Bible Dictionary
SINEW
A sinew is a tendon or tough band connecting muscle and bone. Scripture uses the term literally for the body and figuratively for stubbornness, as in an “iron sinew.”
Definition
A sinew is a tendon or tough band of tissue in the body. Scripture uses the term for bodily sinews and tendons and also figuratively for stubbornness.
Biblical Usage
The sinew of Jacob’s hip is associated with the tradition explaining Israel’s avoidance of that sinew. Sinews appear in descriptions of the body and the restoration of dry bones, while an obstinate neck is compared to an iron sinew.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>sin'-u (gidh (Job 10:11, etc.)): The tendons and sinews of the body are uniformly (7 times) thus called. "Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip" (Ge 32:32). In the poetical description of Behemoth (hippopotamus) it is said: "He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are knit together" (Job 40:17). The prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision (37:6,8) that the dry bones were gathered together, that they were covered with sinews, flesh and skin, and that they were revived by the spirit of the Lord. In figurative language the neck of the obstinate is compared to an "iron sinew" (Isa 48:4). the King James Version "my sinews take no rest" (we`oreqay lo' yishkabhun, Job 30:17) has been corrected by the Revised Version (British and American) into "the pains that gnaw me take no rest," but the earlier version has been retained in the margin.</p><p>H. L. E. Luering</p>