(BA) gan

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31 July 2022 Navigate 'up' to the Hebrew index: index-hebrew.

The Hebrew term gn is often translated as "garden".

But gan doesn't quite match the English word garden. The gan of Genesis 2-3 contains, as far as the text mentions, only trees. In English we call a bunch of cultivated trees an orchard. Indeed, the NET reads "orchard" instead of "garden" in Genesis 2. But the Hebrew gan must be wider in meaning than "orchard", because Deuteronomy 11:10 speaks of an herb gan, as does 2 Kings 9:27, while the sexy metaphorical garden of Song 4:16 contains "spices" and "fruits". 2 Kings 21:18 has a king buried in his gan.

Perhaps one of the defining features of a gan is that it is enclosed by a wall. There may be a hint of this in Genesis 3:24, in which God stations angels in one particular place on the periphery of the wall. If the gan is enclosed with a gate, then it makes sense to station some guards there. If the gan is like an open farm, unprotected, some guards along one side won't do the trick. The references to walls or enclosure in 2 Kings 25:4, Nehemiah 3:15, Song 4:12, Jeremiah 39:4 and 52:7, and in Ezekiel 36:35 point in the same direction.