ets · tree, wood

What it means

ets (עֵץ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “tree, wood”.

Tree; also wood and what is made of it (a stick, a pole).

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A tall plant with trunk and branches, giving fruit, shade or timber.
2. What is taken from a cut tree: firewood, board, rod or timber.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Tree; from there wood and what is made of it. BDB defines it as tree and wood; in the plural, pieces of wood.

• Tree Genesis 1:11Genesis 2:9
• Wood as material Genesis 6:14
• Wood for a fire Genesis 22:6
• Gods of “wood and stone” Deuteronomy 4:28
• The tree on which an executed man is hanged Deuteronomy 21:22Deuteronomy 21:23

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 commands that the body hanged on a tree not remain there all night, but be buried that same day, “for one who is hanged is a curse of Elohim”.

How we translate it

“Wood” 132 times, “tree” 82, “trees” 60, “timber” 21, “pole” 10, “stick” 8. It is a single word in Hebrew; English chooses according to the object. The pair עֵץ וָאֶבֶן is translated “wood and stone”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• wood ×132
• tree ×82
• trees ×60
• timber ×21
• pole ×10
• stick ×8
• shaft ×4
• timbers ×4
• sticks ×3
• among the stalks ×1
• others ×5

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×30
• Exodus×31
• Leviticus×21
• Numbers×6
• Deuteronomy×20
• Joshua×9
• Judges×10
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Samuel×6
• 1 Kings×29
• 2 Kings×10
• 1 Chronicles×11
• 2 Chronicles×12
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×9
• Esther×9
• Job×4
• Psalms×6
• Proverbs×6
• Ecclesiastes×5
• Song of Songs×3
• Isaiah×17
• Jeremiah×15
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×45
• Hosea×1
• Joel×3
• Habakkuk×2
• Haggai×2
• Zechariah×2

• Genesis 1:11

  And Elohim said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit according to its kind, that has its seed in it, on the earth.” And it was so.

• Genesis 1:12

  And the earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit that has its seed in it, according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.

• Genesis 1:29

  And Elohim said, “Look, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; it will be food for you.

• Genesis 2:9

  And YHWH Elohim made every tree sprout from the ground that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• Genesis 2:16

  And YHWH Elohim commanded the man, saying, “From every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

• Genesis 2:17

  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it, for in the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

• Genesis 3:1

  Now the serpent was more shrewd than any animal of the field that YHWH Elohim had made. And it said to the woman, “Did Elohim really say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

• Genesis 3:2

  And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

• Genesis 3:3

  but from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden Elohim has said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, or you will die.’”

• Genesis 3:6

  And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for gaining insight; and she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

• Genesis 3:8

  And they heard the sound of YHWH Elohim walking about in the garden in the wind of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the presence of YHWH Elohim among the trees of the garden.

• Genesis 3:11

  And he said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

• Genesis 3:12

  And the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”

• Genesis 3:17

  And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; with toil you will eat from it all the days of your life.

• Genesis 3:22

  And YHWH Elohim said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, so that he does not reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—”

• Genesis 3:24

  And he drove out the man, and he stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of the sword that turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

• Genesis 6:14

  Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; with compartments you shall make the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

• Genesis 18:4

  Let a little water be brought, please, and wash your feet, and rest under the tree.

• Genesis 18:8

  He took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

• Genesis 22:3

  Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he rose and went to the place that Elohim had told him.

• Genesis 22:6

  Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them went together.

• Genesis 22:7

  Isaac said to Abraham his father, and he said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

• Genesis 22:9

  They came to the place that Elohim had told him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

• Genesis 23:17

  The field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which is facing Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, that were within all its borders all around, were made over

• Genesis 40:19

  Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from upon you and hang you on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh from upon you.”

• Exodus 7:19

  YHWH said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their canals, over their pools, and over all the reservoirs of their water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”

• Exodus 9:25

  The hail struck, throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, from people to animals; and the hail struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field.

• Exodus 10:5

  They will cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land; and they will eat what is left of what escaped, what remains to you from the hail, and they will eat every tree that grows for you in the field.

• Exodus 10:15

  They covered the surface of all the land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left; and nothing green remained, neither on the trees nor in the plants of the field, in all the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 15:25

  He cried out to YHWH, and YHWH showed him a tree; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them.

• Exodus 25:5

  rams' skins dyed red, fine skins, and acacia wood;

• Exodus 25:10

  They shall make an ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.

• Exodus 25:13

  You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

• Exodus 25:23

  You shall make a table of acacia wood: two cubits its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.

• Exodus 25:28

  You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with them.

• Exodus 26:15

  You shall make the boards for the dwelling of acacia wood, standing upright.

• Exodus 26:26

  You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of one side of the dwelling,

• Exodus 27:1

  You shall make the altar of acacia wood: five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and three cubits its height.

• Exodus 27:6

  You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze.

• Exodus 30:1

  You shall make an altar for burning incense; of acacia wood you shall make it.

And 290 more times.