Original Word: שַׁיִת
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: shayith
Pronunciation: SHAH-yeeth
Phonetic Spelling: (shah'-yith)
KJV: thorns
NASB: thorns
Word Origin: [from H7896 (שִׁיתּ - set)]

1. scrub or trash, i.e. wild growth of weeds or briers (as if put on the field)

thorns

From shiyth; scrub or trash, i.e. Wild growth of weeds or briers (as if put on the field) -- thorns.

see HEBREW shiyth

Word Origin
perhaps from shith
Definition
thornbushes
NASB Translation
thorns (7).

שַׁ֫יִת noun [masculine] collective thorn-bushes (connection with above √ dubious; Dietr^Abh.73 compare (improbable) שׁאה devastate, אִיָּה ruin, whence ׳שׁ wild, rough growth); — always with שָׁמִיר: absolute ׳שׁ Isaiah 7:23,24; Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 27:4 (compare Du); שָׁ֑יִת Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 7:25; suffix שִׁיתוֺ Isaiah 10:17 (figurative of Assyr.).

Definition and Imagery

Shayit denotes wild, stubborn growth—briars, brambles, thorn-bushes—plants that flourish where cultivation and care have been withheld. In Scripture it is never portrayed positively; it embodies neglect, sterility, and the curse on a land or a people who have turned from the LORD.

Agricultural and Social Context

In the hill country of Judah and the fertile terraces of the Galilee, vineyards required continual pruning, hoeing, and stone-clearing. When owners abandoned that labor, shayit quickly covered the terraces, choking vines, scratching livestock, and signaling to every passer-by that the field’s protector no longer cared for his inheritance. Thus shayit became a visible sign of covenant breach: the LORD had pledged abundance for obedience (Leviticus 26:3–5) but warned of desolation for rebellion (Leviticus 26:31-32). Isaiah draws on that familiar rural image to preach to kings and commoners alike.

Occurrences in Isaiah

Isaiah alone employs the term, clustering the seven occurrences around the Assyrian crisis but extending the imagery to the far reaches of redemptive history.

• Isaiah 5:6 sets the keynote. The carefully prepared “vineyard of the LORD of Hosts” (Israel) will be abandoned: “it will not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns will grow up”.
• Isaiah 7:23-25 paints Judah’s countryside after invasion: once-valuable vineyards become worthless scrub. Fear of thorny overgrowth forces travelers to arm themselves: “Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briars and thorns” (7:24).
• Isaiah 9:18 and 10:17 move from agricultural ruin to moral indictment. Wickedness itself “consumes the briars and thorns” (9:18); the Holy One will in turn “burn and consume his thorns and briers” (10:17).
• Isaiah 27:4 looks beyond judgment to a renewed relationship: “I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march against them… I would burn them up together”. The covenant Lord longs to eradicate every last vestige of the curse that mars His vineyard.

Symbolic Significance

1. Judgment and abandonment―Shayit marks a field the owner has renounced, just as divine thorns mark a nation God has handed over to the consequences of sin.
2. Obstacles to fruitfulness―By shading sunlight and robbing moisture, briars thwart the yield He desires (John 15:8).
3. Fuel for divine fire―The thorn-bush is short-lived, fit only for rapid burning (Psalm 118:12). Isaiah’s imagery therefore dovetails with Hebrews 6:8: “If it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”
4. Preview of ultimate cleansing―Every scene of briars set ablaze anticipates the day when nothing unclean will mar the new creation (Revelation 22:3).

Prophetic and Eschatological Trajectory

Isaiah intertwines near and far horizons. Historically, Assyrian armies left farms deserted, fulfilling the prophet’s words within a generation. Eschatologically, the eradication of shayit foreshadows Messiah’s final victory over sin. Burning away briars in “one day” (Isaiah 10:17) prefigures the swift and decisive judgment at the Lord’s return (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Christological Connection

At Calvary the King of Israel wore a crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29), embracing the curse signified by shayit and exhausting it in His body. In the resurrection garden the thorn-curse is overturned, guaranteeing the fruitfulness pictured in Isaiah 27:6: “Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit”.

Ministry Applications

• Preaching—Shayit offers vivid language for sermons on neglect of spiritual disciplines, illustrating how prayerlessness and disobedience allow thorny attitudes to dominate the heart.
• Counseling—The motif warns that refusing correction (Proverbs 15:10) invites relational briars that pierce marriages, churches, and communities.
• Missional strategy—Where the gospel has taken root and then been ignored, leaders must weed out doctrinal error and moral compromise so that true vines may flourish again (Titus 1:5).
• Personal devotion—Believers daily invite the vinedresser to uproot hidden briars (Psalm 139:23-24) so that Christ’s character may ripen unhindered (Galatians 5:22-23).

Related Hebrew Imagery

While shayit focuses on thorn-bushes, Isaiah also uses dardar (“thistles,” Genesis 3:18) and kotz (“thorns,” Numbers 33:55). All three converge in declaring the barrenness of life estranged from God and the necessity of divine intervention to restore fertility.

Summary

Shayit threads through Isaiah as a barbed reminder that covenant unfaithfulness breeds desolation, yet its fiery end heralds the fullness of redemption. The God who allows briars to spread also pledges to burn them away, reclaiming His vineyard for everlasting fruitfulness through the finished work of His Son.

וְלַשַּׁ֖יִת וָשַׁ֖יִת וָשָׁ֑יִת ולשית ושית שִׁית֥וֹ שַׁ֙יִת֙ שית שיתו ša·yiṯ šayiṯ shayit shiTo šî·ṯōw šîṯōw vaShayit velashShayit wā·ša·yiṯ wā·šā·yiṯ wāšayiṯ wāšāyiṯ wə·laš·ša·yiṯ wəlaššayiṯInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts