Forest

Concise Bible Dictionary:

A Forest in Israel
2. yaar, “a forest.” This is the word commonly used for both “wood” and “forest;” to be distinguished from a third word, pardes (Neh. 2:88And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. (Nehemiah 2:8)), which signifies “a park,” with cultivated trees, whereas the other is wild. Several forests are specified under the word yaar.
5. The wood of EPHRAIM in which Absalom was slain, on the east of the Jordan (2 Sam. 18:6, 8, 176So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim; (2 Samuel 18:6)
8For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. (2 Samuel 18:8)
17And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent. (2 Samuel 18:17)
). This has not been identified. It has been suggested that the pride and defeat of Ephraim mentioned in Judges 12:1-61And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire. 2And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. 3And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me? 4Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites. 5And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; 6Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. (Judges 12:1‑6) caused some forest to be called after the name of that tribe. This place, by its swamps, morasses and pits, “devoured” the Israelites by preventing their escape.