StrongerBible

eshkol

אֶשְׁכּוֹל

HebrewH0811“cluster, bunch”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 40:10Num 13:23Num 13:24Deu 32:32Sng 1:14Sng 7:7(8)Sng 7:8(9)Isa 65:8Mic 7:1
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeesh-KOHLnoun

What eshkol means

a cluster: a thick bunch of fruit or blossom hanging together on one stem, most often grapes

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word names the whole bunch, not the single piece of fruit. Numbers 13:23 sets both words side by side: the men Moses sent into Canaan cut down one cluster of grapes, where the grape (עֵנָב) is the individual berry and the cluster is the packed mass of them hanging from one stalk. It is what a picker's hand closes around and lifts.

Grapes are the usual fruit but not part of the definition. In Song of Songs 1:14 the beloved is "a cluster of henna", fragrant blossom rather than fruit at all, and where the same poem compares a woman's height to a date palm, the clusters most likely hang from that palm rather than from a vine. So the word describes a shape, a dense bunch on a stalk, and the setting supplies the plant. Nothing about it is fixed to the vineyard.

Because one cluster is the visible proof that a vine actually produced, biblical writers make it carry a whole verdict:

  • In Numbers 13 a single cluster slung on a pole between two men is the physical evidence that the land is rich.
  • In Isaiah 65:8 one sound cluster on a ruined vine is the reason God holds back his hand, because "there is a blessing in it".
  • In Micah 7:1 a gleaner who cannot find one cluster left to eat is mourning that no honest person remains in the country.
  • In Deuteronomy 32:32 the clusters themselves are bitter, so the vine that grew them stands condemned.

Nothing in the word decides whether the news is good or bad. The vine it hangs on does that.

Nuances

1aa cluster of grapes on the vine
Gen 40:10Num 13:23Num 13:24Deu 32:32Sng 7:8(9)Isa 65:8Mic 7:1
1ba cluster of fragrant blossom
Sng 1:14
1ca cluster of dates hanging on a palm
CertaintyContested
Sng 7:7(8)
Sng 7:7

Whether the clusters that the woman's breasts are likened to in this verse are date clusters or grape clusters.

  • contestedDate clusters, continuing the date palm simile of the same verse, and matching the Arabic cognate ʾiṯkāl, which denotes the fruit stalk of a palm.; G. Lloyd Carr, The Song of Solomon (TOTC), on 7:7; M. H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible), 352-54; BDB, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל, note on Song 7:8 (reporting Thes and MV on clusters of dates, cf. תָּמָר)
  • contestedGrape clusters, read consistently with the explicit "clusters of the vine" in the following verse.; HALOT, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל, 95 ("bunch (of grapes)"); DCH, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל

What scholars say about eshkol

The standard lexica converge on the sense "cluster, bunch", prototypically of grapes: BDB s.v. gives "cluster"; HALOT (95) "bunch (of grapes)"; DCH lists the common noun as "cluster (of grapes)" with a separate gloss "cluster of henna blossoms" at Song 1:14. The versions are uniform (LXX βότρυς, with φάραγξ βότρυος for the toponym; Vulgate botrus and uva; Targumic אִתְכְּלָא beside the Aramaic and Syriac s-g-l cluster words, whence the vowel name segol). Disagreement lies elsewhere. (1) Etymology. GKC 85 and 19m, following Barth, class אֶשְׁכּוֹל among nouns carrying an added initial aleph (אֶצְבַּע, אֶזְרוֹעַ, אֶתְמוֹל) on a base שׁכל; BDB reports that derivation from Gesenius Thesaurus and MV yet rules the etymology dubious, since no suitable meaning for the base is proven, and it also reports Stade's alternative derivation from אֶשֶׁךְ with an added lamed, which Strong's Concordance later popularized as though it were a lexicon's judgment. Comparative Semitics increasingly favors an inherited word: Ugaritic ʾuṯkl "cluster" (KTU 1.87:2, discussed by Watson), Arabic ʾiṯkāl and ʿiṯkāl "date cluster, palm spadix", and Targumic אִתְכְּלָא all show a Proto-Semitic interdental where Hebrew has š, which is the regular correspondence and therefore points to an old common Semitic ʾṯkl rather than a live Hebrew derivation. Akkadian isḫunnatu "grape cluster" (CAD I/J 190; AHw 387; CDA 131) is cited as a looser relative whose internal ḫ and nn do not correspond cleanly. (2) Referent in the Song of Songs. At 1:14 the noun governs כֹּפֶר, henna, which settles the species question in favor of a generic sense; at Hebrew 7:8 (English 7:7) the palm simile and the Arabic date cluster cognate lead Carr, and in varying degrees Pope, Fox and Keel, to read date clusters, while HALOT and DCH keep grape clusters, consistent with the explicit הַגֶּפֶן of the next verse. (3) The naming of נַחַל אֶשְׁכּוֹל at Numbers 13:24. Levine and Ashley leave the direction open: either an etiology coined by the scouts, in which case verse 23 uses the name in anticipation, or a punning reinterpretation of a pre-Israelite Amorite name already attested at Genesis 14:13 and 24. The common noun treated here is tagged separately in the corpus from that proper name. Finally, the rabbinic reading of the plural as אִישׁ שֶׁהַכֹּל בּוֹ (b. Sotah 47b; Temurah 15b; cf. Mishnah Sotah 9:9), "a man in whom everything is contained", is a midrashic pun on כֹּל rather than a philological etymology, though it witnesses how alive the connotation of fullness was for a packed cluster.

