Nettles in the Bible

  1. Hebrew: haral, “pricking” or “burning,” Proverbs 24:30-31 (Revised King James Version marginal note, “wild vetches”); Job 30:7; Zeph. 2:9

    Many have supposed that some thorny or prickly plant is intended by this word, such as the bramble, the thistle, the wild plum, the cactus or prickly pear, etc. It may probably be a species of mustard, the Sinapis arvensis, which is a pernicious weed abounding in corn-fields. Dr. Tristram believed that this word “designates the prickly acanthus (Acanthus spinosus), a very common and troublesome weed in the plains of Palestine.” 1

  2. Hebrew: qimmosh, Isaiah 34:13; Hos. 9:6; Proverbs 24:31 (in both versions, “thorns”)

    This word has been regarded as denoting thorns, thistles, wild chamomile; but probably it is correctly rendered “nettle,” the Urtica pilulifera, “a tall and vigorous plant, often 6 feet high, the sting of which is much more severe and irritating than that of our common nettle.”

  1. Dr. Henry Baker Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible (London: 1867)

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