This is the final part of the series on “Attention.” I have put well over 100 hours of investigation into this very important word, referred to before, as סכה. I have written three different potential pieces to post. It is a very key word. I had initial intentions of getting it out to you before Sukkot. Fail…
But, I have decided simply to share this with you, the entry in the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. May you glean something useful for your life from this entry.
1492 סָכַךְ (sākak) (h5526. סָכַךְ sâḵaḵ) block, stop the approach, shut off, cover.
Derivatives
1492a † מָסָךְ (māsāk), מְסֻךָה (mesūkâ) (h4539. מָסָךְ mâsâḵ) covering.
1492b † מוּסָךְ (mûsāk) (h4329. מוּסַךְ mûsaḵ) covered structure.
1492c † סַךְ (sak) (h5519. סָךְ sâḵ) multitude.
1492d † סֹךְ (sōk) (h5520. סֹךְ sḵ), סֻכָּה (sûkkâ) covert, thicket, booth. See also no. 1491.
1492e † סֻכּוֹת (sūkkôt) (h5523. סֻכּוֹת sukkôṯ) Succoth (place name).
1492f סֹכֵךְ (sōkēk) (h5526. סָכַךְ sâḵaḵ) covered structure, only used in Nah 2:5.
The basic meaning of the root is that of blocking, or stopping up something. Cognates exist in Akkadian ( sakāku “(be) choke(d) up”) and Arabic ( sakka “choke up”). A by-form, שָׂכַךְ”cover,” occurs in Ex 33:22. A homophonic root, “weave,” “shape,” may possibly underlie Job 10:11 and Ps 139:13. (But cf. Dahood, AB, Psalms HI who derives it from סָכַךְ “cover” with ב meaning “from” “protected from birth.”)
This important root is productive in both a physical and figurative sense, particularly with the idea of “covering.” in the former sense, it was frequently used in the building activities relative to the sacred places of worship. The cherubim’s wings were to cover the mercy seat in the tabernacle (Ex 37:9) and the temple (1 Chr 28:18). A veil screened off the ark and the mercy seat which were located within the holy of holies (Ex 40:3, 21). The participial from yields the denominative sokek, a covering erected to protect besiegers from the defenders’ missiles (Nah 2:5 [H 6]).
In a figurative sense, it pictures God’s protection for the one who comes to him for refuge (Ps 5:11 [H 12]; 91:4; 140:7 [H 8]).
מָסָךְ. Covering. Used most notably in connection with the several entrance screens in the tabernacle complex (Ex 39:34-40).
מְסֻךָה. Covering. Refers to the prince of Tyre’s jeweled surroundings, a description that finds ultimate understanding in the events of Eden and the person and work of Satan (Ezek 28:13ff.).
מוּסָךְ. Covered way (or place). Found in 2 Kgs 16:18 where it designates “the covered way for the sabbath” which was removed in the remodeling that followed Ahaz’s apostasy. Another view is that שַׁבַּת is to be vocalized shebet (from יָשַׁב) and read as “throne,” “the covered place of the throne.”
סֹךְ. Multitude (Ps 42:4 [H 5]). This word is difficult. The renderings of the various English versions (KJV “multitude,” ASV, RSV “throng”) are by no means certain. Dahood’s “barrier” (i.e. separating the temple enclosure from the court of the gentiles) is not without merit (see AB, Psalms I, p. 257).
סֹךְ. Covert. Occurs four times with the idea of a protective covering, whether in the natural world (Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38) or figuratively, of the person and work of God (Ps 27:5; 76:2 [H 3]).
סֻכָּה. Covert. Designates a temporary abode (2 Sam 11:11; Job 36:20; 38:40). In a context of judgment Isaiah (1:8) employs the word to picture the devastation and depopulation of Israel, because he foresees God’s people reduced to living in temporary shelters. Figuratively, God provides shelter for the believer’s temporary afflictions (Ps 31:20 [H 21]).
Most commonly, it is used in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. Once a year the Israelite left his home to tabernacle in a “booth,” made from tree branches (Lev 23:34ff.). The feast marked not only the joy and thankfulness of a grateful people for God’s provision at the end of the agricultural season (23:39-41), but was to be a perpetual reminder (Deut 16:13ff.) to the people of God’s care for his own whom he had rescued from Egypt during those long years in the wilderness (Lev 23:42-43). The feast was closed by a day of rest, featured by a holy convocation, marking not only the climax of the religious year but symbolizing the rest of the believer in his God (23:39). Prophetically, the feast finds final fulfillment in that grand day when God will raise up the fallen booth of David (Amos 9:11) and give shelter to his repentant, redeemed, and regathered people (Isa 4:6).
סֻכּוֹת. Succoth. Marks the name of two important biblical sites. The first was located in Gad (Josh 13:27) near the Jordan Valley, usually identified with Tell Deir `Alla, two miles north of the Jabbok River. Succoth also names the site where the Hebrews first stopped in their Exodus from Egypt after leaving Ramses (Ex 12:37-13:20), usually equated with Tell el-Maskhutah in the Wadi Tumilat.
Bibliography:
TDOT, VII, pp. 369-74.
R.D.P.
((Referred to in reference above 1491 סִכּוּת (sikkût) (h5522. סִכּוּת sikkûṯ) Tabernacle (ASV similar, RSV sakkuth.)
This word occurs once in the Old Testament, in Amos 5:26, along with כִּיּוּן(q.v.). Although the consonants skt may be those of “tabernacle,” as both KJV and ASV render it, the presence of this word with kyn in certain Mesopotamian texts, both referring to the star god, Saturn, makes it seem likely that סִכּוּת here is a proper name referring to such a deity.
Both סִכּוּת and כִּיּוּן have apparently been revocalized with the vowels from שִׁקּוּץabomination. Whether the words were actually pronounced as revocalized, or were simply read as שִׁקֻּץ is a moot question. The fact that YHWH vocalized with the vowels from אֲדֹנָי is pronounced as אֲדֹנָי gives some weight to the latter view. (See a similar treatment of the vowels of בֹּשֶׁת .)
It is clear from Mesopotamian myths that the stars represented the parttheon of gods [the cuneiform sign for Ishtar, the queen of heaven (Jer 7:18, etc.) was a star]. Thus to become a vassal of Assyria and later, of Babylon, meant to serve the “host of heaven” as gods. This is made clear in the accounts of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:3, 5) who worshipped these deities as a part of his subservience, and Josiah, who repudiated them as a part of his revolt against such subservience (23:4-5).
Amos is saying that the result of the Israelites’ forsaking their trust in God for a political and religious deal with their oppressors will result not in deliverance, but destruction.
[The NT refers to this difficult verse (Acts 7:43) taking it a bit differently from the Hebrew of Amos 5:26. It parallels the “סִכּוּתof your king” (or Molech) and “the star of your god,” interpreting the latter deity as Remphan which is apparently a title of the star god Saturn. Then it refers to both the סִכּוּת and כִּיּוּן as “figures” or “images” which the Jews had worshipped. In this formulation, the “סִכּוּת of Molech” may indeed be a “tabernacle” or “shrine” a “סִכּוּתof Molech,” but the word for “shrine,” sukkat, may have been chosen as a word play on a Babylonian name of the star god Saturn, סִכּוּת . R.L.H.]
J.N.O.))
May your life be held gently in God’s hands.
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