Where scholars disagree about eshkol

Where the word came from: a Hebrew formation on a base שׁכל, a formation from the unrelated noun אֶשֶׁךְ, or an inherited common Semitic word for a hanging cluster.

  • contestedAn old inherited common Semitic word for a cluster or palm spadix. The cognates (Ugaritic ʾuṯkl, Arabic ʾiṯkāl, Targumic Aramaic אִתְכְּלָא) all show a Proto-Semitic interdental where Hebrew has š, the regular correspondence, which suits an inherited word rather than a live Hebrew derivation.; W. G. E. Watson, "A Botanical Snapshot of Ugarit," Aula Orientalis 22 (2004), n. 101; G. del Olmo Lete & J. Sanmartín, DULAT, 3rd ed. (Brill, 2015), s.v. uṯkl; Koehler & Baumgartner, HALOT, 95 (assembling the comparative set)
  • contestedA Hebrew noun formed on a base שׁכל with an added initial aleph, on the pattern of אֶצְבַּע and אֶזְרוֹעַ. BDB reports this derivation from Gesenius Thesaurus and MV but withholds assent, since no suitable meaning for the base is proven, and calls the etymology dubious.; Gesenius, Thesaurus, as reported in BDB, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל; Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (Kautzsch, ed.), 85 and 19m
  • minorityA derivation from the unrelated noun אֶשֶׁךְ with an added lamed. Reported by BDB without endorsement and later popularized by Strong's Concordance.; B. Stade, as reported in BDB, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל (258, 300); Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, H811
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Brown, Driver & Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹלlexicon
  • Koehler & Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 95lexicon
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹלlexicon
  • Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (Kautzsch, ed.), 85 and 19m, on nouns with an added initial aleph (citing Barth, Nominalbildung 150b)grammar
  • B. Stade, as reported in BDB, s.v. אֶשְׁכּוֹל (258, 300)grammar
  • W. G. E. Watson, "A Botanical Snapshot of Ugarit," Aula Orientalis 22 (2004) 107-155article
  • G. del Olmo Lete & J. Sanmartín, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed. (Brill, 2015), s.v. uṯkllexicon
  • T. R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT, 1993), 238commentary
  • B. A. Levine, Numbers 1-20 (Anchor Yale Bible, 1993)commentary
  • M. H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible), 352-54commentary
  • G. Lloyd Carr, The Song of Solomon (TOTC), on 7:7commentary
  • O. Keel, The Song of Songs (Continental Commentary)commentary
  • J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 56-66 (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • F. I. Andersen & D. N. Freedman, Micah (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Eisenbrauns, 1987)monograph
  • b. Sotah 47b and Temurah 15b; Mishnah Sotah 9:9rabbinic source

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אֶשְׁכּוֹל

m s absolute

אֶשְׁכּוֹל

Num 13:24, Isa 65:8, Mic 7:1

f p absolute

אַשְׁכֹּלוֹת, אַשְׁכְּלֹת

Sng 7:7, Deu 32:32

m s construct

אֶשְׁכּוֹל, אֶשְׁכֹּל

Num 13:23, Sng 1:14

f p construct

אֶשְׁכְּלוֹת

Sng 7:8

f p construct

אַשְׁכְּלֹתֶיהָ

Gen 40:10