Forest

VIEW:44 DATA:01-04-2020

FOREST.—1. ya‘ar (root meaning a ‘rugged’ place), Deu_19:5, 2Ki_2:24, Jer_46:23, Mic_3:12 etc. 2. horesh, 2Ch_27:4 etc.; tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘wood,’ 1Sa_23:15 (perhaps a proper name). 3. pardçs, Neh_2:3 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘king’s forest,’ RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘park’; also tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘orchards,’ Son_4:13, Ecc_2:5, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘parks.’ From the many references it is clear that Palestine had more extensive forests in ancient times than to-day,—indeed, within living memory there has been a vast destruction of trees for fuel. Considerable patches of woodland still exist, e.g. on Tabor and Carmel, in parts of N. Galilee, around Banias, and specially in Gilead between es-Salt and the Jabbok.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Palestine was more wooded very anciently than afterward; the celebrated oaks and terebinths here and there were perhaps relics of a primeval forest on the highlands. But in the Bible the woods appear in the valleys and defiles leading from the highlands to the lowlands, so they were not extensive. "The wood of Ephraim" clothed the sides of the hills which descend to the plain of Jezreel and the plain itself near Bethshah (Jos_17:15-18), and extended once to Tabor which still has many forest trees. That "of Bethel" lay in the ravine going down to the plain of Jericho. That "of Hareth" on the border of the Philistine plain in the S. of Judah (1Sa_22:5). That "of Kirjath Jearim" (1Sa_8:2; Psa_132:6), meaning" town of the woods", on the confines of Judah and Benjamin; "the fields of the wood" from which David brought up the ark to Zion mean this forest town.
That "of Ziph-wilderness," where David hid, S.E. of Hebron (1Sa_23:15, etc.). Ephraim wood, a portion of the region E. of Jordan near Mahanaim, where the battle with Absalom took place (2Sa_18:6; 2Sa_18:23), on the high lands, a little way from the valley of the Jordan. (See EPHRAIM WOOD.) "The house of the forest of Lebanon" (1Ki_7:2) was so-called as being fitted up with cedar, and probably with forest-like rows of cedar pillars. "Forest" often symbolizes pride doomed to destruction; (Isa_10:18; Isa_32:19) the Assyrian host dense and lifted up as the trees of the forest; (Isa_37:24) "the forest of his Carmel," i.e., its most luxuriant forest, image for their proud army.
Forest also symbolizes unfruitfulness as opposed to cultivated lands (Isa_29:17; Isa_32:15). Besides ya'ar, implying "abundance of trees", there is another Hebrew term, choresh from a root "to cut down," implying a wood diminished by cutting (1Sa_23:15; 2Ch_27:4). In Isa_17:9 for "bough" translated "his strong cities shall be as the leavings of woods," what the axeman leaves when he cuts down the grove (Isa_17:6). In Eze_31:3, "with a shadowing shroud," explain with an overshadowing thicket. A third term is pardeec, related to "paradise" (Neh_2:8), "forest") a park, a plantation under a "keeper." The Persian kings preserved the forests throughout the empire with care, having wardens of the several forests, without whose sanction no tree could be felled.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Forest. Although Palestine has never been in historical times, a woodland country, yet there can be no doubt that there was much more wood, formerly, than there is at present, and that the destruction of the forests was one of the chief causes of the present desolation.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

for?est:
(1) חרשׁ, ḥōresh (compare proper name Harosheth), 2Ch_27:4. In 1Sa_23:15 translated ?wood?; in Isa_17:9, ?wood?; in Eze_31:3, ?forest-like shade.? Applied to any thick growth of vegetation but not necessarily so extensive as (3).
(2) פרדּס, pardēṣ̌: Neh_2:8, margin ?park?; Ecc_2:5, the King James Version ?orchards,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?parks?; Son_4:13, English Versions of the Bible ?orchard,? the Revised Version, margin ?paradise.? A word of Persian origin signifying probably an enclosure. See PARADISE.
