A booth or shelter provides a place to stay or shade, while a passage can also use that structure as an image. Leviticus commands Israel to live in booths during an appointed feast so that later generations remember the Lord's bringing them out of Egypt.
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Full entry for סֻכָּה (H5521) · Open the biblical lexicon
A booth or shelter provides a place to stay or shade, while a passage can also use that structure as an image. Leviticus commands Israel to live in booths during an appointed feast so that later generations remember the Lord's bringing them out of Egypt.
The BSB source-word alignment has 31 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of Tabernacles (9), in booths (4), booths (3), a canopy (2), a shelter (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 33:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Nehemiah (5), Leviticus (4), Deuteronomy (3), Job (3).
A booth or shelter provides a place to stay or shade, while a passage can also use that structure as an image. Leviticus commands Israel to live in booths during an appointed feast so that later generations remember the Lord's bringing them out of Egypt. Jonah builds a shelter outside Nineveh and waits to see what happens to the city. Amos speaks of restoring David's fallen tent, with the Lord promising to repair and rebuild its ruins.
These passages give the shelter different roles: remembered deliverance, a prophet's waiting place and restoration imagery. The word alone cannot identify which role is present. Readers should distinguish an actual structure from a stated comparison and follow the command, question or promise that governs its meaning.
Festival booths teach remembrance, Jonah's shelter locates his waiting, and David's fallen tent supplies Amos's restoration image. A temporary structure can serve very different textual purposes.
So that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
The Lord states why descendants should know about dwelling in booths: the remembered departure from Egypt governs the feast's instruction.
Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
Jonah constructs shade while waiting outside Nineveh; the later plant episode questions his concern for comfort and the city.
“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,
The Lord promises to restore David's fallen tent, explicitly describing repaired gaps, restored ruins and rebuilding.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Temporary shelter embodying covenant memory; moves from literal booth to metaphor for divine protection and presence
Temporary shelter embodying covenant memory; moves from literal booth to metaphor for divine protection and presence
a hut or lair BDB: thicket Usage: booth, cottage, covert, pavilion, tabernacle, tent.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 31 lexical occurrence verses.
סֻכָּה is built from this root:
The sukkah symbolizes dependence on God’s provision and reminds the community of their pilgrim history.Nehemiah 8:13-18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jonah's shelter offers shade but cannot settle whether his desire for Nineveh's fate is right. The narrative follows his construction with the Lord's provision of a plant and the challenge to his priorities. By contrast, the booths in Leviticus carry an explicitly commanded remembrance of Israel's departure from Egypt. Amos uses the fallen tent within a divine promise of repair and restoration.
These meanings arise from what the passages say about the shelter, not from a hidden spiritual definition of the noun. Keeping those differences intact allows teaching to address remembrance, misplaced concern and divine restoration responsibly. Reenacting an outdoor setting is not a shortcut to the Lord's promise, and physical comfort does not establish the justice of a person's wishes.
Lev.23.43
The Hebrew comparison supplies shelter vocabulary; a hut, festival booth and figurative tent need contextual distinction. The noun itself does not resolve every interpretive question about Amos's restoration promise.
Acts 15 quotes the prophecy about rebuilding David's fallen tent while considering Gentile inclusion. That explicit citation warrants a connection with Amos. It does not make Jonah's shade shelter or every festival booth the same restoration announcement.