Forest: 1. Heb. ya'ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all
the great primeval forests of Syria
(Ecclesiastes 2:6; Isaiah 44:14; Jeremiah 5:6)(Micah 5:8) The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of
Ephraim
(2 Samuel 18:6,8; Joshua 17:15,18) which is probably the same as
the wood of Ephratah
(Psalms 132:6) some part of the great forest
of Gilead. It was in this forest that Absalom was slain by Joab.
David withdrew to the forest of Hareth in the mountains of Judah
to avoid the fury of Saul
(1 Samuel 22:5) We read also of the forest
of Bethel
(2 Kings 2:23,24) and of that which the Israelites passed
in their pursuit of the Philistines
(1 Samuel 14:25) and of the
forest of the cedars of Lebanon
(1 Kings 4:33; 2 Kings 19:23; Hosea 14:5,6)
"The house of the forest of Lebanon
(1 Kings 7:2; 10:17; 2 Chronicles 9:16) was
probably Solomon's armoury, and was so called because the wood of
its many pillars came from Lebanon, and they had the appearance
of a forest.
(See BAALBEC)
2. Heb. horesh, denoting a thicket of trees, underwood, jungle,
bushes, or trees entangled, and therefore affording a safe
hiding-place. This word is rendered "forest" only in
(2 Chronicles 27:4)
It is also rendered "wood", the "wood" in the "wilderness of
Ziph," in which david concealed himself
(1 Samuel 23:15) which lay
south-east of Hebron. In
(Isaiah 17:9) this word is in Authorized
Version rendered incorrectly "bough."
3. Heb. pardes, meaning an enclosed garden or plantation. Asaph is
(Nehemiah 2:8) called the "keeper of the king's forest." The same
Hebrew word is used
(Ecclesiastes 2:5) where it is rendered in the
plural "orchards" (R.V., "parks"), and
(The Song of Solomon 4:13) rendered
"orchard" (R.V. marg., "a paradise"). "The forest of the vintage"
(Zechariah 11:2) "inaccessible forest," or R.V. "strong forest") is
probably a figurative allusion to Jerusalem, or the verse may
simply point to the devastation of the region referred to. The
forest is an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a
cultivated field
(Isaiah 10:19,33,34; 29:17; 32:15; Jeremiah 26:18; Hosea 2:12)
likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of
some huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.
