Hebrew word · H8560

תֹּ֫מֶר

tomer

palm

In Judges 4:5 it is a palm tree ('the palm of Deborah'). It is related to tamar, the usual word for 'palm', and timorah, a palm-shaped ornament. The shared idea is something tall, straight and upright.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

palm tree, post, column

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 10:5

Range of meaning

In Judges 4:5 it is a palm tree ('the palm of Deborah'). It is related to tamar, the usual word for 'palm', and timorah, a palm-shaped ornament. The shared idea is something tall, straight and upright. In Jeremiah 10:5 most lexicons, HALOT among them, list a separate sense: 'post, scarecrow', the upright stake set up in a field.

Against the English

KJV 'upright as the palm tree', WEB 'like a palm tree' and YLT 'as a palm' keep the usual meaning, 'palm'. BSB, NIV, ESV, NASB and NLT render it 'scarecrow'. The palm-tree reading makes the comparison flattering, tall and stately. The scarecrow reading makes it mocking.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch 6:70, probably 4th–2nd century BC) clearly reworks this verse: 'Like a scarecrow in a cucumber bed, which guards nothing, so are their gods of wood, overlaid with gold and silver.' So 'scarecrow' is an ancient Jewish reading, not a modern guess. The Latin Vulgate went the other way: 'made in the likeness of a palm'.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 4:5 תֹּ֜מֶר [the] palm tree of

    And she would sit under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, where the Israelites would go up to her for judgment.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 10:5 כְּתֹ֨מֶר [are] like a scarecrow of

    Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

    Here: 'Like' plus tomer, which elsewhere means a palm tree (Judges 4:5). Here it is the stiff upright post set in a field, that is, a scarecrow. The idol is pictured as a dressed-up stick standing still.

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