Bough
Bough
is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of several words that require no special elucidation, but in Isa 17:6,9, it stands as the representative of אָמַיר, amir' (Sept. ἐπ᾿ ἄρκου μετεώρου in ver. 6, and οιΑ῾᾿μοῤῥαῖοι in ver. 9; Vulg. summitate ranti; Auth. Vers. "uppermost bough"), a word that occurs nowhere else, and is usually derived from an Arabic root signifying a general or emir, and hence, in the present text, the higher or upper branches of a tree. Gesenius (Comment. in loc.) admits that this. interproation is .unsatisfactory; and Lee, who regards it as very fanciful, endeavors (Lex. s.v.) to establish that it denotes the caul or sheath in which the fruit of the date-palm is enveloped. According to this view, he translates the verse thus: " Two or three berries in the head (or upper part) of the caul (or pod, properly sheath), four or five in its fissures." -This is at least ingenious; and if it be admitted as a sound interpretation of a passage confessedly difficult, this text is to be regarded as affording the only scriptural allusion to the fact that the fruit of the date-palm is, during its growth, contained in a sheath, which rends as the fruit ripens, and at first partially, and afterward more fully exposes its precious contents. SEE PALM. Nevertheless, Furst (Lex. s.v.) and Henderson (Comment. in loc.) adhere to the other interpretation.
