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THORNS, THISTLES, ETC.—So many words are used in the Heb. for thorny plants, and they are so variously translated, that it will be convenient to consider them all in one group. In the great majority of cases it is impossible to identify the special species referred to.
1. ’âtâd, Jdg_9:14 f. AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , ‘bramble,’ mg. ‘thistle,’ RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘thorn’; Psa_58:9 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘thorns.’ In Gen_50:10-11, Atad occurs as a proper name. The ’âtâd is probably the buckthorn (Rhamnus palestina), a lowly bush.
2. barqânîm (Jdg_8:7; Jdg_8:10 ‘briers’), some kind of thorn. Arab. [Note: Arabic.] berqân is the Centaurea scoparia, a thorny-headed composite common in Palestine.
3. dardar (Gen_3:18, Hos_10:8), some thistly or thorny plant. In modern Arab. [Note: Arabic.] shauket el-dardar is applied to the star thistles or knapweeds of which Centaurea calcitrapa and C. verutum are common Palestine forms.
4. chçdeq (Pro_15:19 ‘thorn,’ Mic_7:4 ‘brier’; cf. Arab. [Note: Arabic.] chadaq ‘to enclose’), some prickly plant used as a hedge (Pro_15:19).
5. chôach (2Ki_14:9, 2Ch_25:18, and Job_31:40 ‘thistle’; 2Ch_33:11, Son_2:2, and Hos_9:6 ‘thorns’; Isa_34:13 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘brambles’; 1Sa_13:6 ‘thickets’; Job_41:2 ‘thorn,’ where ‘book,’ as in RV [Note: Revised Version.] , would be better), some shrub, species unknown, with very strong spines.
6. mĕûkâh, a thorn hedge (Mic_7:4).
7. na‘utsûts (Isa_7:19 ‘thorns,’ Isa_55:13 ‘thorn’), from Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] na’ats ‘to prick’), a general term for a thorn.
8. sîrîm (Ecc_7:6, Isa_34:13, Hos_2:6, Nah_1:10 ‘thorn’). The reference to the ‘crackling of thorns’ suggests the thorny burnet, which is burned all over Palestine in lime-kilns. sîrôth, Amo_4:2, means ‘books.’
9. sillôn (Eze_28:24 ‘brier’; sallônîm, Eze_2:6 ‘thorns’).
10. sârâbîm (Eze_2:6 ‘briers,’ lit. ‘rebels,’ as in mg., but text doubtful).
11. sirpâd (Isa_55:13 ‘brier,’ lit. the ‘burner,’ hence perhaps ‘nettle’).
12. tsinnîm (Job_5:5, Pro_22:5 ‘thorns’); tsĕînîm (Num_33:55, Jos_23:13 ‘thorns’).
13. qôts (Gen_3:18, Exo_22:6, Jdg_8:7; Jdg_8:18 etc.), the commonest and most general word for ‘thorns.’
14. qimmôs (Pro_24:31 ‘thorns’), elsewhere ‘nettles.’ See Nettle.
15. sikkîm (Num_33:55 ‘pricks’), cf. Arab. [Note: Arabic.] shauk ‘thorn.’
16. shayith, only in Is. (Isa_5:8; Isa_7:23 f., Isa_9:17, Isa_10:17, Isa_27:4), always with shâmîr (‘brier’), and tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘thorns.’
17. shâmîr, in Is. (see above) always tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘brier’; cf. Arab. [Note: Arabic.] samur ‘a thorny tree.’
18. rhamnos (Gr.), Bar_6:71 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘thorn’).
19. skolops (Gr.), 2Co_12:7 ‘thorn’ (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘stake’). See Medicine, p. 600b; Paul, p. 688a.
20. akanthai (Gr.) = Heb. qôts, Mat_7:16; Mat_13:7; Mat_13:22; Mat_27:29 etc. ‘thorns.’
21. tribolos (Gr.), Mat_7:16 ‘thistle,’ Heb_6:8 ‘brier.’
The variety of words used to describe these prickly plants is not surprising, when it is remembered that such plants are ubiquitous throughout Palestine, and for many months of the year are almost the only living uncultivated vegetation. They form the common food of goats and camels; they are burned (Ecc_7:6), specially the thorny burnet (Arab. [Note: Arabic.] billân), in ovens and lime-kilns, large areas of land being diligently cleared every autumn for this purpose. Gigantic thistles, sometimes as high as a horse’s head, cover whole acres of fallow land and have to be cleared by fire before ploughing can begin. ‘Thorns’ of various kinds, e.g. brambles, oleasters, etc., are commonly used as hedges; and tangled masses of dead thorny branches from the Zizyphus and similar trees are used, particularly in the Jordan Valley, as defences round fields, flocks, or tents (Pro_15:11, Mic_7:4 etc.).
E. W. G. Masterman.