(3) יער, ya‛ar from root meaning ?rugged?; compare Arabic wa‛ar, ?a rugged, stony region.? It is sometimes rendered ?forest? and sometimes (but less often in the Revised Version (British and American)) ?wood.? It is used of certain definite wooded tracts: ?the forest in Arabia? (Isa_21:13, margin ?thickets?); ?the forest of Carmel? (2Ki_19:23 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) ?of his fruitful field?); ?the forest of Hereth? (1Sa_22:5); ?the forest of Lebanon? (1Ki_7:2 f; 1Ki_10:17-21; 2Ch_9:16-20); ?the forest of Ephraim,? east of the Jordan (2Sa_18:6, 2Sa_18:8, 2Sa_18:17). The word ya‛ar appears also in well-known Kiriath-jearim, ?the city of forests,? and Mr. Jearim (Jos_15:10). Among numerous other references the following may be cited: Deu_19:5; Jos_17:15, Jos_17:18; 1Ch_16:33; 2Ki_2:24; Psa_80:13; Psa_83:14; Psa_96:12; Psa_132:6; Ecc_2:6; Son_2:3; 1Sa_7:2; 1Sa_14:25, 1Sa_14:26; Jer_4:29; Jer_46:23; Eze_34:29; Mic_3:12; Mic_7:14.
(4) סבך, ṣebhakh, from root meaning ?to interweave.? A ?thicket? (Gen_22:13; Jer_4:7); ?thicket of trees? (Psa_74:5); ?thickets of the forest? (Isa_9:18; Isa_10:34).
(5) עבים, ‛ābhı̄m, ?thicket? (Jer_4:29).
From many references it is evident that Palestine had in Old Testament times much more extensive forests and woodlands than today. For a discussion of the subject see BOTANY.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Tracts of wood-land are mentioned by travelers in Palestine, but rarely what we should call a forest. The word translated by 'forest' does not necessarily mean more than 'wood-land.' There are, however, abundant intimations in Scripture that the country was in ancient times much more wooded than at present, and in parts densely so. The localities more particularly mentioned as woods or forests are?
1. The forest of cedars on Mount Lebanon (1Ki_7:2; 2Ki_19:23; Hos_14:5-6), which must have been much more extensive formerly than at present.
The name of 'House of the Forest of Lebanon'is given in Scripture (1Ki_7:2; 1Ki_10:27) to a palace which was built by Solomon in, or not far from, Jerusalem, and which is supposed to have been so called on account of the quantity of cedar-trees employed in its construction; or, perhaps, because the numerous pillars of cedar-wood suggested the idea of a forest of cedar-trees.
2. The forest of oaks, on the mountains of Bashan. The trees of this region have been already noticed under Bashan.
3. The forest or wood of Ephraim, already noticed under Ephraim, 4.
4. The forest of Hareth, in the south of Judah, to which David withdrew to avoid the fury of Saul (1Sa_22:5). The precise situation is unknown.
Forest is used symbolically to denote a city, kingdom, polity, or the like (Eze_15:2; Eze_15:6). Devoted kingdoms are also represented under the image of a forest, which God threatens to burn or cut down. See Isa_10:17-19; Isa_10:34, where the briers and thorns denote the common people; 'the glory of the forest' are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See also Isa_32:19; Isa_37:24; Jer_21:14; Jer_22:7; Jer_46:23; Zec_11:2.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Isa_32:15 (a) This type is used to describe the abundant blessing that accompanies the unhindered ministry of the Holy Spirit. When He is recognized, is present and is working in power, then there is an abundance of life, hearts are enriched, souls are saved, and Christians become fruitful.

Isa_44:23 (b) This is a picture of the rich blessing that the earth will enjoy when the Lord JESUS CHRIST returns to earth to reign on the throne of David. (See Psa_29:9).

Jer_5:6 (c) The forest is probably a type of the great group of nations of the world, out of which would come a conqueror. (See also Eze_15:6).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Forest
is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of three distinct Heb. words. SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.
1. Usually and most properly יִעִר, ya'ar, or יִעֲרָה, yaa'rah (once rendered; “wood,” Deu_19:5), signifying a dense woods from its redundancy or luxuriance, such as is seen in the growth of forest-trees, and in use restricted (with the exception of 1Sa_14:26, and Son_5:1, in which it refers to honey) to an abundance of trees. It is the name given to all the great primeval forests of Syria, where the stately trees grew (Ecc_2:6; Isa_44:14), and where the wild beasts had their homes (Jer_5:6; Mic_5:8). Hosea (Hos_2:12) appears to use it as equivalent to the Arabic ya'ur, a rugged and desolate place, like midbar or “wilderness.” SEE WOOD.
