Both the Hebrew and Greek names are probably general terms for gazelle. At least two types of gazelle the Dorcas Gazelle Gazella dorcas and the Palestine or Arabian Gazelle Gazella arabica were found in the Middle East. They are still to be found in secluded areas.
Gazelles are small to medium sized plains antelopes, inhabiting savannah plains and semideserts. Both sexes have horns, except for the female impala, which is without horns. The horns of the gazelle species mentioned above are lyre-shaped about 25-50 centimeters (10-20 inches) in length. Gazelles are reddish brown with almost white underparts. They are long-legged and graceful and are expert jumpers. They live in small herds of up to about thirty. Females become sexually active at one year and bear young every year. This high rate of reproduction ensures their survival. They feed on both grass and the leaves of acacia and other bushes.
A breeding herd consists of one dominant breeding male and a group of females. The other males are chased from the herd when they become sexually active and they then form bachelor herds. These bachelor herds are the prime target for human and animal hunters since they provide a convenient source of meat while leaving the breeding cycle intact. In biblical times gazelles were trapped in nets or snares or were shot with bows and arrows.
The gazelle was seen as the cleanest of game animals since it met all the requirements of the Law concerning cloven hooves and cud-chewing. It was also a symbol of speed grace and beauty (the Hebrew root means beauty) and of female sexuality and fertility.
Where a language distinguishes between male and female animals, tsvi should be translated by the male form and tsviyah by the female form.
In East Africa where gazelles are well-known, a generic word for gazelles or the specific word for one of the smaller gazelles, such as the Thompson’s Gazelle Gazella thompsonii, is suitable. Elsewhere in Africa where the impala is known, the word for this antelope can be used.
Elsewhere, the word for a small antelope or deer that lives in herds can be used for the references that are literal, and the word for some swift, graceful antelope or deer can be used in the contexts where speed, grace, or beauty are being symbolized. As usual, in areas where gazelles, antelopes, and deer are unknown, a transliteration from the dominant international language or from the Hebrew original can be used. In such cases a description should be given in the glossary.
Although the majority of English versions have roebuck, which is the male form of roe deer many biblical zoologists reject this rendering. They argue that roe deer while being fairly common in biblical times live singly or in pairs for part of the year but not in herds they are extremely shy and difficult to hunt as they live in thick undergrowth and seldom leave it. They are rarely even seen in areas where they live. Thus the argument goes it would have been almost impossible for large numbers of roe deer to have been brought to Solomon’s table on a daily basis as recorded in 1 Kings 4:23. However others argue that trapping roe deer would have been easy even though hunting was not.
The consensus among the zoologists supports the translation “bubal hartebeest” which was well known and could easily have been kept in semi-domesticated herds as were deer [Note that bubal hartebeest are now extinct]. In Egypt and to a lesser extent in Sinai the bubal hartebeest was depicted in murals and stone carvings and many mummified hartebeests have also been found in Egyptian sites. Both Canaanite and Israelite archeological sites have yielded hartebeest bones in fairly large quantities. They have even been found in close proximity to Canaanite altars suggesting that the Canaanites sacrificed them.
The Hebrew name yachmur is probably derived from a root ch-m-r, which means “red” and is the same root from which the Hebrew name for a donkey is derived. The bubal hartebeest is both red and remarkably like a horned donkey. It is also known as the red hartebeest. The word “hartebeest” is a word borrowed from Dutch and literally means “deer-cow”.
Interestingly, the Septuagint translates yachmur as bubalos “water buffalo”, which was an animal well known to the Israelites. Water buffalo were domesticated in Babylonia and Syria and were found in the marshes of northern Israel around Lake Huleh. However this translation has no support among modern scholars. The name bubal in bubal hartebeest is derived from this same Greek word.
Roe Deer capreolus capreolus are small deer, the adult males having short horns that have three prongs. Their fur is brownish in summer and gray in winter. They live singly or in pairs in the undergrowth of forests and thick woodland, never moving more than one or two meters (3-6 feet) from cover, even when feeding.
The Bubal or Red Hartebeest alcelaphus buselaphus is a large antelope about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high at the shoulder. Both males and females have very long faces with a large lump on the head from which sprout short thick horns. These curve upward and forward for half their length and then angle sharply backwards. Hartebeests are reddish brown in color.
