International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Prick

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Prick


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prik: As a noun (= any slender pointed thing, a thorn, a sting) it translates two words: (1) שׂך, sēkh, a “thorn” or “prickle.” Only in , “those that ye let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes,” i.e. “shall be a source of painful trouble to you.” (2) κέντρον, kéntron “an iron goad” for urging on oxen and other beasts of burden: “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (the King James Version of , where the Revised Version (British and American) omits the whole phrase, following the best manuscripts, including Codices Sinaiticus, A, B, C, E; the King James Version of , where the Revised Version (British and American) has “goad,” margin “Greek: 'goads' “), i.e. to offer vain and perilous resistance. See GOAD. As a verb (= “to pierce with something sharply pointed,” “to sting”), it occurs once in its literal sense: “a pricking brier” (); and twice in a figurative sense: “I was pricked in my heart” (); “They were pricked in their heart” (, κατανύσσω, katanússō, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) compungo; compare English word “compunction”).