Hebrew word · H93

אֱגוֹז

'egoyz

nut

The walnut tree or walnut (Juglans regia). This is the only place the word occurs in the Bible. Related words in Aramaic and Syriac (gōzā), Arabic (jawz) and Persian (gōz) all mean walnut.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

nuts

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 Song of Songs 6:11

Range of meaning

The walnut tree or walnut (Juglans regia). This is the only place the word occurs in the Bible. Related words in Aramaic and Syriac (gōzā), Arabic (jawz) and Persian (gōz) all mean walnut.

Against the English

KJV "garden of nuts" and NIV-type "nut trees" keep it general. BSB and NLT, which say "walnut," match the lexicons and the evidence from related languages.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Jewish writings (Mishnah, Talmud) use ʾegoz for the walnut. Josephus (Jewish War 3.517) praises the walnut trees growing by the Sea of Galilee as trees that need cooler air. The word may have entered Hebrew from Persian or may simply be a word that travelled widely. Some scholars use it, together with pardes ("orchard," 4:13), as evidence that the Song was put in its final form late, but the evidence is not conclusive.

Where it appears

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 6:11 אֱגוֹז֙ nut[s]

    I went down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom.

    Here: The walnut, Juglans regia. This is the only place the word appears in the Hebrew Bible. Used without "the" or a plural ending, it names the kind of garden: a walnut garden.

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