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The word “pine” occurs in our translation three times, but in neither case is the pine of our northern regions referred to in the original. The first instance is in Neh_8:15 (Sept. îýëïí êõðáñßóóéíïí . Vulg. lignum pulcherrimum), where the Hebrew words òֵåֹ ùֶׁîֶï , ets shemen, are rendered “pine-branches.” though the phrase is generally understood to denote the wild olive-tree. SEE OLIVE. The second and third instances are in Isa_41:19 (Sept. ðåýêç , Vulg. pinus) and 60:13 (Sept. âñáèõäáÜñ , Vulg. ulmus), where the Hebrew word is úַּãְּäָø , tidhar, which Gesenius conjectures to denote the oak (from its hardness and durability, root, ãָּäִø ); but the old translators waver between beech, pine, cypress, larch, etc., and by modern interpreters it has been variously explained to be the Indian plane, the larch, and the elm (Celsius, Hierob. 2, 271). SEE ASH-TREE; SEE BOX-TREE; SEE CEDAR-TREE.
The Sept. rendering in Isa_41:19, âñáèõäáÜñ , appears to have arisen from a confused amalgamation of the words berosh and tidhar, which follow each other in that passage. Of these berosh is sometimes rendered “cypress,” and might stand for “juniper.” That species of juniper which is called savin is in Greek âñáèý . The word äáÜñ is merely an expression in Greek letters for tidhar (Pliny, 24:11, 61; Schleusner, s.v.; Celsius, Hierob. 1, 78). In the Chaldee paraphrase the word murneyan, commonly thought to mean the elm, is used as the synonym of tidhar. But no similar name having been discovered in any of the cognate languages, no proofs can be adduced in favor of one more than another. The name tidhara, meaning “three-cornered,” is applied in India to a species of Euphorbia (E. antiquoum); but this is not likely to be the plant alluded to in Scripture. But the rendering “pine” seems least probable of any, as the root implies either curvature or duration, of which the latter is not particularly applicable to the pine, and the former remarkably otherwise. On the other hand, Thomson (Land and Book, 2, 266 sq.) supposes that berôsh ( áְּøåֹùׁ ) ought to be rendered pine instead of fir, as usual in the A. V.; referring it to the “stone-pine,” which still covers the sandy ridges of Lebanon and Hermon, and is called snubar by the Arabs. SEE FIR.