BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H812
esh.kol — Eshcol
A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.14.13; brother of: Mamre (H4471H) and Aner (H6063) § Eshcol = "cluster" 1) an area of Hebron, the valley of Eshcol 2) an Amorite, the brother of Mamre, dwelling in Hebron
6 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →Bunch; brave. (1.) A young Amoritish chief who joined Abraham in the recovery of Lot from the hands of Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:13, 24). (2.) A valley in which the spies obtained a fine cluster of grapes (Num. 13:23, 24; “the brook Eshcol,” A.V.; “the valley of Eshcol,” R.V.), which they took back with them to the camp of Israel as a specimen of the fruits of the Promised Land. On their way back they explored the route which led into the south (the Negeb) by the western edge of the mountains at Telilat el-‘Anab, i.e., “grape-mounds”, near Beersheba. “In one of these extensive valleys, perhaps in Wady Hanein, where miles of grape-mounds even now meet the eye, they cut the gigantic clusters of grapes, and gathered the pomegranates and figs, to show how goodly was the land which the Lord had promised for their inheritance.”, Palmer’s Desert of the Exodus.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
