THORN
383
THORN
Acacia surroniirled by a Brier Bush in Wnrly Saal, near Sinai. (From a phutosraph by the Editor.)
chers de granit un mespilus voisin de roxyacantha." Dr. Koljinsou mentions it as called zarur, but it is evident that we cannot have anything like proof in favor of either plant. Tristram remarks (jVaf. f/isf. of the Bible, p. -toS), "The senek denotes some particular kind of bush, and appears to be equivalent to the Egyptian sen/i, the Acacia Nilotica, very like the Acacia sei/ul. or skittah tree, but smaller and closer in growth. The A. Nilotica is common in the Peninsula of Sinai, which mountain is by some conjectured to have derived its name from the seneh bush." But as there is no ety- mological connection between the Arabic sunt (which is the same as shittah [q. v.]) and the seneh, and as the latter is a distinctive term, the basis of the identitica- tion of the latter with the acacia entirely fails, especial- ly as the Sept. so constantly understands the burning- bush to have been a bramljle-like plant; moreover, had it been the well-known tree that yielded the shittim wood, we can see no reason for the use of a peculiar or different term to designate it. It was evidently not a tree at all, but a low bush, probably one of the many species of annual thorny [ilauts still abounding on the mountain, and which, growing in the rainy season, re- main dry and bare during the summer. Hence the surprise of Moses that the highly combustible object was not consumed. The writer was struck with the habit of his native guide on Mount Sinai, who constant- ly set tire to these bushes as he met them. See Blsh. 16. SnAJLiR CT^TD'^) occurs in all the same passages as the next word, shdi/ith, below, with the addition also of Isa. xxxii, 13: "Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns (kotsim) and briers" {shaniir). It is variously rendered by the Sept., ■^fptroc. \opTog, Sippit;, iiypwoTiQ, ^i]pd. According to Abu'lfadl, cited Ijy Cel- sius (Hierob. ii, 188), "the samur of the Arabs is a thorny tree; it is a species of Sidra which does not produce fruit." No thorny plants are more conspicu- ous in Palestine and the Bible lands than different kinds of Rhamnacea. The Arabs have the terms Sa- lam, Sidra, Dhdl, Nabhi, which appear to denote either varieties or different species of Puliurus and Zizyphus,
Paliurus aculeatus.
or different states, perhaps, of the same tree; but it is a difficult matter to assign to each its particular signi- fication. Dr. Tristram states that " the Arabs of the .Jor- dan valley confine the name samur to the Paliurus acu- leatus, or Christ's Thorn" {Xat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 428).
17. Shayitu (r'l'^) occurs in several passages of Isaiah (v, 6 ; vii, 23, 24, 25 ; ix, 18 ; x, 17 ; xxvii, 4), in all of which it is associated with shamir, the two being translated thorns and briers in the A. V. From the context of all the passages, it is evident that some weed- like plants are intended, either of a thorny or prickly- nature, or such as spring up in neglected cultures and are signs of desolation, and which are occasionally em- ployed for fuel. Nothing has, however, been ascertain- ed respecting the plant intended by shd//i/h, and conse- quently it has been variously translated in the several versions of the Scriptures. Gesenius thinks it is ety- mologically connected with the skittah tree (i. q. r3'j). See Shittah.
18. SiLLON ("|1sp) occurs in Ezek. xxviii, 24 : "And there shall be no more a pricking brier (sillon) unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn (kots)." The Sept. here has crKoXo-ip and the Vulg. offeiidiculum. So also Sallon ("■'^D) occurs (in the plur.) in Ezek. ii, 6: " Though briers {sarahim) and thorns (saUoniin) be with thee." The Sept. and Vulg. here render both words vaguely (jrapoiarpiiaovai icai iTrt(TV(yn)(TOVTni, incredu- li et suhversores^. Several Arabic words resemble it in sound ; as sil, signifying a kind of wormwood ; silleh, the plant Zilla Myagrum; sillah,i\.\e rpayoQ of the Greeks, supposed to be Salsola kali and S. tragus; sulal or su- lalon, which signifies the thorn of the date-tree, while the Chaldee word silleld signifies a thorn sim[)ly. It is probal)le, therefore, that sillon has something of the same meaning, as also sallonim; but neither the con- text nor the etymology affords us a clue to the particu- lar ]ilant. Tristram, however, states that "the Arabic word sullaon is applied to the sharp points on the ends of the palm-leaf, and also to the buteher's-broom (Rus- cus (iculeatus), a plant common enough in many parts of Palestine" {Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 43 1).
THORN"
384
THORN IN THE FLESH
Butchei's-broom {Rusctts acnlcatus).
19. Sir ("^p) occurs (in the plur.) in several pas- sages, e. g. in Eccles. xii, (i, " as the crackling of thorns {sitiiii) luuler a pot," etc. ; Isa. xxxiv, 14, "Ami thorns (sirim) shall come up in her palaces," etc.; Hos. xi, 6; Amos iv, 2; Nah. i, 10. The Sept. and other transla- tions have einitloyed words signifying thorns as con- veying the meaning of sinm ; but the etymology does not lead us to select one plant more than another.