סָעִיףçâʻîyph
a fissure (of rocks); also a bough (as subdivided)
Pronunciation: saw-eef' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H5585
Meanings
1. cleft
2. branch
1. cleft (Judges 15:8; Judges 15:11; Isaiah 2:21)
2. branches, boughs (Isaiah 17:6; Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 27:11)
Same root
Where it appears
Appears 6 times in the Bible.
- Judges 15:8 So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
- Judges 15:11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?” But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”
- Isaiah 2:21 while they crawl away into caverns and hide among the jagged rocks in the cliffs. They will try to escape the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty as he rises to shake the earth.
- Isaiah 17:6 Only a few of its people will be left, like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
- Isaiah 27:10 The fortified towns will be silent and empty, the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds. Calves will graze there, chewing on twigs and branches.
- Isaiah 57:5 You worship your idols with great passion beneath the oaks and under every green tree. You sacrifice your children down in the valleys, among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.
Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).