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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Wormwood
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lanah, genus Artemisia. Four species in Palestine: Nilotica, Judaica, Fruticosa, and Cinerea. Metaphorical for bitter sorrow (, fulfilled in ; ); and evil with its bitter produce, or an apostate lurking in Israel and tainting others (; ; , rendered "hemlock"; Greek apsinthos; , the star which at the third trumpet fell upon the rivers and made them wormwood). Wormwood, though medicinal, if used as ordinary water would be fatal; heretical wormwood changes the sweet Siloas of Scripture into deadly Marahs (Wordsworth); contrast , etc. Absinthe is literally embittering and destroying many hundreds of thousands in France and Switzerland.