6. np^D3 mcsiikdh (Mic 7*) is a 'thorn hedge.' Of what kind we have no means of determining (see 4).
7. x;-i';_}nndzuz. The Arab, nw'c? corresponds with this, and signifies a thorn tree growing m Arabia. It may be one of the thorny acacias. In the two passages in which it occurs (Is 7'" 55") it is tr. ' thorns.' In the latter (LXX aroi'^-q) it is said that it will be replaced by the bcrosh. See FiR.
8. o'TP sirim. This seems to refer to the lighter tliorns, like the thorny burnet, which often grows in ruins (Is 34'^), and many of the star thistles, etc. The burning of these produces a crackling (Ec 7° AVm 'sound,' where there is a word-play between Tp 'pot' and D'i"0 'thorns'). ' Folden together as thorns ' (AV Nah l'", RV ' like tangleil thorns') would well suit such as the burnet, and many others in Palestine. As huah came to mean ' hook,' from the resemblance to a thorn, so siruth is once used in this way for ' fish-hook ' (Am 4').
9. ji^p sillan, AV and RV 'brier' (Ezk 28"); D'jiVg sallunim, AV and RV 'thorns' (Ezk 2", but text dub.), are stout thorns, such as are found on the midrib of the palm leaf, corresponding exactly to the Arab. suld.
10. D'5^P sdrdbtm is from an obsolete root signi- fying perh. to be refractory or rebellious. In the single passage where it is used (Ezk 2"), the con- text points to some stitl', refractory thorn, of which sdrdbtm was prob. the ancient name. It is associated with the stout thorn of the. palm, silliin (9) ; but we have no Arab, clue, as in the other case, to help us to a knowledge of what it was. AVm tr. it 'rebels'; but tliis is forced. Instead of ' briers and thorns ' (D-i^Vp c-;-;;), Cornill, Bertholet, ct al., would read ' resisting and despis- ing ' (D'b:) c'?-;;).
11. i5"ip • sirpad. — A plant of neglected and desert places, mentioned with i'vjj^j (Is 55"), to be replaced by the myrtle as na'dzitz will be by the fir. The LXX has ii6vvfa = Inula riscosa, L., the elecam- pane, a plant which grows on all the hillsides of Palestine and Syria. It is a perennial of the order Composita;, growing from 2-3 ft. high, with lanceolate to linear-lanceolate leaves, and yellow heads, about J in. long. It is very glutinous, and lias a strong, disagreeable smell. It is a plant worthless eitlier as forage or fuel. It possesses only two merits. The first is that brooms made of the green stems with their leaves on are used to
• So Baer ; MT ijnp firpad.
THISTLES, TIIORXS
THO:\rAS
gwei'p the floors of the native houses, and help to rid ihem of the fleas, which adliere to the slime which covers the plant. The other is that it grows on dry, rocky hillsides, and mitigates by its greenness the otherwise deserted and barren aspect of tlie landscape. Now it happens that the myrtle grows on siniil.ir hillsides, olten side by side with the elecanipiine. The contrast between this worth- ies,* plant and the myrtle, with its delicious fra- •riance, its beautiful foliage, exquisite flowers, and edible fruit, is quite sullicient for the require- ments of the pa.'^sap. 'Brier' of AV and RV, and urtkn = ' nettle' of Vul^'., besides lacking the RUtiioritv of the LXX, would not convey a mean- ing so forcible as the elecampane. Ihe Arab, name for the plant is'trA; et-tnyiji'in.
12. c'3^ zinnim is used twice : .lob 5° (LXX KaKCiv), where both MT and meaning are doubtful [Bevan, Joum. of Philol. xxvi. 303 If. reads plausibly D:i.yi "in-;^- D-:^, and renders 'and their wealth barbs lay hold of it'] ; and Pr 22' (LXX rplfioXoi), where the froward wander into desert places, where they are sure to meet with thorns. Another form of the same, D-j'js zenhiim (Nu 33", where it is a.s80ciated with c'3;- [see IS], Jos 23'^), simply refers to thorns as piercing the flesh, not to any particular plant.
13. pp ki'jz is a generic term for thorny and prickly plants, tr. indill'erently 'thorn' (Ezk 2S-^ where it refers to an individual thorn, Hos 10"), or 'thorns' (Gn 3'», Is 32'^), pi. D-jrip or o'vp kuzim (Jg 8', .Jer4'etc.).
14. C'j"i^:p kimmishdnim is once (Pr 24") tr. ' thorns,' but the sing, form tsisp (Is 34") and cic-c (Hos 9") ' nettles.' See Nettles.
13. D-fs sikkim, the ]>\. of -p' = Arab. shauk, generic for thorns (Nu 33"), tr. ' pricks.'
16. n-j' sfuiyith occurs only in Isaiah, and always a-sociated with tcj- shamir (5« 7»^--* 'J'* 10'' 27") ; always tr. ' thorns,' as shamlr is tr. ' briers.'
17. I'cp shdmir means both ' thorn ' and ' ada- iiiani ' In the former signification it occurs only in Isaiah, and each time but one (32", where it is associated with kCz) in company with shmiith. It is uniformly tr. ' briers.' Its Arab, equivalent, sdiniir, is the desert Acacia Seyyal, or A. tortilU.
Most of the above names were probably specific and well understood in the days when they were used ; but, as has been seen, few, if any, can cer- tainly be identified. The NT words for 'thorns an-1 thistles,' d/ca^ffat and rpIjSoXoi (Mt 7'", Lk (j"), and ' thorns,' iKuvdai. (Mt 13'), and ' thorn ' (rather ' stake '), jKliXo^p (2 Co 12'), are indehnite. There are not less than 50 genera and 200 species of plants in Syia and Palestine furnished with thorns and prickles, besides a multitude clothed with scab- rous, strigose, or stinging hairs, and another multitude witli prickly fruits.