Fence

Fence (gader in Hebrew) refers to the dry-stone walls or thorn-hedge enclosures used throughout ancient Palestine to protect vineyards, gardens, sheepfolds, and cultivated land from animals and intruders. Such walls were typically built without mortar from the stones cleared from the fields themselves. Their partial or complete collapse was common and is used in Scripture as a metaphor for vulnerability and ruin.

Numbers 22:24 pictures a narrow vineyard path walled on both sides (Numbers 22:24). The Psalms use fence imagery to describe siege conditions — "Are you all attacking a man as if he were a leaning fence or a tottering wall?" (Psalm 62:3). Isaiah 5:5 employs the image of God removing the hedge and breaking down the wall of his vineyard as a symbol of judgment on unfaithful Israel (Psalm 80:12). Ecclesiastes 10:8 notes the danger of breaking through a hedge — one who does so "may be bitten by a snake," a proverb about the hazards of undermining established boundaries.