The sage is a plant that grows 0.9 meter (3 feet) tall and naturally grows in Palestine. The Judean sage grows in the mountains and hills of Palestine. Its stems are four-angled, stiff, and rough. The plant grows from Syria south through Nazareth, Hebron, Tiberius, Samaria, and Judea.
This plant is the origin of the design for the seven-branched lampstand described in Exodus 37:17–18, which is known as the menorah, the traditional Jewish symbol. When the flower cluster of the plant is pressed flat, it has almost exactly the same shape and form as the seven-branched candlestick. It has a central spike with three pairs of side branches that each bend upward and inward in a symmetrical pattern.
On each branch of the plant's flower cluster are circles of buds that perhaps gave the idea for the "knops" (in the King James Version) or "knobs" on the biblical golden candlesticks.
Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.