ganan

גנן is a rare Hebrew verb, attested eight times in seven verses (2 Kings 19:34; 20:6; Isaiah 31:5 twice; 37:35; 38:6; Zechariah 9:15; 12:8), all in the Qal and all with YHWH as subject. BDB glosses it "cover, surround, defend" and treats it as the verbal base of מָגֵן, "shield," and of גַּן / גַּנָּה, the enclosed garden; HALOT gives "to protect, shield" and compares Akkadian ganānu, "to enclose, pen in," while others compare Arabic janna, "to cover, conceal." The two etymological routes converge on the same result, an act of covering or enclosing that keeps what is outside from reaching what is inside, and the lexica are not divided about the biblical sense. The verb takes its object with עַל (2 Kings 20:6; Isaiah 31:5; 37:35; 38:6; Zechariah 9:15), with בְּעַד (Zechariah 12:8), and once with אֶל (2 Kings 19:34, where the Isaianic parallel at 37:35 reads עַל and commentators generally treat אֶל as a variant of it). Isaiah 31:5 stacks a finite form with the infinitive absolute גָּנוֹן for emphasis, in a chain with הִצִּיל and הִמְלִיט, and its simile of hovering birds is usually read alongside Deuteronomy 32:11 within the Zion-protection tradition (Wildberger). Both promises to Hezekiah belong to the Zion-inviolability material of Isaiah 36-39 and its parallel in 2 Kings 18-20; TDOT treats the verb within its מָגֵן article as part of the vocabulary of divine shielding. Zechariah 9:15 and 12:8 extend the same promise to the people rather than the walls, in what Meyers and Meyers read as a deliberate echo of the Isaianic oracles.