They are plains animals and graze in herds often among gazelles zebras or other antelope. Although they look slightly ungainly with their sloping backs hartebeests are very good runners and can sustain high speed for as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) easily outrunning any other animal over this distance.
These animals were once found all over North Africa and the plains of the land of Israel where they were known as “wild cows” by Bedouin. In some Jewish versions of the Bible yachmur is translated as “wild cow”. The bubal hartebeest has disappeared from those areas, but it is still found in the Kalahari semidesert in Botswana and in adjacent areas in Angola Namibia Zambia and Zimbabwe. Very similar hartebeests alcelaphus lelwel and alcelaphus cokei are also found in Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In the latter two countries they are known by their Swahili name “kongoni”.
If the interpretation “roe deer” is chosen, then the local name for this deer can be used, where roe deer are known. In areas where roe deer are not known, names for other similar small deer can be used, as for instance: India, Myanmar (Burma), and Southeast Asia: Muntjak or Barking Deer muntiacus muntiacus; Latin America: Pampas Deer blastocerus bezoarticus of Brazil and Argentina. In areas of Africa where deer are not known, the name of a small solitary antelope, such as one of the duikers, can be used. Elsewhere an expression such as “small deer” (in contrast to “large deer” for the fallow deer), or a transliteration, can be used.
If the choice is for red or bubal hartebeest the following possibilities exist: Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe: the local word for Red Hartebeest alcelaphus buselaphus; East Africa: the Coke’s Hartebeest or Kongoni alcelaphus cokei; Chad and Sudan: Lelwel Hartebeest alcelaphus lelwel; Southern Africa: Cape Hartebeest alcelaphus caama, Tsessebe damaliscus lunatus, Bontebok damaliscus pygargus, or Blesbok damaliscus albifrons. Elsewhere a name like “wild cow” can be used.
The Bottle Gourd or Calabash Lagenaria siceraria was one of the first plants to be domesticated by human beings. It has been used for food, for medicine, and for various utensils and musical instruments. It is indigenous to Africa but was probably introduced into Asia and the Americas about ten thousand years ago, with or without the help of humans. The name of the genus comes from the Latin word lagoena, meaning “flask” (almost certainly the first Roman flasks were dried gourds). The species name is derived from the Latin word for “dry,” suggesting that the fruit is usable in its dried form. Although the people of the Bible lands undoubtedly used the split bottle gourds in their homes as bowls or “dippers,” as we find in Africa and Asia, the only references we have are to the image of the gourd in the artwork carved into the cedar of King Solomon’s palace (1 Kings 6:18) and in the decorating of the giant bronze basin that stood in front of the Temple (1 Kings 7:24).
The bottle gourd is a climbing vine like a cucumber or pumpkin. Its stem is square, ribbed, and hairy, and can grow up to 5 meters (17 feet) long. The leaves are heart-shaped, the size of a human hand, and slightly lobed. The flowers are yellow with five petals, giving way to fruits that may be of many different shapes depending on the variety. Most gourds are globular at one end, with a protrusion that may be elongated, making them very useful, when cut in half, as big spoons in the kitchen.
Gourds or calabashes have been used as containers, or, when split, as dipping devices, for thousands of years. They have also been used for musical instruments. The pulp of most kinds is very bitter and is poisonous in some cases. Some kinds are used in medicine in some countries, for purges, expelling worms, and for chest pains and headache. In southern Africa the leaves are eaten as a vegetable, as are the young, unripe fruits.
Translators in temperate or tropical areas of Africa and Asia will have a word for these gourds. If the only gourd people are familiar with is round like a ball, then an illustration may help in the text, or a footnote can describe the special shape of the Holy Land gourd, insofar as we know it. The bottle gourd is related to the wild gourd mentioned in 2 Kings 4:39, which poisoned a group of prophets.
Flax Linum usitatissimum, from which linen cloth is made, was cultivated in the Middle East, including Canaan, at least as early as 5000 B.C. A document from Gezer (in Israel) from around King Saul’s time (1000 B.C.) refers to the cultivation of flax and states that flax and wool were the main materials for making cloth. According to Joshua 2:6, the Israelite spies were hidden under flax stalks by Rahab. Flax was grown extensively in Egypt and made into cloth and mats.
