trees or vines set deliberately in a good place. It occurs about ten times, mostly in poetry, and the passive participle 'planted' is the common form.
- Against the English
English 'planted' is accurate. What it can hide is that the word is used for deliberate transplanting by a gardener: someone chose the spot.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Psalm 1:3 and Jeremiah 17:8 (a tree planted by water). Psalm 92:13 (planted in the house of YHWH). Ezekiel 17:8, 10; 19:10 (Israel or its royal house as a vine planted by abundant waters, later uprooted).
Where it appears
Psalms · 2
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Psalm 1:3 שָׁת֪וּל planted
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
Here: A passive form: 'having been planted.' The verb is used of setting out a young tree or vine in a chosen place, not of a seed sprouting by itself. Someone else put this tree where the water is.
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Psalm 92:13 שְׁ֭תוּלִים [they are] planted
Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Here: A passive form, 'ones who have been planted'. It describes the righteous of verse 12 (the palm and the cedar) as trees a gardener has deliberately set in place, and it likely carries the idea of being moved from somewhere else and replanted. The word comes first for emphasis: where they were planted explains why they flourish.
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 17:8 שָׁת֣וּל planted
He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.
Here: Means set in place on purpose, as a gardener moves a seedling to a chosen spot. This is not a tree that happened to sprout there. The same word appears in Psalm 1:3.
Ezekiel · 6
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Ezekiel 17:8 שְׁתוּלָ֑ה [was] planted
It had been planted in good soil by abundant waters in order to yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’
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Ezekiel 17:10 שְׁתוּלָ֖ה [it is] planted
Even if it is transplanted, will it flourish? Will it not completely wither when the east wind strikes? It will wither on the bed where it sprouted.’”
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Ezekiel 17:22 וְשָׁתַ֣לְתִּי and I will plant [it]
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take a shoot from the lofty top of the cedar, and I will set it out. I will pluck a tender sprig from its topmost shoots, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
Here: Setting a cutting or seedling into new ground so that it takes root. It is the opposite of the eagle carrying the twig off to 'a city of merchants' (v. 4).
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Ezekiel 17:23 אֶשְׁתֳּלֶ֔נּוּ I will plant it
I will plant it on the mountain heights of Israel so that it will bear branches; it will yield fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it, taking shelter in the shade of its branches.
Here: God himself is the subject and 'it' is the tender sprig of verse 22. The verb means to plant or set out a cutting. The same verb was used of the vine the Babylonian eagle planted (17:8, 10), so this time God does the planting himself.
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Ezekiel 19:10 שְׁתוּלָ֑ה planted
Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of the abundant waters.
Here: "Planted" in the sense of "transplanted": deliberately set in place, like a seedling moved to a chosen spot. The same word is used in Psalm 1:3 and Jeremiah 17:8 for the tree planted by water. Here it sets up the bitter reversal in v. 13: "and now she is planted in the wilderness."
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Ezekiel 19:13 שְׁתוּלָ֣ה [it is] planted
Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
Hosea · 1
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Hosea 9:13 שְׁתוּלָ֣ה [is] planted
I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
Here: Passive participle, feminine: 'planted'. It is used of trees deliberately set in good soil (Psalm 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8; Ezekiel 17:8, 10; 19:10). The feminine ending fits Tyre (cities are feminine in Hebrew) or a plant better than masculine 'Ephraim', and that matters for deciding what is planted.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.