2. חֹרֶשׁ, cho'resh, is apparently derived from a Chaldee root, חֲרִשׁ, to be entangled, and would therefore signify a thicket of trees or bushes, such as might afford a safe hiding-place (comp. 1Sa_23:15), and such as is now often seen in Palestine on the sites of ruined cities (comp. Isa_17:9). It applies to woods of less extent, the word itself, according to others, involving, the idea of what is cut down (from חָרִשׁ, Gesen. Thes. page 530): it is only twice (1Sa_23:15 sq.; 2Ch_27:4) applied to woods properly so called; its sense, however, is illustrated in the other passages in which it occurs, viz. Isa_17:9 (A.V. “bough”), where the comparison is to the solitary relic of an ancient forest, and Eze_31:3, where it applies to trees or foliage sufficient to afford shelter (Vulg. frondibus nemorosus; A.V. “with a shadowing shroud”). The term occurs seven times in Scripture, but is only once rendered forest” In the forests (Sept. ἐν τοῖς δρυμοῖς) he built castles and towers” (2Ch_27:4). The locality here referred to appears to be the south of Judah, where the mountains were formerly, and are in places still, clothed with dwarf oaks and tangled shrubberies. SEE THICKET.
3. פִּרְדֵּס, pardes', a word of foreign origin, like the Greek παράδεισος, and the Arabic pardasun, q.d. park, means an enclosed garden or plantation attached to a palace, intended either for ornament or for containing animals of the chase (Ecc_2:5; Son_4:13; comp. Xenophon, Cyrop. 1:3, 12). It is found only three times in the Bible, and is once translated forest. In Neh_2:8, Asaph is called “the keeper of the king's forest” (Sept. τοῦ παραδείσου), where it appropriately expresses the care with which the forests of Palestine were preserved under the Persian rule, a regular warden being appointed, without whose sanction no tree could be felled. Elsewhere the word describes an orchard (Ecc_2:5; Son_4:13). SEE ORCHARD.
Although Palestine has never, in historical times, been a woodland country, yet there can be no doubt that it contained much more wood formerly than it has at present. Tracts of woodland are mentioned by travelers in Palestine, but rarely what we should call a forest. There are still some remnants of ancient oak forests on the mountains of Bashan, Gilead, Hermon, and Galilee. One solitary grove of cedars exists on Lebanon, but fir-trees are there abundant. The other forests of Palestine (2Ki_2:23; 1Sa_14:25; 1Sa_7:2, etc.) have almost disappeared. Yet here and there, in every district of the country, north and south, east and west, one meets with a solitary oak or terebinth of huge dimensions, as at Hebron, and the valley of Elah, and Shiloh, and Daniel These are the last trees of the forests, and serve to indicate what the forests of Palestine once were. Hence it is probable that the highlands were once covered with a primeval forest, of which the celebrated oaks and terebinths (e.g. those of Abraham, Tabor, etc.) scattered here and there were the relics. The woods and forests mentioned in the Bible appear to have been situated where they are usually found in cultivated countries, in the valleys and defiles that lead down from the high to the low lands, and in the adjacent plains. They were therefore of no great size, and correspond rather with the idea of the Latin saltus than with our forest. The following are those that occur in Scripture. SEE TREE.
(1.) The most extensive was the forest (yaar, “wood”) of Ephraim, implying a region of Ephraim covered with forests where Mount Jearim (Hill of Forests) was situated (Jos_15:10); or in allusion to the name of the city Kirjath-jearim (1Sa_7:1-2). It clothed the slopes of the hills that bordered the plain of Jezreel, and the plain itself in the neighborhood of Bethshan (Jos_17:15 sq.), extending, perhaps, at one time to Tabor, which is translated δρυμός by Theodotion (Hos_5:1), and which is still well covered with forest-trees (Stanley, p. 350). It is, perhaps, the same with the wood of Ephratah (Psa_132:6). SEE EPHRATAH.
(2.) There was a trans-Jordanic forest (yaar, “wood”) of Ephraim (2Sa_18:6; Sept. δρυμός). It was here that the army of Absalom was defeated, and he himself slain. It lay near, probably a little to the west of, the town of Mahanaim, where David had his headquarters, and where he received the first tidings of the fate of his son (17:26; 18:24). Why a forest east of the Jordan should bear the name Ephraim cannot now be determined; but one thing is certain — in the noble oaks which still clothe the hills of Gilead north of the Jabbok we see the remnants of “the wood of Ephraim,” and the representative of that “great oak” in one of whose branches Absalom was strangely imprisoned (18:9; see Porter's Handbook for Syria and Palestine, pages 311, 314). Winer places it on the west side of the Jordan; but a comparison of 2Sa_17:26; 2Sa_18:3; 2Sa_18:23, proves the reverse. The statement in 18:23, in particular, marks its position as on the highlands, at some little distance from the valley of the Jordan (comp. Joseph. Ant. 7:10, 12). SEE EPHRAIM, WOOD OF.
(3.) The forest (yaar, Sept. πόλις, A.V. “forest”) of Hareth, in the mountains of Judah, to which David withdrew to avoid the fury of Saul (1Sa_22:5), was somewhere on the border of the Philistine plain, in the southern part of Judah. SEE HARETH.