Pesheth and pishtah are probably the original Hebrew words for flax, if indeed the plant was domesticated in the Holy Land, as Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) proposes. They may be related to the word pashat, meaning “to strip off” or “to flay,” or to the word pasas, meaning “to disintegrate.” Pesheth and pishtah are used twenty times in the Old Testament, twice referring clearly to the plant itself (Exodus 9:31; Joshua 2:6). Other references are to the processed flax (Judges 15:14 et al.). A few cases refer to finished products, namely wicks (Isaiah 42:3 et al.), cords (Ezekiel 40:3), and items of clothing (Jeremiah 13:1 et al.).
It is likely that the Hebrews acquired the word shesh from the Egyptians during their sojourn in Egypt, since flax was cultivated there also. The Egyptian word for flax was shent (via shen-suten). Shesh is used thirty-eight times in the Old Testament: for the material that Pharaoh put on Joseph, for the Tabernacle curtains and hangings in Exodus, for the ephod, and for the priests’ tunics. The wise woman of Proverbs 31:22 wears it. In Ezekiel 16:10 et al. it is paired with silk, and in Ezekiel 27:7 “shesh from Egypt” is spoken of as material for the sails of ships.
Several references to linen use the Hebrew word bad. In Exodus 28:42 the priests’ underwear are made from bad, and it is used thereafter in Leviticus to describe various items of clothing—coat, breeches, girdle, and turban. It turns up again in Samuel’s and King David’s “ephods” and then again in Ezekiel and Daniel, where we see visions of “a man clothed in bad.”
Linen is referred by the Hebrew word buts in 1‑2 Chronicles, Esther, and Ezekiel, where the robes of the Temple choir, kings, and rich men are described.
The Old Testament has some references to the Hebrew word sadin (“linen garment”): Judges 14:12 (Samson promises them to his opponents), Proverbs 31:24 (the wise woman makes them), and Isaiah 3:23 (the rich women of Jerusalem wear them). The Septuagint uses the Greek word bussos or sindōn in these passages.
The Hebrew word ’etun occurs only in Proverbs 7:16, where it refers to a linen bedspread from Egypt.
In the New Testament there are three primary Greek words for linen: linon/linous, sindōn, and othonē/othonion. Linon is used to refer to garments of the angels in Revelation 15:6 as well as to the “smoldering wick” in Matthew 12:20. The synoptic Gospel writers refer to the linen cloth that Joseph and Nicodemus used to wrap Jesus’ body as a sindōn. Mark uses the same word to refer to the cloth that was worn by the unidentified young man at the time of Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:51f.). John uses a different Greek word for Jesus’ burial cloths: othonion.
The rich man referred to in the Lazarus story (Luke 16:19) is clothed in “fine linen” (bussos). The Greek word bussos is the root word for bussinos, which refers to tunics, robes and turbans made from linen fabric (Revelation 18:12 et al.).
Flax is a little taller than a sesame plant, about a meter (3 feet) tall. Its leaves are narrow and the flowers are bright blue with five petals. The seed capsule contains oil that is used for cooking and also for thinning paint. After flax ripens, the plants are uprooted and the stalks are left to dry for a while. The stalks are then soaked, dried, and beaten to separate the fibers, which are then combed and woven into cloth.
Linen cloth was relatively costly in Israel, and being light and easy to dye it was highly valued. Their priests wore linen garments to combat sweating (see Ezekiel 44:18). They had to remove these holy garments when they left the Temple, “lest they communicate holiness to the people” (Ezekiel 44:19). The high esteem given to linen by the Jews is shown also by the fact that they used it for burying the dead, and we are told that the Dead Sea Scrolls were wrapped in linen cloths. However, the flax plant was special in other ways. The crushed stalks of flax plants were also used for making rope and lamp wicks. The seed was used for oil.
Today flax is raised more for the oil that comes from the seeds (called linseed oil) than for the fibers, although flax stalks are also made into special kinds of paper.
Metaphorical uses of flax are relatively few in the Bible, and all suggest the weakness of the material. In Judges 15:14 flax fiber is used as a simile for Samson’s fetters (they snapped like linen thread). Isaiah 42:3 says the Messiah will be gentle with weak people (“a dimly burning wick [pishtah] he will not quench”), in contrast to the typical iron-fisted tyrants of the day. Isaiah 43:17 describes the fate of the Babylonian enemies: they will be snuffed out “like a wick [pishtah].”
