StrongerBible

gephen

גֶּפֶן

HebrewH1612vine

Appears 55 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 40:9Gen 40:10Gen 49:11Num 6:4Num 20:5Deu 8:8Deu 32:32 (2×)Jdg 9:12Jdg 9:13Jdg 13:141Ki 4:25(5:5)2Ki 4:392Ki 18:31Job 15:33Psa 78:47Psa 80:8(9)Psa 80:14(15)Psa 105:33Psa 128:3Sng 2:13Sng 6:11Sng 7:8(9)Isa 16:8Isa 16:9Isa 24:7Isa 36:16Jer 5:17Jer 48:32Ezk 17:8Hos 2:12(14)Hos 14:7(8)Jol 1:7Mic 4:4Hab 3:17
Word studyGHEH-fennoun

What gephen means

vine: the grapevine, the cultivated plant whose grapes give Israel its wine

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Gephen is the grapevine, one of the staple plants of the land. Alongside grain, olives, and the fig, it stands for a settled, well-watered, well-tended life. Its grapes become wine, which the Bible treats as a gift that gladdens the heart, so a flourishing vine signals blessing and a withered or stripped vine signals disaster.

Because the vine mattered so much, it became a natural picture for other things. A man sitting under his own vine pictures peace and security. The whole nation of Israel is pictured as a vine that God dug up out of Egypt, planted, and tended, only to watch it run wild. These are not separate words: they are the one plant seen through different lenses, which is why the same noun carries a literal harvest in one verse and a portrait of the people in the next.

The Bible also knows a darker vine. A wild plant gathered by mistake and the bitter vine of Sodom both borrow the word for something that looks like a grapevine but yields poison instead of wine, the opposite of everything the true vine promises.

Nuances

1athe literal grapevine: the cultivated plant, its grapes, growth, harvest, and ruin
Gen 40:9Gen 40:10Gen 49:11Num 6:4Num 20:5Deu 8:8Jdg 9:12Jdg 9:13Jdg 13:14Job 15:33Psa 78:47Psa 105:33
1bthe vine as a sign of peace and plenty: each person safe and content under his own vine and fig tree
1Ki 4:25(5:5)2Ki 18:31Isa 36:16Mic 4:4Zec 3:10
1cthe vine as a picture of the people: Israel transplanted, tended, and gone wild
Psa 80:8(9)Psa 80:14(15)Jer 2:21Ezk 15:2Ezk 15:6Ezk 17:6Ezk 17:7Ezk 17:8Ezk 19:10Hos 10:1
1da wild or poisonous vine: a lookalike plant that yields bitterness instead of wine
Deu 32:32 (2×)2Ki 4:39

What scholars say about gephen

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat gephen as a single word, the grapevine (Vitis vinifera), and catalog its uses rather than splitting it into homonyms: the literal cultivated plant, the stock phrase of vine and fig tree denoting security, the figurative application to Israel and other nations, and the fixed expressions gephen sadeh (the wild vine of 2 Kings 4:39) and gephen sedom (the vine of Sodom, Deuteronomy 32:32). The vine-and-fig-tree formula is widely discussed as a topos of peaceful prosperity. The allegory of Israel as a vine, prominent in Psalm 80 and Ezekiel 15, 17, and 19, is treated alongside the vineyard imagery elsewhere; commentators note that gephen and the vineyard word kerem cluster in these passages without being synonyms.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. גֶּפֶןlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. גֶּפֶןlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. גֶּפֶןlexicon

All attested forms of גֶּפֶן

c s absolute

גֶּפֶן, גָּפֶן

Gen 40:9, Gen 40:10, Gen 49:11, Num 20:5, Deu 8:8, Jdg 9:13, Job 15:33, Psa 80:8

c s construct

גֶּפֶן

Num 6:4, Deu 32:32, Jdg 13:14, 2Ki 4:39, Isa 16:8, Isa 16:9, Jer 48:32, Ezk 17:8

c s construct

גַּפְנוֹ

1Ki 4:25, 2Ki 18:31, Isa 36:16, Mic 4:4

c s construct

גַּפְנָם

Deu 32:32, Psa 78:47, Psa 105:33

c p absolute

גְּפָנִים

Sng 2:13, Hab 3:17

c s construct

גַּפְנִי

Jol 1:7

c s construct

גַּפְנְךָ

Jer 5:17

c s construct

גַּפְנָהּ

Hos 2:12