H6086 — עֵץ (ets)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6086
Original: עֵץ
Transliteration: ets
Pronunciation: ates
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Occurrences: 288 unique verses (365 tokens) across 30 books
First Occurrence: Gen 1:11 — "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From an unused root; a tree (from its firmness); hence, wood (plural sticks): — carpenter, gallows, helve, pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
wood	58	20.1%
tree/the tree/a tree	61	21.2%
trees/the trees	57	19.8%
timber	9	3.1%
gallows/the gallows	8	2.8%
stick/sticks/the stick	8	2.8%
carpenter/carpenters	3	1.0%
staff/the staff	3	1.0%
stock/stocks	2	0.7%
Other (planks, helve, stalks, etc.)	~79	27.4%

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Haggai	2	5.3
Esther	8	4.8
Joel	3	4.1
Habakkuk	2	3.6
1 Kings	22	2.7
Exodus	30	2.5
Ezekiel	31	2.4
Leviticus	20	2.3
Nehemiah	8	2.0
Lamentations	3	1.9
Ecclesiastes	4	1.8
Deuteronomy	16	1.7
Genesis	25	1.6
Judges	10	1.6
2 Kings	10	1.4
2 Chronicles	11	1.3
Isaiah	17	1.3
Jeremiah	15	1.1
Joshua	7	1.1
Zechariah	2	0.9
1 Chronicles	8	0.8
2 Samuel	5	0.7
Proverbs	6	0.7
Numbers	6	0.5
Hosea	1	0.5
Job	4	0.4
Ezra	1	0.4
Psalms	6	0.2
1 Samuel	2	0.2
Song of Solomon	3	—

Heavy concentration in tabernacle/temple construction books (Exodus, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles) and prophetic material (Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah). Notably dense in Esther due to the gallows motif.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Living Trees — Creation, Agriculture, and Fertility¶

Gen 1:11 — "the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind"
Lev 19:23 — "shall have planted all manner of trees for food"
Lev 26:4 — "the trees of the field shall yield their fruit"
Deut 20:19 — "thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof...for the tree of the field is man's life"

2. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge — Eden¶

Gen 2:9 — "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil"
Gen 2:17 — "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"
Gen 3:22 — "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"
Gen 3:24 — "a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life"

3. Wood as Construction and Craft Material¶

Exo 25:10 — "they shall make an ark of shittim wood"
1 Ki 5:8 — "I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir"
1 Ki 6:15 — "he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar"
Neh 2:8 — "that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates"

4. Sacrificial Wood — Fuel for Altar and Offering¶

Gen 22:6 — "Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son"
Gen 22:9 — "Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order"
Lev 1:7 — "the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire"
1 Ki 18:33 — "he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood"

5. Execution and Public Display — Hanging on a Tree¶

Gen 40:19 — "shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree"
Deut 21:22 — "if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree"
Deut 21:23 — "his body shall not remain all night upon the tree...for he that is hanged is accursed of God"
Josh 8:29 — "the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide"
Josh 10:26 — "Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees"
Esth 2:23 — "they were both hanged on a tree"
Esth 7:10 — "they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai"

This sense covers post-mortem display of executed criminals and the Esther "gallows" (an impalement stake). The Deuteronomy 21:22-23 legislation explicitly links hanging on a tree with the divine curse, a passage quoted in Gal 3:13 (via LXX xylon) about Christ's crucifixion.

6. Idolatry — Wood and Stone as False Gods¶

Deut 4:28 — "ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone"
Isa 37:19 — "they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone"
Jer 2:27 — "Saying to a stock [ets], Thou art my father"
Jer 3:9 — "she committed adultery with stones and with stocks [etsim]"
Hab 2:19 — "Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake"

The formulaic pair "wood and stone" (ets va-even) recurs as a merism for lifeless idol-material, especially in Deuteronomy and the prophets.

7. Figurative and Proverbial — Wisdom, Character, and Hope¶

Prov 3:18 — "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her" (of wisdom)
Prov 11:30 — "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life"
Prov 13:12 — "when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life"
Job 14:7 — "there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again"
Jer 17:8 — "he shall be as a tree planted by the waters"
Psalm 1:3 — "he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water"

8. Prophetic Symbolism — Trees as Nations and Peoples¶

Judg 9:8-15 — Jotham's parable: "The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them"
Eze 17:24 — "all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree"
Eze 31:5-9 — Assyria as a great tree exalted above all trees, envied by the trees of Eden
Eze 37:16-20 — two sticks (etsim) representing Judah and Joseph joined into one

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֶבֶן (even)	H68	40x	"wood and stone" — idol material; building materials
אֵשׁ (esh)	H784	27x	sacrificial wood on fire; judgment consuming trees
פְּרִי (periy)	H6529	27x	"fruit of the tree" — agricultural/Eden
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4428	27x	temple construction for kings; hanging by royal decree
אָכַל (akal)	H398	27x	"eat of the tree" — Eden; locust/fire devouring trees
לָקַח (laqach)	H3947	27x	taking wood for building or offerings
אֶרֶץ (erets)	H776	28x	"trees of the land"; promised land fertility
מַיִם (mayim)	H4325	28x	"tree planted by the waters" — vitality image
בַּיִת (bayith)	H1004	36x	timber for house/temple construction

Synonyms (SDBH)¶

H1918 הֲדַס (hadas) — myrtle (specific tree species)
H2132 זַיִת (zayith) — olive (specific tree species)
H8558 תָּמָר (tamar) — palm tree (specific tree species)

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
יַעַר (yaar)	H3293	"the wood" (4x for yaar)	yaar = forest/woodland as terrain; ets = individual tree or timber as material
אִילָן (iylan)	H363	"the tree" (5x for iylan)	Aramaic equivalent of ets; found only in Daniel and Ezra
גֶּפֶן (gephen)	H1612	"tree" (1x for gephen)	gephen = specifically grapevine; ets = generic tree/wood
אֵשֶׁל (eshel)	H815	"a tree" (2x for eshel)	eshel = tamarisk; ets = generic term

Semantic Domain¶

[001002004002] Trees — with H174 ahaloth (aloes), H352 ayil (terebinth), H363 iylan, H418 algummiym, H424 elah (oak)
[001002009] Constructions — with H68 even (stone), H134 eden (socket), H197 eylam (porch)

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ξύλον (xylon) G3586	219x	33.69	Primary — timber/wood/tree; used in NT for the cross
δένδρον (dendron) G1186	14x	14.67	When emphasizing the living tree
ξύλινος (xylinos) G3585	10x	14.10	Adjective "wooden" — material quality
καρπός (karpos) G2590	24x	13.86	"fruit tree" contexts
λίθος (lithos) G3037	37x	13.57	"wood and stone" pair maintained in LXX
παράδεισος (paradeisos) G3857	11x	13.02	Eden "tree" contexts → "paradise"

The dominant LXX rendering xylon (219 out of 288 verses) preserves the full semantic range of ets — both "tree" and "wood/timber." This same word is used in Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29; Gal 3:13; and 1 Pet 2:24 for the cross of Christ, directly echoing the Deut 21:22-23 curse formulation.