11. ἐγένετο … εἰς ἄψινθον. We are perhaps to be reminded, as before, of the plagues in Egypt, so here of the mercy to Israel, Exo 15:25 : here, as those are intensified, so that is reversed.
πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπέθανον. Of course such water would be unwholesome for ordinary use, though wormwood is not exactly poisonous. But it may be a question whether St John means the name to indicate the herb now known as wormwood, or another more deadly one: poison seems to be meant in Deu 29:18; Jer 9:15; Jer 23:15. The root of the Hebrew word there rendered “wormwood” seems to mean “noxious.”