Sycamore

שקמות , שקמים , 1Ki 10:27; 1Ch 27:28; 2Ch 1:15; Psa 78:47; Isa 9:9; Amo 8:14; συκομορεα, Luk 19:4; a large tree, according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen, resembling the mulberry-tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit; hence its name, compounded of συκεν, fig, and μορος, mulberry; and some have fancied that it was originally produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the other. Its fruit is palatable.

When ripe it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of an aromatic taste. The trees are very common in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow large, and to a great height; and though their grain is coarse, are much used in building. To change sycamores into cedars, Isa 9:10, means, to render the buildings of cities, and the state of the nation, much more magnificent than before. Dr. Shaw remarks, that as the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all with the cedar for beauty and ornament. We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores in 1Ki 10:27, where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores of the vale for abundance. “By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech,” says Bishop Lowth, “they boast, in the place of Isaiah, that they shall be easily able to repair their present losses, suffered, perhaps, by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-Pileser, and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever.” The wood of this tree is very durable. “The mummy chests,” says Dr. Shaw, “and whatever figures and instruments of wood are found in the catacombs, are all of them of sycamore, which, though spongy and porous to appearance, has, notwithstanding, continued entire and uncorrupted for at least three thousand years. From its value in furnishing wood for various uses, from the grateful shade which its wide-spreading branches afforded, and on account of the fruit, which Mallet says the Egyptians hold in the highest estimation, we perceive the loss which the ancient inhabitants of Egypt must have felt when their vines were destroyed with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost,” Psa 78:47. “The sycamore,” says Mr. Norden, “is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs, in form of grape stalks, at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like clusters of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people, for the greater part, live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water.” There might be many of these trees in Judea. David appointed a particular officer, whose sole duty it was to watch over the plantations of sycamore and olive-trees, 1 Chronicles 28:28; and being joined with the olive, the high estimation in which it was held is intimated; for the olive is considered as one of the most precious gifts which the God of nature has bestowed on the oriental nations. There seem to have been great numbers of them in Solomon’s time, 1Ki 10:27; and in the Talmud they are mentioned as growing in the plains of Jericho.

One curious particular in the cultivation of the fruit must not be passed over. Pliny, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus observe that the fruit must be cut or scratched, either with the nail or with iron, or it will not ripen; but four days after this process it will become ripe. To this same purpose Jerom, on Amo 7:14, says, that without this management the figs are excessively bitter. These testimonies, together with the Septuagint and Vulgate version, are adduced to settle the meaning of the word בולס , in Amo 7:14, which must signify scraping, or making incisions in the sycamore fruit; an employment of Amos before he was called to the prophetic office: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.” Hasselquist, describing the ficus sycamorus, or Scripture sycamore, says, “It buds the latter end of March, and the fruit ripens in the beginning of June. At the time when the fruit has arrived to the size of an inch diameter, the inhabitants pare off a part at the centre point. They say that without this paring it would not come to maturity.” The figs thus prematurely ripened are called djumeis baedri, that is, “precocious sycamore figs.” As the sycamore is a large spreading tree, sometimes shooting up to a considerable height, we see the reason why Zaccheus climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a sight of our Saviour. This incident also furnishes a proof that the sycamore was still common in Palestine; for this tree stood to protect the traveller by the side of the highway.

Fig. 326—Sycamore-Fig: Ficus Sycomorus

This word occurs in several passages of the Old Testament. From the context it is evident that it must have been a tree of some size, common in the plains, unable to bear great cold, with wood of inferior quality, but still cultivated and valued on account of its fruit. It was not what is called sycamore in this country, which is a kind of maple, and in some of its characters the reverse of what is required, but rather the mulberry tree, the Ficus Sycomorus of botanists, which is a genuine species of Ficus. The fruit in its general characters resembles that of the fig, while the leaves resemble those of the mulberry tree.

The ancients were well acquainted with it; and it is common in Egypt as well as in Syria. In Egypt, being one of the few trees indigenous in that country, its wood was proportionally much employed, as in making mummy-cases, though it is coarse grained, and would not be valued where other trees are more common. Though the wood of this sycamore is coarse grained, it is yet very durable in a dry climate like that of Egypt; hence the mummy-cases even in the present-day seem as if made with fresh wood. This may, no doubt, be partly ascribed to the preservative effects of the resinous coats, paints, etc. with which they are impregnated. That the sycamore was cultivated and esteemed in Palestine we learn from 1Ch 27:28, ’And over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the low plains was Baal-hanan the Gederite.’ This was on account of its fruit, which it bears on its stem and branches, like the common fig, and continues to produce in succession for months. The fruit is palatable, sweetish in taste, and still used as food in the East. As the sycamore is a lofty, shady tree, it is well suited for climbing up into, as described in Luk 19:4, where Zacchaeus ascends one to see Jesus pass by.

