Sinews

/SIN-yooz/

Summary

The tendons and connective tissues of the body, used literally and figuratively in Scripture.

☩Physical Description

Sinews (Hebrew gidh) refers to the tendons and connective tissues that hold the body together. Job praised God who 'clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.' In Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, the prophet watched as sinews came upon the bones, then flesh and skin covered them before the spirit of life entered.

Key verses:Job 10:11Ezekiel 37:6Ezekiel 37:8

☩Figurative Use

Isaiah uses sinews figuratively to describe stubbornness, declaring that Israel's 'neck is an iron sinew,' picturing an unbending, obstinate people who refuse to acknowledge God's prophecies and works.

Key verses:Isaiah 48:4

☩The Sinew of the Thigh

After Jacob wrestled with the angel at Peniel and his hip was dislocated, Scripture records that 'the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh' in memory of this event.

Key verses:Genesis 32:32

Related Verses6 mentions

Job· 3 verses

10:11 30:17 40:17

Ezekiel· 2 verses

37:6 37:8

Isaiah· 1 verse

48:4

References

1.James Orr (ed.), "Sinew," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).