baskets in the Bible

There are five different Hebrew words so rendered in the King James Version:

  1. A basket (Hebrew: sal, a twig or osier) for holding bread (Genesis 40:16; Exodus 29:3, 23; Leviticus 8:2, 26,31; Numbers 6:15, ]17, 19). Sometimes baskets were made of twigs peeled; their manufacture was a recognized trade among the Hebrews.

  2. That used (Hebrew: salsilloth') in gathering grapes (Jeremiah 6:9).

  3. That in which the first fruits of the harvest were presented, Hebrew: tene, (Deuteronomy 26:2, 4). It was also used for household purposes. In form it tapered downwards like that called corbis by the Romans.

  4. A basket (Hebrew: kelub) having a lid, resembling a bird-cage. It was made of leaves or rushes. The name is also applied to fruit-baskets (Amos 8:1-2).

  5. A basket (Hebrew: dud) for carrying figs (Jeremiah 24:2), also clay to the brick-yard (Revised King James Version, Psalm 81:6), and bulky articles (2 Kings 10:7). This word is also rendered in the King James Version “kettle” (1 Samuel 2:14), “caldron” (2 Chronicles 35:13), “seething-pot” (Job 41:20).

  6. In the New Testament mention is made of the basket (Greek: kophinos, small “wicker-basket”) for the “fragments” in the miracle recorded Mark 6:43, and in that recorded Matthew 15:37 (Greek: spuris, large “rope-basket”); also of the basket in which Paul escaped (Acts 9:25, Greek: spuris; 2 Corinthians 11:33, Greek: sargane, “basket of plaited cords”).

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