Sycamore. (Hebrew, shikmah). Although it may be admitted that the sycamine is properly, and in Luk 17:6, the mulberry, and the sycamore, the mulberry, or sycamore-fig, (Ficus sycomorus), yet the latter is the tree generally referred to in the Old Testament, and called by the Septuagint (LXX), sycamine, as 1Ki 10:27; 1Ch 27:28; Psa 78:47; Amo 7:14. The Sycamore, or fig-mulberry, is in Egypt and Palestine, a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut tree; has wide-spreading branches; and affords a delightful shade. On this account, it is frequently planted by the waysides.

Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the under side, and fragrant. The fruit grows directly from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. To make it eatable, each fruit, three or four days before gathering, must, it is said, be punctured with a sharp instrument, or the finger-nail. This was the original employment of the prophet, Amos, as he says. Amo 7:14. So great was the value of these trees that David appointed for them in his kingdom, a special overseer, as he did for the olives, 1Ch 27:28, and it is mentioned as one of the heaviest of Egypt’s calamities, that her sycamore were destroyed by hailstones.

Luk 19:4. Often planted by the wayside for shade. Tristram ("Land of Israel") found an old sycamore at the broken aqueduct of Herod’s Jericho. The fig mulberry or sycamore fig (Amo 7:14). (See SYCAMINE.) The size of a walnut tree; the leaves heart shaped, downy underneath and fragrant; the fruit growing in clusters on little sprigs from the trunk. Amos was a gatherer employed about sycamore fruit (Hebrew); but Septuagint makes him a "puncturer (knizon) of sycamore fruit." Pliny says they made an incision in the fruit when of a certain size, and on the fourth day it ripened. The KJV is compatible with the Hebrew. If not gathered, it spoils by gnats. It is inferior to the fig. The tree is always green, and bears fruit often throughout the year, so that it is of much value to the poor. The wood, though porous, is durable, and suffers neither from moisture nor heat; Egyptian mummy coffins of it are sound after entombment for thousands of years. The destruction of sycamore trees by hailstones was among Egypt’s heavy losses (margin Psa 78:47). David had an overseer over his sycamore trees (1Ch 26:28; compare also 1Ki 10:27).

shiqmah, συκομωραία. This is a tree large enough for a man to rest in its branches, as Zacchaeus did. Luk 19:4. It was known in Egypt, and was plentiful in Palestine. Amos was a ’gatherer of sycamore fruit.’ David had a special overseer of such trees. 1Ki 10:27; 1Ch 27:28; Psa 78:47; Isa 9:10; Amo 7:14. It is supposed to be the sycamore-fig, or fig-mulberry (Ficus sycomorus ). Its wood is very durable. The Egyptian mummy coffins made of it have remained sound after the entombment of thousands of years.

SYCOMORE [; Ficus, Sycomorus]):

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Immanuel Benzinger

A medium-sized bushy tree of Syria and Egypt, allied to the common fig. It is often mentioned in the Bible (Amos vii. 14; I Kings x. 27; Isa. ix. 9, 11; Ps. lxxviii. 47; I Chron. xxvii. 28; II Chron. i. 15, ix. 27), and still grows plentifully in the plain along the coast, the Shefelah (comp. the ancient name of the place Haifa, Sykaminon, after the Greek designation of the tree [συκάμινος] in the Septuagint and elsewhere). The trees grew freely also in the valley of the Jordan, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and in Lower Galilee. It was one of the most widely scattered trees of ancient Egypt (comp. Ps. lxxviii. 47; Wilkinson, "Manners and Customsof the Ancient Egyptians," iii. 419); it was more valued there than in Palestine, where its fruit, a small fig not particularly palatable, seems to have been chiefly the food of the common people. Even to-day it is eaten by the poor only (Anderlind, in "Z. D. P. V." xi. 100; Henslow, "The Plants of the Bible," p.91). In order to make it palatable the fruit must be slit when it is maturing, to let the tart juice flow out (Amos vii. 14). The Hebrews valued the tree chiefly on account of its wood, which is light and very durable. In Palestine it was the common timber (I Kings x. 27; II Chron. i. 15, ix. 27; Isa. ix. 10). In Egypt most of the domestic utensils that have been preserved, as well as the sarcophagi, were carved from this wood.

sik´a-mōr. See SYCOMORE.

Sycamore. A huge evergreen tree growing to a height of about 12 to 15 meters (40-50 feet) with a trunk circumference of over 6. 5 meters (20 feet). The trunk forked near the ground, and the branches grew outward.

The leaves of the sycamore, sometimes called the sycamore fig, were heart-shaped, resembling the leaves of the mulberry. The fruit was similar to the true fig but was inferior in quality. These yellow figs grew in cluste rs close to the branches.

Sycamores were trees of the plains ( 1Ki 10:27) and could not tolerate colder climates ( Psa 78:47). The sycamore was the tree which Zacchaeus climbed to gain a better view of Jesus ( Luk 19:4).