2. "plsS, sallon' ("thorn," Ezek. ii, G), or "jisD, sil- lon (so called as being a pendulous or twig-like extrem- ity), Ezek. xxviii, 24; prop, a prickle, such as are found on the shoots of the palm-tree, and called in Arabic sullan, being the thorns that precede the put- ting forth of the foliage and branches.
3. *12"13, sirpad', in Isa. lv, 13; "instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree." The Sept. has Kovv^a, which is a strong-smelling plant of the endive kind, flea-bane, Inula hdenium, Linn. (Aristotle, Hist. An. iv, 8, 28; Diosc. iii, 126). The Peshito has zetur, satureia,szvory,Yf]\A thyme, Thymus serpyllum, a plant growing in great abundance in the desert of Sinai ac- cording to Burckhardt (Syr. ii). Gesenius | Thes. s. v.) rejects both these on etymological grounds, and pre- fers urlica (the rendering of the Vulg.) or netl'e, con- sidering the Heb. name to be a compound of r~3, to burn, and 123, to sting. He also notices the opinion of Ewald Qlram. Crif. p. 520) that Sinapi album, the 'white mustard, is the plant meant, after the suggestion 'of Simonis, who compares the Syriac name of this
plant, shephla.
4. "I^OO, shamir' (from its sharpness), the most fre- quent term, and always so rendered (Isa. v, (i; vii. 23, 24, 25; ix, 18; x,*17; xxvii, 4; xxxii, 13), ap- parently a collective term for thorny Oriental shrubs; comp. the Arabic shamura, the Egyptian thorn-tree. It is merely spoken of as springing up in desolated lands; in two passages (x, 17; xxvii, 4), it is put
metaphorically for troublesome men. The Sept. ren- ders usually cbcavSra, sometimes x<J(>T0C or aypojaroe %npa.
5. In Heb. vi, 8, the Gr. word is rn</3o/\o<; (three- pronged), tribulus, the land caltrop ("thistle," Matt. vii, 10), a low thorny shrub, so called from the resem- blance of its spikes to the military "crow-foot," an instrument thrown on the ground to impede cavalry ; the Tribulus terrestris of Linnaeus.
Neither of the remaining Heb. words so rendered ap- pear to designate any species of plant. One of these is E"1?!?"??) barkaniin' (Judg. viii, 7, 1G ; Sept. merely Grascizes fiapicavifi), mentioned as one of the instru- ments by which Gideon punished the elders of Suc- coth ; probably thn shing-sl dges, so called from the bot- tom being set with flint-stones, which the word seems prop, to denote. The other is 3"2."3, sarabim' (ap- parently from the Chald. root 2^3, to be refractory), rebels, which arc compared with thorns, Ezek. ii, G (Sept. TrapoirTTijo-ovo-iv, as if for 323 ; Vulg. ineredidi). Some of the rabbins understand thorns, and Castell (in his Lex. Ilepfagl.) renders nettles; but the other in- terpretation is defended by Celsius (Hierob. ii, 222).
Brigandine is an old English word, signifying a coat of scale armor, but now obsolete in this sense ; used in Jer. xlvi, 4; li, 3, for the Heb. ■)"i*~p, siryon' (occurring only in these passages), doubtless the same as the "i*"1-1'^, shiryon, a "coat of mail" (1 Sam. xvii, 5, 38) or corselet. See Breastplate.
Brigitta. See Bridget.
Brigittines (Birgittines or Bridgettines), a monastic order in the Roman Church, also called Ordo Saloatoris, founded in 1344 by Brigitta (Birgitta or Bridget) at Wadstena, in Sweden, and confirmed in 1370 b}' Urban V. The nuns and monks lived to- gether under one roof, yet without seeing each other. There were to be in every convent GO nuns, 13 priests (in honor of the twelve apostles and St. Paul), four deacons (to represent Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, and Jerome), and 8 lay brothers. They lived on alms, were principally devoted to the worship of the Virgin Mary, and were governed by an abbess, who was as- sisted by a confessor chosen among the priests. Both sexes wore gray cowls ; the nuns a crown of three white stripes with five red spots, the monks red and white crosses. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, and several other countries had convents of this order, most of which were swept away by the Reformation. England had only one convent, the Sion House, founded by Henry V in 1113, sup- pressed by Henry VIII, restored by Queen alary, and again suppressed by Elizabeth. The mosl celebrated member of this order was John (Ecolampadius, the celebrated reformer of Switzerland. At present the Brigittine monks are entirely extinct, while a few convents, inhabited by nuns only, were still found in 18G0 in Bavaria, Poland, Holland, and England. A congregation of Brigittine (or Birgittan) nuns of the Recollection was founded in the seventeenth century
by .Maria of Escobar at Yalladolid, in Spain, which in the eighteenth century had four convents. — I'ehr, Gesch. der Monchsorden, nach Henrion, i, 413 sq. ; Butler, Lives of Saints, Oct. 8; Helyot, Ord. Religieux, i, 484 sq.
Brim, i"ISp, hatseh', the extremity or edge of the water, Josh, iii, 15; nji, srrphah', the lip or rim of a cup or basin, 1 Kings vii, 23, 2G ; 2 Chron. iv, 2, 5; avui, up to the top of a vessel, John ii, 7.
Brimstone (tV*lB&, gnphrith' ; Otlov, sulphur). The Hebrew word is connected with 1B3, gv'pher, ren- dered "gopher-wood" in Gen. vi, 14, and probably signified in the first instance the gum or resin that ex- uded from that tree; hence it was transferred to all inflammable substances, and especially to sulphur — a