Sycamore

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Luk_19:4. Often planted by the wayside for shade. Tristram ("Land of Israel") found an old sycamore at the broken aqueduct of Herod's Jericho. The fig mulberry or sycamore fig (Amo_7:14). (See SYCAMINE.) The size of a walnut tree; the leaves heart shaped, downy underneath and fragrant; the fruit growing in clusters on little sprigs from the trunk. Amos was a gatherer employed about sycamore fruit (Hebrew); but Septuagint makes him a "puncturer (knizon) of sycamore fruit." Pliny says they made an incision in the fruit when of a certain size, and on the fourth day it ripened. The KJV is compatible with the Hebrew. If not gathered, it spoils by gnats. It is inferior to the fig. The tree is always green, and bears fruit often throughout the year, so that it is of much value to the poor. The wood, though porous, is durable, and suffers neither from moisture nor heat; Egyptian mummy coffins of it are sound after entombment for thousands of years. The destruction of sycamore trees by hailstones was among Egypt's heavy losses (margin Psa_78:47). David had an overseer over his sycamore trees (1Ch_26:28; compare also 1Ki_10:27).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Sycamore. (Hebrew, shikmah). Although it may be admitted that the sycamine is properly, and in Luk_17:6, the mulberry, and the sycamore, the mulberry, or sycamore-fig, (Ficus sycomorus), yet the latter is the tree generally referred to in the Old Testament, and called by the Septuagint (LXX), sycamine, as 1Ki_10:27; 1Ch_27:28; Psa_78:47; Amo_7:14. The Sycamore, or fig-mulberry, is in Egypt and Palestine, a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut tree; has wide-spreading branches; and affords a delightful shade. On this account, it is frequently planted by the waysides.
Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the under side, and fragrant. The fruit grows directly from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. To make it eatable, each fruit, three or four days before gathering, must, it is said, be punctured with a sharp instrument, or the finger-nail. This was the original employment of the prophet, Amos, as he says. Amo_7:14. So great was the value of these trees that David appointed for them in his kingdom, a special overseer, as he did for the olives, 1Ch_27:28, and it is mentioned as one of the heaviest of Egypt's calamities, that her sycamore were destroyed by hailstones.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

שקמות , שקמים , 1Ki_10:27; 1Ch_27:28; 2Ch_1:15; Psa_78:47; Isa_9:9; Amo_8:14; συκομορεα, Luk_19:4; a large tree, according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen, resembling the mulberry-tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit; hence its name, compounded of συκεν, fig, and μορος, mulberry; and some have fancied that it was originally produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the other. Its fruit is palatable.
When ripe it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of an aromatic taste. The trees are very common in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow large, and to a great height; and though their grain is coarse, are much used in building. To change sycamores into cedars, Isa_9:10, means, to render the buildings of cities, and the state of the nation, much more magnificent than before. Dr. Shaw remarks, that as the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all with the cedar for beauty and ornament. We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores in 1Ki_10:27, where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores of the vale for abundance. “By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech,” says Bishop Lowth, “they boast, in the place of Isaiah, that they shall be easily able to repair their present losses, suffered, perhaps, by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-Pileser, and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever.” The wood of this tree is very durable. “The mummy chests,” says Dr. Shaw, “and whatever figures and instruments of wood are found in the catacombs, are all of them of sycamore, which, though spongy and porous to appearance, has, notwithstanding, continued entire and uncorrupted for at least three thousand years. From its value in furnishing wood for various uses, from the grateful shade which its wide-spreading branches afforded, and on account of the fruit, which Mallet says the Egyptians hold in the highest estimation, we perceive the loss which the ancient inhabitants of Egypt must have felt when their vines were destroyed with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost,” Psa_78:47. “The sycamore,” says Mr. Norden, “is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs, in form of grape stalks, at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like clusters of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people, for the greater part, live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water.” There might be many of these trees in Judea. David appointed a particular officer, whose sole duty it was to watch over the plantations of sycamore and olive-trees, 1 Chronicles 28:28; and being joined with the olive, the high estimation in which it was held is intimated; for the olive is considered as one of the most precious gifts which the God of nature has bestowed on the oriental nations. There seem to have been great numbers of them in Solomon's time, 1Ki_10:27; and in the Talmud they are mentioned as growing in the plains of Jericho.
One curious particular in the cultivation of the fruit must not be passed over. Pliny, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus observe that the fruit must be cut or scratched, either with the nail or with iron, or it will not ripen; but four days after this process it will become ripe. To this same purpose Jerom, on Amo_7:14, says, that without this management the figs are excessively bitter. These testimonies, together with the Septuagint and Vulgate version, are adduced to settle the meaning of the word בולס , in Amo_7:14, which must signify scraping, or making incisions in the sycamore fruit; an employment of Amos before he was called to the prophetic office: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.” Hasselquist, describing the ficus sycamorus, or Scripture sycamore, says, “It buds the latter end of March, and the fruit ripens in the beginning of June. At the time when the fruit has arrived to the size of an inch diameter, the inhabitants pare off a part at the centre point. They say that without this paring it would not come to maturity.” The figs thus prematurely ripened are called djumeis baedri, that is, “precocious sycamore figs.” As the sycamore is a large spreading tree, sometimes shooting up to a considerable height, we see the reason why Zaccheus climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a sight of our Saviour. This incident also furnishes a proof that the sycamore was still common in Palestine; for this tree stood to protect the traveller by the side of the highway.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

