1. forest, wooded height, thicket — The masculine noun חֹרֶשׁ meaning a wood, forest, or wooded height, cognate with Assyrian ḫuršu (wooded height). Used of the forest/woodland where David hid from Saul in the Wilderness of Ziph (1 Sam 23:15-16, 18-19), the forests and thickets where people hid during the Philistine invasion (2 Chr 27:4, reading uncertain), the forested region in Isaiah's prophecy (Isa 17:9), and the towering cedar thicket in Ezekiel's allegory of Assyria (Ezek 31:3). The feminine form חֹרְשָׁה is a variant of the same noun. Multilingual evidence is uniform across all occurrences: Arabic الْغَابَةِ/غَابَةً (forest), German forest/Wald, Korean 숲 (forest), Spanish bosque (forest), Hindi वन/जंगल (forest/jungle), French forest. All prepositional variants (בַּחֹרְשָׁה 'in the forest,' וּבֶחֳרָשִׁים 'and in the forests,' וְחֹרֶשׁ 'and thicket') represent the same lexical meaning. 7×
AR["الْغَابَةِ","غَابَةً","فِي-الْغَابَةِ","وَ-بِـ-الْغَابَاتِ","وَغَابَةٌ"]·ben["-বনের","আর-ঘন","ও-বনে","বনে","সেই-বনে"]·DE["[החרש]","[ובחרשים]","[וחרש]","forest","in-der-forest"]·EN["and-in-the-forests","and-thicket-of-","forest","in-the-forest","the-forest"]·FR["[החרש]","[ובחרשים]","dans-le-forest","et-bois-vert","forest"]·heb["ב-ה-חורשה","ה-חורש","ו-ב-ה-חרשים","ו-חורש","חורשה"]·HI["और-घना","और-जंगलों-में","जंगल","वन-में"]·ID["dan-di-hutan-hutan","dan-hutan","di-Horesa","hutan","ke-Horesa"]·IT["[החרש]","[ובחרשים]","[וחרש]","foresta","in-il-foresta"]·jav["ing-wana","lan-wana","lan-wonten-ing-wana-wana","wana"]·KO["그리고-숙의-","그리고-숲-에","숲과","숲에서","숲으로"]·PT["e-bosque-de","e-nas-florestas","no-bosque","o-bosque"]·RU["в-лес","в-лесу","и-в-лесах","и-лесом","леса"]·ES["al-bosque","el-bosque","en-el-bosque","y-bosque-de","y-en-los-bosques"]·SW["katika-msitu","kwa-msitu","msitu","na-katika-misitu","na-msitu"]·TR["-ormanda","ormana","ormanin","ve-orman","ve-ormanlarda"]·urd["اور-جنگل","اور-جنگلوں-میں","جنگل","جنگل-میں","جنگل-میں۔"]
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† חֹ֫רֶשׁ n.m. Ez 31:3 wood, wooded height (Assyrian ḫuršu, wooded height COTGloss LyonSargontexte, Gloss (v. also DlPr 180 Checrit. n. on Is 17, 9); NH חוֹרֶשׁ wood, forest; Aramaic חוּרְשָׁא id.)—abs. ח׳ Is 17:9 Ez 31:3 (but on both v. infr.); חֹ֫רְשָׁה 1 S 23:16 (v. Dr); בַּחֹ֫רְשָׁה 1 S 23:15, 18, 19; pl. חֳרָשִׁים 2 Ch 27:4;—wooded height 1 S 23:15 (‖ בָּהָר v 14), v 16, 18, so בַּמְּצָדוֹת…