yaar · forest, thicket

What it means

yaar (יַעַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “forest, thicket”.

Also honeycomb.

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. Land covered with trees, where many grow together.
2. Another word spelled the same: the bees' wax cells full of sweet nectar.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Forest: land covered with trees and thickets, where wild animals live. In the Song 5:1 the same word designates the honeycomb, as in יַעֲרָה (‘honeycomb’).

• Going to the forest to cut wood or to clear ground Deuteronomy 19:5Joshua 17:15
• The battle in the forest of Ephraim 2 Samuel 18:62 Samuel 18:8
• The animals of the forest Psalms 50:10Psalms 80:13Psalms 104:20
• “All the trees of the forest will shout for joy” Psalms 96:12Isaiah 44:23
• The house of the Forest of Lebanon 1 Kings 7:22 Chronicles 9:16

Historical and cultural background

In the battle against Absalom, “the forest devoured more of the people than the sword devoured on that day” (2 Samuel 18:8), and Absalom was left hanging from an oak (18:9). The law of Deuteronomy 19:5 takes as an example of killing without intent the man who goes into the forest to cut wood and whose axe head slips off.

How we translate it

“Forest” 54 times and “forests” 3. Capitalized in the name “the house of the Forest of Lebanon”, Solomon’s building (1 Kings 7:2). In Psalm 132:6 it is left as a place name, “the fields of Jaar”, and in the Song 5:1 it is rendered “my honeycomb”.

How it is translated

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

• forest ×54
• forests ×3
• Jaar ×1
• honeycomb ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×2
• 1 Samuel×3
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×3
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Psalms×7
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×2
• Isaiah×14
• Jeremiah×6
• Ezekiel×6
• Hosea×1
• Amos×1
• Micah×3
• Zechariah×1

• Deuteronomy 19:5

  as when someone goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off from the wood and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live,

• Joshua 17:15

  And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear ground for yourself there in the land of the Perizzite and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

• Joshua 17:18

  but the hill country shall be yours; for it is forest, and you will clear it, and its ends shall be yours; for you will dispossess the Canaanite, though he has iron chariots, though he is strong.”

• 1 Samuel 14:25

  All the land came into the forest, and there was honey on the surface of the field.

• 1 Samuel 14:26

  The people came into the forest, and look, the honey was flowing, but no one was putting his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

• 1 Samuel 22:5

  Gad the prophet said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Go and enter the land of Judah.” So David went and entered the forest of Hereth.

• 2 Samuel 18:6

  The people went out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.

• 2 Samuel 18:8

  The battle there was spread over the face of all the land, and the forest devoured more of the people than the sword devoured on that day.

• 2 Samuel 18:17

  They took Absalom and threw him into the forest, into the great pit, and they raised over him a very great heap of stones; and all Israel fled, each to his tents.

• 1 Kings 7:2

  And he built the house of the Forest of Lebanon: a hundred cubits its length, and fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of pillars of cedar, with beams of cedar on the pillars.

• 1 Kings 10:17

  and three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield; and the king put them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon.

• 1 Kings 10:21

  And all the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold, and all the utensils of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of fine gold; there was no silver; it was not considered in the days of Solomon as anything.

• 2 Kings 2:24

  He turned behind him and saw them and cursed them in the name of YHWH. And two she-bears came out of the forest and tore apart forty two children of them.

• 2 Kings 19:23

  Through your messengers you have taunted Adonai, and you have said, ‘With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars, its choicest cypresses; I will enter its farthest lodging, the forest of its orchard.

• 1 Chronicles 16:33

  Then the trees of the forest will shout for joy before YHWH, for he comes to judge the earth.

• 2 Chronicles 9:16

  and three hundred shields of beaten gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

• 2 Chronicles 9:20

  All the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of fine gold; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.

• Psalms 29:9

  The voice of YHWH makes the does give birth and strips the forests; and in his temple all of it says, “Glory!”

• Psalms 50:10

  For mine is every animal of the forest, the livestock on a thousand hills.

• Psalms 80:13

  The boar from the forest gnaws at it, and what moves in the field feeds on it.

• Psalms 83:14

  Like fire that burns the forest, and like a flame that sets ablaze the mountains,

• Psalms 96:12

  let the field exult, and all that is in it; then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy

• Psalms 104:20

  You set darkness, and it is night; in it all the animals of the forest creep about.

• Psalms 132:6

  Look, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.

• Ecclesiastes 2:6

  I made for myself pools of water to water from them a forest sprouting trees.

• Song of Songs 2:3

  Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the boys; in his shade I delighted and sat, and his fruit was sweet to my palate.

• Song of Songs 5:1

  I have come to my garden, my sister, bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, companions; drink, and be drunk with love!

• Isaiah 7:2

  And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Aram has settled on Ephraim.” And his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

• Isaiah 9:18

  For wickedness burns like a fire; it devours briers and thorns, and it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll up in a column of smoke.

• Isaiah 10:18

  And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful land he will consume, from soul even to flesh; and it will be like the wasting away of a sick man.

• Isaiah 10:19

  And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be a number that a boy can write down.

• Isaiah 10:34

  And the thickets of the forest will be cut down with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a magnificent one.

• Isaiah 21:13

  The burden in Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will spend the night, caravans of Dedanites.

• Isaiah 22:8

  And he removed the covering of Judah, and you looked on that day to the armory of the House of the Forest.

• Isaiah 29:17

  Is it not yet a little, a very little, and Lebanon will turn into an orchard, and the orchard will be regarded as a forest?

• Isaiah 32:15

  until a spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes an orchard, and the orchard is regarded as a forest.

• Isaiah 32:19

  And it will hail when the forest comes down, and in lowliness the city will be laid low.

• Isaiah 37:24

  Through your servants you have taunted Adonai, and you have said, ‘With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars, its choicest cypresses; I will enter the height of its farthest end, the forest of its orchard.

• Isaiah 44:14

  To cut down cedars for himself, he takes a holm oak and an oak, and makes it strong for himself among the trees of the forest; he plants a pine, and the rain makes it grow.

• Isaiah 44:23

  Shout for joy, heavens, for YHWH has done it; shout aloud, depths of the earth; break forth, mountains, into a shout of joy, forest and every tree in it; for YHWH has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he glorifies himself.

And 19 more times.