Cattails

Tall, reed-like plants with fuzzy brown seed heads, often used for baskets and mats. Their roots are edible.

Cattails
Cattails (Bogdan (Wikimedia Commons)) Cattail (reed-mace)

About Cattails

The Hebrew word suf probably designates more than one species of the cattail, also called “reed-mace” and “bulrush.” There are two in Israel: Typha domingensis and Typha latifolia (Typha australis according to Zohary). Both species like to stand in the slow-moving water on the edge of rivers and streams. The reference to suf (“weeds”) in JON 2:6 (5) supports Zohary’s conjecture that suf may be a collective name for many water plants. Suf is paired with qaneh (“reeds”) in ISA 19:6, so it is almost certainly the cattail since both are found in marshes and slow streams.

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Key References

Exodus 2:3

But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

Isaiah 19:6

The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

All Scripture References (28)

Exodus (7)
Exodus 2:3

But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

Exodus 2:5

Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.

Exodus 10:19

And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.

Exodus 13:18

So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.

Exodus 15:4

Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

Exodus 15:22

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

Exodus 23:31

And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

Numbers (4)
Numbers 14:25

Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

Numbers 21:4

Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey

Numbers 33:10

They set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

Numbers 33:11

They set out from the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.

Deuteronomy (3)
Deuteronomy 1:40

But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

Deuteronomy 2:1

Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had instructed me, and for many days we wandered around Mount Seir.

Deuteronomy 11:4

what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

Joshua (3)
Joshua 2:10

For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

Joshua 4:23

For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over.

Joshua 24:6

When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.

Judges (1)
Judges 11:16

But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

1 Kings (1)
1 Kings 9:26

King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

Nehemiah (1)
Nehemiah 9:9

You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea.

Psalms (5)
Psalm 106:7

Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

Psalm 106:9

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

Psalm 106:22

wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Psalm 136:13

He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 136:15

but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His loving devotion endures forever.

Isaiah (1)
Isaiah 19:6

The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

Jeremiah (1)
Jeremiah 49:21

At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; their cry will resound to the Red Sea.

Jonah (1)
Jonah 2:6

To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!