Linen cloth (or other cloth with a similar name) is surprisingly widespread. Cloth merchants in the translators’ area may know it under a trade language name, and if so, that can be used.In some places it is used only for burying people. In that case, if it is used in translation at all, the difference in culture should be explained in a footnote. Since linen is bleached white, a generic phrase such as “beautiful white cloth” can be considered in many places. In the three metaphorical passages mentioned above, an appropriate cultural image may be substituted, or an adverb expressing weakness or fragility.
Cotton Gossypium herbaceum has been grown and woven in the Indus Valley (now Pakistan) for at least five thousand years. Pieces of cotton cloth that old have been found there. However, it was not grown in the land of Israel until a few centuries before Christ.
The story of Esther takes place in Babylon in the time of Ahasuerus (= Xerxes) 485–465 B.C. By that time both cotton and flax products were probably traded back and forth throughout the Babylonian Empire, and the cultivation of both was probably expanding, although the area of India, Pakistan, and Babylonia would have been the area of largest production. Herodotus, in the fifth century B.C., mentions “trees that bear wool” from India.
The writer of Esther describes fabric made from karpas, a Hebrew word that comes from Sanskrit, a language spoken long ago in India, where cotton was domesticated. That may be evidence that karpas probably refers to cotton alone, particularly since the Hebrew word buts is probably used for “linen” in the same verse.
Isaiah 19:9, an oracle about Egypt, refers to the “weavers of white cotton [choray],” parallel to “workers in combed flax.” This supports the contention that cotton was well established in Egypt in Old Testament times, at least by the time of the Israelite monarchy.
The original Indian and Arabian type of cotton (“Levant cotton”) grows to 2 meters (7 feet) in height, with soft, lobed leaves (like its relatives the hibiscus and the hollyhock). The mallow-like flowers are yellow with a purple center. When the flower matures, the boll underneath puffs out and eventually splits, revealing a mass of fine white filaments that we know as “cotton wool.”
Cotton is now grown extensively throughout the world, especially in warm, dry areas. The Tree Cotton Gossypium arboreum is native to North Africa and is now grown in Upper Egypt. Another species, Upland Cotton Gossypium barbadense, grows in the West Indies. Egypt, India, China, and Nigeria all raise cotton in great quantities since it is their most important textile. If a transliteration of cotton from a major language is needed, adaptations of the following are advised: French cotonnier; Portuguese algodão, algodeiro; Spanish algodonero; Arabic kutun; and English cotton.
Even if the translator’s people do not actually grow cotton, they know it from the cloth sellers and will have a name for it. Failing that, a transliteration from a major language is recommended.
The Lake Rush Scirpus lacustris and the Soft Rush Juncus effusus are two of many types of rush (or sedge) that grow in swampy areas of the Mediterranean area.
Rushes do not have leaves. They are stalks that grow in sandy, waterside soil. They reach a meter (3 feet) or less in height. Tiny flowers form in clusters on the side of the stalk below the top.
Rushes were used for the walls and partitions of homes, as well as for mats and baskets.
There are at least two hundred species of Juncus. Translators who live near streams will have no problem finding types of rush that will be close or equivalent to the biblical types. Elsewhere, translators can use “tall plant that grows in water.” In the rhetorical context of Isaiah 58:5 (“bow down his head like a rush”), a translator can substitute a plant that suits the description of “bowing down.”
There are two general types of reed in Israel, the Common Reed Phragmites australis and the Giant Reed Arundo donax, and it is impossible to say which one is intended in a given biblical context.
The English word “cane” comes from the Hebrew word qaneh. Qaneh is the most general Hebrew word of the many referring to reeds and rushes. Like the English word “reed,” it may refer to a specific type of reed or be a general name for several kinds of water plant. This word is also used to refer to the stalk of grain in Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41:5, Genesis 41:22), to the shaft and branches of the golden lampstand in the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:31 et al.), to the beam of a scale (Isaiah 46:6), to the upper arm of a person (Job 31:22), to a measuring stick (Ezekiel 40:3 et al.), and to aromatic cane (Song of Songs 4:14 et al.).
The common reed is a tall grass with stiff, sharply-pointed leaves and a plume-like flower head that reaches to more than 2 meters (7 feet). It grows in lakes and streams, the roots creeping across the bottom of the lake to produce new leaves and stalks.
