Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Flowers
Subjects in this Topic:
FLOWERS.—1. nizzân, only Son_2:12. 2. ziz, Isa_28:1; Isa_28:4; Isa_40:6, Job_14:2, ‘blossoms’ Num_17:8. 3. nizzah—used of the inconspicuous flowers of vine and olive, Isa_18:5, Job_15:33. 4. perach, Exo_25:33, Isa_18:5, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘bud,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘blossom,’ Nah_1:4. Flowers are one of the attractive features of Palestine: they come in the early spring (Son_2:12), but fade all too soon, the brilliant display being a matter of but a few short weeks. Hence they are an appropriate symbol of the evanescence of human life (Job_14:2, Psa_103:15 etc.). The ‘lilies of the field’ of Mat_6:28 may have been a comprehensive term for the brilliant and many-coloured anemones, the irises, the gladioli, etc., which lend such enchantment to the hillsides in March and April.
E. W. G. Masterman.