sik?a-mōr. See SYCOMORE.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Fig. 326?Sycamore-Fig: Ficus Sycomorus
This word occurs in several passages of the Old Testament. From the context it is evident that it must have been a tree of some size, common in the plains, unable to bear great cold, with wood of inferior quality, but still cultivated and valued on account of its fruit. It was not what is called sycamore in this country, which is a kind of maple, and in some of its characters the reverse of what is required, but rather the mulberry tree, the Ficus Sycomorus of botanists, which is a genuine species of Ficus. The fruit in its general characters resembles that of the fig, while the leaves resemble those of the mulberry tree.
The ancients were well acquainted with it; and it is common in Egypt as well as in Syria. In Egypt, being one of the few trees indigenous in that country, its wood was proportionally much employed, as in making mummy-cases, though it is coarse grained, and would not be valued where other trees are more common. Though the wood of this sycamore is coarse grained, it is yet very durable in a dry climate like that of Egypt; hence the mummy-cases even in the present-day seem as if made with fresh wood. This may, no doubt, be partly ascribed to the preservative effects of the resinous coats, paints, etc. with which they are impregnated. That the sycamore was cultivated and esteemed in Palestine we learn from 1Ch_27:28, 'And over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the low plains was Baal-hanan the Gederite.' This was on account of its fruit, which it bears on its stem and branches, like the common fig, and continues to produce in succession for months. The fruit is palatable, sweetish in taste, and still used as food in the East. As the sycamore is a lofty, shady tree, it is well suited for climbing up into, as described in Luk_19:4, where Zacchaeus ascends one to see Jesus pass by.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


is the invariable rendering, in the A. V., of the Heb. שַׁקְמָה, shikmah' (which, however, occurs in the sing. only in the Talmud,Shebiith, 9, 2; the Bible employs indifferently the masc. plur. שַׁקְמַים, shikzmim, 1Ki_10:27; 1Ch_27:28; 2Ch_1:15; 2Ch_9:27; Isa_9:10; Amo_5:2; Amo_5:14; and the fem. plur. שַׁקְמוֹת, shikmoth (Psa_78:47), and of the Greek συκομωραία (Luk_19:4). The Sept. always translates the Heb. word by συκάμινος, sycamine, meaning doubtless the Egyptian tree, the συκάμινος Αἰγυπτία of Theophrastus, which is really the sycamore (Dioscorides, 1, 180). See Gesenius, Thesaur. Heb. p. 1476 b; Rosenmüller, Alterthumskunde, 4:281 sq.; Celsius, Hieriob. 1, 310). The sycamore, or fig-mulberry (from σῦκον, fig, and μόρον, mulberry), is in Egypt and Palestine a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut-tree, has wide-spreading branches, and affords a delightful shade. On this account it is frequently plaited by the waysides. Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the underside, and fragrant. The fruit grows directly from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. To make it eatable, each fruit, three or four days before gathering, must, it is said, be punctured with a sharp instrument or the finger-nail (comp. Theophrastus, De Caus. Plant. 1, 17, 9; Hist. PI. 4:2, 1; Pliny, H. N. 13:7; Forskal, Descr. Plant, p. 182). This was the original employment of the prophet Amos, as he says Amo_7:14 (“a gatherer,” בּוֹלֵם, Sept. κνίζων. the exact term employed by Theophrastus). Hasselquist (Trav. p. 260; Lond. 1766) says, “The fruit of this tree tastes pretty well; when quite ripe it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a very little portion of an aromatic taste.” It appears, however, that a species of gall insect (Cynips sycomori) often spoils much of the fruit. “The tree,” Hasselquist adds, “is wounded or cut by the inhabitants at the time it buds, for without this precaution, as they say, it will not bear fruit” (p. 261). In form and smell and inward structure it resembles the fig, and hence its name. The tree is always verdant, and bears fruit several times in the year without being confined to fixed seasons, and is thus, as a permanent food- bearer, invaluable to the poor. In Lower Egypt it buds in March, and ripens early in June and by the poor of that country as well as of Palestine enormous quantities are consumed. The wood of the tree, though very porous, is exceedingly durable. It suffers neither from moisture nor heat. The Egyptian mummy coffins, which are made of it, are still perfectly sound after an entombment of thousands of years. It was much used for doors and large furniture, such as sofas, tables, and chairs (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 2, 110).
So great was the value of these trees that David appointed for them in his kingdom a special overseer, as he did for the olives (1Ch_27:28); and it is mentioned as one of the heaviest of Egypt's calamities that her sycamores were destroyed by hailstones (Psa_78:47). The modern Haipha was the city of sycamores (Sycominon, Keland, Palaest. p. 1024), and the remains of its grove are still recognizable (Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. 145). It was into a sycamore in the plain of Jericho that Zaccheus climbed in order to get a sight of Jesus passing by (Luk_19:4); and at the broken aqueducts of Herod's Jericho Mr. Tristram lately found “a fine old sycamore fig-tree, perhaps a lineal descendant, and nearly the last, of that into which Zacchaeus climbed (Land of Israel, p. 509). That which is called sycamore in North America, the Occidental plane or button-wood tree, has no resemblance whatever to the sycamore of the Bible. The name is also applied to a species of maple (the Acer pseudo-pluatanus, or fals plane), which is much used by turners and millwrights. See Mayer, De Sycamoro (Lips. 1694); Warnekros, Hist. Nat. Sycomori, in the Repert für bibl. Lit. 11:224 sq. 12:81 sq.; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 397 Thomson, Land and Book, 1, 22 sq. SEE FIG.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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