שקד

שקד¹ to watch

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: šāqaḏ, imperfect yišqōḏ, participle šōqēḏ^[1][2]

Forms

שָׁקַד (šāqaḏ) verb^[3][1] Only qal: perfect שָׁקַד, שָׁקַדְתִּי, imperfect יִשְׁקוֹד, אֶשְׁקֹד, imperative שִׁקְדוּ, infinitive שְׁקֹד, participle שֹׁקֵד.^[2][1]

Etymology

The verb “to watch” is a Northwest Semitic word: Phoenician šqd (“to be circumspect”), in Punic “to take care”,^[1][2] and Jewish Aramaic שְׁקַד (šəqaḏ, “to watch”), which BDB and HALOT give for the Targums.^[1][2][4] Ben-Yehuda found it outside Hebrew only in Phoenician and in Palestinian Aramaic, where he thought it a Hebraism.^[5] Jastrow linked it with a root meaning “to bend”, as if “to be bent on”.^[6] For Psalm 102:8, where it means to lie sleepless, Koehler–Baumgartner had proposed a separate root, comparing an Arabic verb “to be emaciated”;^[2] HALOT keeps the usual verb.^[2]

The שָׁקֵד (šāqēḏ, “almond tree”) is traditionally named from it, “the watcher”, the first tree to wake and blossom at the end of winter.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is not used in the prose of Genesis to Kings: its twelve occurrences are in the prophets, the poetry and the late books.^[3] It is best known from Jeremiah's call, where God answers the vision of an almond rod with kî-šōqēḏ ʾănî ʿal-dəḇārî laʿăśōṯô, “for I am watching over my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12).^[3][2] The psalm of ascents warns that ʾim-YHWH lōʾ-yišmor-ʿîr šāwʾ šāqaḏ šômēr, “unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

HALOT's senses run from being awake to watching over: to keep watch, to lie sleepless (Psalm 102:8), to watch over people for good or ill (Jeremiah 31:28; 44:27), to keep watch at wisdom's doors (Proverbs 8:34) or over a grave (Job 21:32), to be intent on (Daniel 9:14), and, of a leopard, to lie in wait around the cities (Jeremiah 5:6); šōqəḏê ʾāwen are “those intent on evil” (Isaiah 29:20).^[2][1] The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek ἀγρυπνέω (agrupnéō) “to lie awake” and γρηγορέω (grēgoréō) “to keep watch”.^[3] In the Qumran rule 1QS the many yišqəḏû, “shall keep watch” together;^[2] the Dead Sea Scrolls have the verb 20 times, seven of them in 4Q418.^[9] Ben Sira has a noun šqd “sleeplessness, worry”.^[2][10] In Rabbinic Hebrew it moved to “to be diligent, studious”,^[1][6] the sense of Modern Hebrew שקד (shakád).^[11]

Timeline

• Prophets – God “watching over” his word (Jeremiah 1:12) and over his people (Jeremiah 31:28).^[2][3]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – šiqḏû wəšimrû, “watch and keep them” (Ezra 8:29), and Daniel 9:14.^[3][2]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek ἀγρυπνέω (agrupnéō).^[12][3]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 20 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, among them 1QS.^[13][9][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to keep watch, be wakeful; to lie sleepless.^[2][1]
2. qal with ʿal: to watch over a person or a thing, to see that it is done.^[2]
3. qal to keep guard at a door or over a grave.^[2]
4. qal to be intent on, concerned about.^[2]
5. qal to lie in wait, of a beast of prey.^[2]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew שקד (shakád)^[11]

שקד² almond tree

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: šāqēḏ, plural šəqēḏîm^[3][8]
• Samaritan reading tradition: plural ašqīdəm^[14]

Forms

שָׁקֵד (šāqēḏ) noun, masculine, plural שְׁקֵדִים^[3][11] Plural שְׁקֵדִים “almonds”; the pual participle מְשֻׁקָּדִים “shaped like almond blossoms” is formed from it.^[7][1]

Etymology

The almond tree is usually explained as a noun formed on the root of שָׁקַד (šāqaḏ, “to watch”): HALOT takes it as “the watching one”, since it is the first tree to come into blossom, at the end of January or early in February, and BDB names Kimhi, Gesenius's Thesaurus and Lagarde for the same view.^[7][8] Gesenius–Buhl agrees.^[15]

The name is old and regional.^[7][11] It is Phoenician šqd, Ugaritic ṯqd (“almond”),^[16][7] Jewish Aramaic שִׁגְדָּא (šigdā) and Classical Syriac ܫܓܕܐ (šegdā), from which Ge'ez ስግድ (səgd) is borrowed,^[8][11] and Akkadian šiqdu (“almond tree, almond”), with a Neo-Assyrian by-form.^[7][11][16] Wiktionary takes the word to be at home in the region where the almond is native, perhaps from a local substrate, without the derivation from the verb.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jacob sends almonds with pistachio nuts, balm and honey as a gift to Egypt, “of the choice products of the land” (Genesis 43:11).^[3][8] Tawil compares an Akkadian list naming the pistachio, the almond and another tree together.^[17] In the Priestly story of Aaron's rod the staff sprouts, blossoms and bears ripe almonds overnight (Numbers 17:23).^[3][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Jeremiah's call the prophet sees maqqēl šāqēḏ, “a rod of almond”, and God answers that he is šōqēḏ, “watching” over his word: the vision turns on the two words (Jeremiah 1:11–12).^[3][7][2] BDB reads the almond tree also in Qohelet 12:5, where the blossoming almond is part of the picture of old age.^[8] The Septuagint does not keep the almond in every passage: Jeremiah's rod is a staff of nut wood, and in Genesis and Numbers it has Ancient Greek κάρυον (káruon) “nut”; ἀμύγδαλον (amúgdalon) appears in Qohelet.^[3] In the Mishnah the plural šəqēḏîm names almonds, bitter ones and soft-shelled ones,^[18] and Modern Hebrew שקד (shakéd) is the almond.^[11]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – almonds as a gift in Genesis 43:11;^[3][8] Aaron's rod bearing almonds in Numbers 17:23.^[3][8]
• Prophets – the almond rod of Jeremiah 1:11.^[3]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – the blossoming almond tree in Qohelet 12:5.^[8]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek κάρυον (káruon) and ἀμύγδαλον (amúgdalon).^[12][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. an almond tree.^[7][8]
2. (plural) almonds, the nuts.^[7][8]

Word family

• מְשֻׁקָּד (məšuqqāḏ)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew שקד (shakéd)^[11]