Bible Dictionaries
Sheepfold

Holman Bible Dictionary

English translation of several Hebrew and one Greek term referring to a place where sheep were kept. The basic meanings range from stone wall, to place of confinement, and home. Related words appearing in Genesis 49:14; Judges 5:16; Ezekiel 40:43; and Psalm 68:13 are variously interpreted from the context and translated: “saddlebags,” “double-pronged hooks,” and “campfires” (NIV), “sheepfolds” and “pegs” (NRSV), “sheepfolds” and “double hooks” (NAS), “cattle pens,” “sheepfolds,” and “rims” (REB), “burdens,” “sheepfolds,” “pots,” and “hooks” (KJV), “saddlebags,” “sheep,” “sheep pens,” and “ledges” (TEV). The latest Hebrew dictionary completed in 1990 but published in parts over two decades gives differing meanings for the two related terms: “saddlebags” and “sheepfolds,” separating the Ezekiel passage out as a meaning unto itself.