The giant reed is similar to the common reed but tends to grow not in the water but on the river banks. Its majestic plumes can reach up to 5 meters (17 feet) in height on hollow stalks that look like bamboo.
Reeds of both kinds were used for baskets, mats, flutes, pens, arrows, and roof-coverings. Isaiah 42:3 says that the Messiah will be gentle with weak people (“a bruised reed he will not break”), in contrast to the typical iron-fisted tyrants of the day. The Pharaoh is likened to an undependable reed staff in 2 Kings 18:21 et al. In 1 Kings 14:15 Israel is compared to a reed shaking in the water.
The common reed of the Mediterranean area has relatives in Europe, India, Japan, and North America. It is thought to be the only species of the genus Phragmites (although some botanists divide it into three species). It is very important for conservationists, because it provides habitat for many kinds of animals and birds. In North America the weaker native type is being overtaken by more robust types from Europe, which are now threatening other kinds of marsh plants. In Japan people eat the young shoots of reeds. Native Americans used to eat the seeds.
Translators living near lakes and rivers will be able to find an equivalent, if not a relative, of the reed. Others can be generic and use “grass” or a phrase such as “tall grass growing in the water.”
Although there has been considerable debate among botanists as to the identity of the various types of reed in the Bible, there is general agreement that the Hebrew word gome’ refers to the Papyrus Cyperus papyrus, based on etymological and practical grounds. As for the Hebrew word ’eveh, the phrase “skiffs of ’eveh” in Job 9:26 suggests that it refers to papyrus, since boats in Egypt were made of papyrus, apart from those made from wood. However, versions are divided between “papyrus” (New International Version) and “reed” (New Revised Standard Version, updated edition, Revised English Bible) in this passage.
Papyrus is a very tall grass producing many flower stems that can be as much as 6 meters (20 feet) tall and 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter. The head at the top the stem separates into hundreds of branches that spread out like the top of a palm tree. Each one has small flowers. Papyrus was the most versatile grass in the Ancient Near East. In Egypt it was used to make boxes, mats, ropes, and especially paper. Perhaps its use in boats came to the mind of Jochebed when she wanted to save her infant son Moses from the wrath of the Pharoah (Exodus 2:3). Job’s companion Bildad uses papyrus as an example of a plant that needs water, and further as a slam at Job suggesting he must have sinned (Job 8:11). Isaiah 18:2 refers to “ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus” as emblems of the great political power of Egypt. Poor people also used papyrus for barrels, huts, sandals, and clothing. Perhaps surprisingly, papyrus was not usually used for baskets. The baskets of the Egyptians, like those in sub-Saharan Africa today, were made of coiled construction using a core of date palm leaflets, fibers, or the split midrib, with a fiber wrapped around the core, like a guitar string.
There are over six hundred kinds of Cyperus growing in tropical and warm climates throughout the world, but many do not resemble the papyrus. For example, the tigernut sedge, found in West Asia and Africa and producing a tasty tuber (also called chufa or Zulu nut), belongs to the Cyperus genus. So also do the coco grass and several other types used for mats throughout Asia. The papyrus proper is now rare in Egypt but rampant in northern Uganda, where it is called sudd.
Most of the contexts where gome’ is found are rhetorical (Exodus 2:3 being the exception), opening the way for translators to substitute local equivalents. However, if the original plant name is replaced, it is usually good to document the original in a footnote, especially where the word identifies a particular area, as in Isaiah 18:1, where papyrus vessels are identified with “Ethiopia.” In Exodus 2:3 the mother of Moses did not use “bulrushes” (Revised Standard Version, King James Version) but papyrus, nor did she make a “basket” (New Revised Standard Version, updated edition) but a “box” (tevah in Hebrew). If there is a word for “box,” it should be used. Otherwise, the general word for “basket” can be used, and a type of strong grass used for baskets should be used for the material. The following options are available for gome’:
1. use a local strong grass;
2. use a descriptive phrase such as “strong grass”;
3. use a generic word for “grass”;
4. leave the plant implicit as part of the verb “weave” or the noun “box/basket” in Exodus 2:3;
5. use “rush” (Revised English Bible), “papyrus reeds” (Living Bible), or “reeds” (Good News Bible).
If transliterations are needed for papyrus, some possibilities are French jonc and Portuguese/Spanish papiro.
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