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The Palm Tree in the Bible (6)
Pole and Palisade

André H. Roosma
29 July 2014 (NL original: 30 March 2012)

stylized palm tree: trunk with three branches/fronds on each side near the top

In the previous article in the series on the Palm tree, on the palm tree and language we discussed the Hebrew word for language, שָׂפָה - sāphāh or שֶׂפֶת - sephet. In the old pictographic script1: sin/samekh: palm treepu: opening, wind, mouthah: figure with raised hands and bended knees and: sin/samekh: palm treepu: opening, wind, mouthtav: cross sign, respectively. The latter we interpreted as: sign(s) from the mouth of the palm tree.

However, these words have yet another group of meanings, namely that of border or delineation.

A bit of background: palm trees often were growing around oases in the desert, along streams of rivers, or along the seacoast. Palm trees (sin/samekh: palm tree) were also used around an open space or terrain (pu: opening, wind, mouth) to fence, delimit or mark it (tav: cross sign), especially for the wealthy, the rulers, etc. Do you see what I see: sin/samekh: palm treepu: opening, wind, mouthtav: cross sign - sephet - שֶׂפֶת [H8193]- border, brim, edge.

We recognize this background also in the origin of our words pole and palisade and a row of related words in various European languages. These are derived from Latin palus - pole or stake, say the dictionaries. In the old script (from which also the Latin script is de­rived!) this was written: pu: opening, wind, mouthalp: ox headlam: shepherd's staffwawu: tent pinsin/samekh: palm tree; or – when leaving out the vowels – shortly: pu: opening, wind, mouthlam: shepherd's staff; leadersin/samekh: palm tree. I told about the surrounding or bordering of an open terrain or area with palm trees. In between the palm trees often rows of smaller sticks (wawu: tent pin) were put in the ground; sometimes also vines (those too: wawu: tent pin,stick in the ground) were planted there. So, what I see here is: a property (or open space: pu: opening, wind, mouth) of a prominent leader (alp: ox head; primarylam: shepherd's staff, leader) with small sticks or vines (wawu: tent pin) and palm trees (sin/samekh: palm tree) around it used as delineation or fence.
The connotation that we recognize in the word palisade was already in the many poles and sticks put in a row like this...

Is the above surprising, given that the palm tree (both the symbol sin/samekh: palm tree and the word תמר) were used in the Bible already for any straight-up standing pole or stake?


Notes

1 More information on the old Biblical script, as referred to here, in the Hallelu-YaH Draft Research Report: ‘The Written Language of Abraham, Moses and David – A study of the pictographic roots and basic notions in the underlying fabric of the earliest Biblical script.pdf document, a living document by André H. Roosma, 1st English version: 18 April 2011 (1st Dutch original: January 2011).

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The other articles in this series on the Palm Tree in the Bible are: ‘(1) - Symbol of the Tree of Life’, ‘(2) - Full of Rich Symbol­ism’, ‘(3) - Sign of God’s presence and speaking’, ‘(4) - Moses and the Big Fire in the Palm-Top’, ‘(5) - The ‘language’ of the palm tree’, (7) - More on the word Tamar and a very young Palm Tree’, ‘The great golden Menorah – Sign of God’s Presence’.

 
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