Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

shâthal - שתל (Strong's #8362)
Planted

The word שתל shâthal (Strong's #8362, x10) is first used is in Psalm 1:3 metaphorically of the law-delighting man who shall be "like a tree planted...". Elsewere, it only occurs in poetic or prophetic books.

When the verb is used later in Psalm 92:13 [v.14 Heb.] is it used paralellistically paired with "flourish", implying that the planting is no mere "sticking it in the ground" but rather an actual living growing reaction:

"Those who are / planted / in the house / of the LORD
Shall / flourish / in the courts / of our God" (Psalm 92:13)

The later passage in Jeremiah that has Psalm 1 in mind (although more critical scholars tend to think that the Psalm was not David's and borrows from Jeremiah) uses similar language:

"For he shall be like a tree / planted / by the waters, Which / spreads out its roots / by the river,..." (Jeremiah 17:8)

This again implies active ongoing growth, "sending out" its roots for liquid sustenance.

In Ezekiel's parable of the eagles and the vine in 17:5-10 the implied horticultural logic is that something "planted" by very definition will prosper, be fruitful and grow majestically so long as it has good soil and water. In a later simile Israel is likened to a fruitful vine "planted" beside the waters and then transposed to a wilderness where she dries up. Prophetically and poetically speaking, in many of these passages, the subject, a man, vine or tree, is not only planted but is yet "transplantable". Returning to Psalm 1:3, some commentators regard the law-delighting man as one who is "transplanted" out of the context of the wicked's dried-up wilderness to the rejuvenated status of a flourishing tree in Eden.

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