(4.) The wood (choresh, Sept. ὄρος, A.V. “wood”) in the wilderness of Ziph, in which David concealed himself (1Sa_23:15 sq.), lay south- east of Hebron. SEE ZIPH.
(5.) The forest (yaar, Sept. δρυμός, A.V. “wood”) of Bethel (2Ki_2:23-24) was situated in the ravine which descends to the plain of Jericho. — SEE BETHEL. —
(6.) The forest (yaar, δρυμός, “wood”) through which the Israelites passed in their pursuit of the Philistines (1Sa_14:25) was probably near Aijalon (1 Samuel 5:31), in one of the valleys leading down to the plain of Philistia. SEE SAUL.
(7.) The woods (choresh, δρυμός, “forest”) in which Jotham placed his forts (2Ch_27:4) must have been similarly situated. SEE JOTHAM.
(8.) The plain of Sharon was partly covered with wood (Strab. 17:758), whence the Sept. gives δρυμοί as an equivalent for that name in Isa_65:10. It has still a fair amount of wood (Stanley, page 260). SEE SHARON.
(9.) The excellency or pride of the Jordan, so called from its green and shady banks, clothed with willows, tamarisks, and cane, in which lions made their covert (Zec_11:3; Jer_12:5). SEE JORDAN.
(10.) The forest (yaar) of cedars on Mount Lebanon (2Ki_19:23; Hos_14:5-6), which must have been much more extensive formerly than at present; although, on the assumption that the “cedar” of Scripture is the Pinus cedrus, or so-called “ cedar of Lebanon,” its growth is by no means confined, among those mountains, to the famous clump of ancient trees which has alone engaged the attention of travelers. SEE CEDAR. The American missionaries and others, travalling by unfrequented routes, have found woods of less ancient cedar-trees in other places. SEE LEBANON,
1. “The house of the forest (yaar) of Lebanon” is several times mentioned. It appears to have been a part of the royal palace built by Solomon at Jerusalem, and used as an armory (1Ki_7:2 sq.; 2Ki_10:17-21; 2Ch_9:16-20). The house had “four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars, and it was covered with ceda, above upon thee beams.” Hence, in all probability, its name (see Keil, ad loc.). SEE SOLOMON.
“The forest (yaar, δρυμός) of Carmel' is a phrase used is 2Ki_19:23, and Isa_37:24, in reference to the ravages committed by the army of Sennacherib on the land of Israel. The meaning of the clause, יִעִר כִּרְמַלוֹ(“forest of his Carmel”), seems to be its garden forest; that is,' the garden-like cedar forests of Lebanon, to which reference is made (see Keil on Kings, and Alexander on Isaiah, ad loc.).
(11.) The forest (yaar) in Arabia” occurs in Isa_21:13. The phrase is remarkable, because Arabia is a country singularly destitute of trees. In no part of it are there any, traces of forests.' (The Sept. translates the passage ἐν τῷ δρυμῷ ἑσπὲρας; and Lowth and others adopt. it; but the Masoretic reading is preferable.) The meaning of the word יִעִר in this place is probably the same as that of the Arabic yaur, a rugged region, whether wooded or not. SEE ARABIA.
(12.) In Zec_11:2 there is a singular expression “Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down.” The Hebrew יִעִר הִבֵּצַוֹר (Sept. ὁ δρυμὸς ὁ σύμφυτος) rather signifies “the fortified forest” (Vulg. saltus munitus), and it is probable that Jerusalem is thus figuratively alluded to, the houses of which are close together as the trees of a forest (compare Mic_3:12; see Henderson, Of the Minor Prophets, ad loc.). It may, however, refer to the devastation of that region, for the greater portion of Peaea was, and still is, covered with forests of oak and terebinth (Isa_2:13,; Eze_27:6; comp. Buckingham's Palestine, page 103 sq., 240 sq.; Stanley, p. 324). SEE BASHAN.
Forest is used symbolically to denote a city, kingdom, polity, or the like (Ezekiel 14:26). Devoted kingdoms are also represented under the image of a forest, which God threatens to burn or cut down. (See Isa_10:17-19; Isa_10:34, where the briers and thorns denote the common people; “the glory of the forest” are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See also Isa_32:19; Isa_37:24; Jer_21:14; Jer_22:7; Jer_46:23; Zec_11:2.) It was also an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a cultivated field or vineyard (Isa_29:17; Isa_32:15; Jer_26:18; Hos_2:12). SEE PALESTINE.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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