sa.iph denotes a cleft or divided recess, especially in rock, and also occurs in settings involving vegetation.

The attested usage chiefly denotes a cleft or recess in rock, a place entered or occupied in the Isaiah and Judges scenes. Two further occurrences place the plural form in descriptions of an olive tree’s remaining fruit and a calf consuming what belongs to a forsaken city, showing use for divisions or clefts in vegetation-related settings.

1. Rock cleft or recess · dominant

   In Isaiah 2:21 the plural construct form occurs with “the rocks” as people go into their crevices and clefts. Isaiah 57:5 likewise places it under the clefts of rocks, while Judges 15:8 and Judges 15:11 identify the singular construct form with the rock of Etam, where Samson stayed and where Judah’s men went down.

   Isaiah 2:21Isaiah 57:5Judges 15:8Judges 15:11
2. Divisions in vegetation-related settings · occasional

   In Isaiah 17:6 the plural construct form occurs in the olive-tree image, where the APB renders remaining berries as being “in its clefts of fruitfulness.” In Isaiah 27:10 the same plural construct form is connected with the abandoned city and grazing calf; the APB says the calf “will finish her clefts.”

   Isaiah 17:6Isaiah 27:10

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB uses “cleft” or “clefts” in the rock settings and also in Isaiah 17:6 and Isaiah 27:10. Its vegetation-related wording confirms the broader scene but does not by itself isolate the term’s exact English equivalent.