This word occurs several times in our translation of the Bible,
but with various authorities from the original. 1. הברקנים, Judges viii,
7, 16, is a particular kind of thorn. 2. חדק, Prov. xv, 19; Micah vii,
4. It seems hardly possible to determine what kind of plant this is.
Some kind of tangling prickly shrub is undoubtedly meant. In the former
passage there is a beautiful opposition, which is lost in our rendering:
“The _narrow way_ of the slothful is like a perplexed path among briers;
whereas the _broad road_” (elsewhere rendered _causeway_) “of the
righteous is a high bank;” that is, free from obstructions, direct,
conspicuous, and open. The common course of life of these two characters
answers to this comparison. Their manner of going about business, or of
transacting it, answers to this. An idle man always takes the most
intricate, the most oblique, and eventually the most thorny, measures to
accomplish his purpose; the honest and diligent man prefers the most
open and direct. In Micah, the unjust judge, taking bribes, is a brier,
holding every thing that comes within his reach, hooking all that he can
catch. 3. סרבים, Ezek. ii, 6. This word is translated by the Septuagint,
παροιϛρήσουσιν, _stung by the œstrus_, or _gadfly_; and they use the
like word in Hosea iv, 16, where, what in our version is “a backsliding
heifer,” they render “a heifer stung by the œstrus.” These coincident
renderings lead to the belief that both places may be understood of some
venomous insect. The word סרר may lead us to _sarran_, by which the
Arabs thus describe “a great bluish fly, having greenish eyes, its tail
armed with a piercer, by which it pesters almost all horned cattle,
settling on their heads, &c. Often it creeps up the noses of asses. It
is a species of gadfly; but carrying its sting in its tail.” 4. סלון,
Ezek. xxviii, 24, and סלונים, Ezek. ii, 6, must be classed among thorns.
The second word Parkhurst supposes to be a kind of thorn, overspreading
a large surface of ground, as the dewbrier. It is used in connection
with קוצ, which, in Gen. iii, 18, is rendered _thorns_. The author of
“Scripture Illustrated” queries, however, whether, as it is associated
with “scorpions” in Ezek. ii, 6, both this word and _serebim_ may not
mean some species of venomous insects. 5. סרפד, mentioned only in Isaiah
lv, 13, probably means a prickly plant; but what particular kind it is
impossible to determine. 6. שמיר. This word is used only by the Prophet
Isaiah, and in the following places: Isa. v, 6; vii, 23–25; ix, 17; x,
17; xxvii, 4; and xxxii, 13. It is probably a brier of a low kind; such
as overruns uncultivated lands.
but with various authorities from the original. 1. הברקנים, Judges viii,
7, 16, is a particular kind of thorn. 2. חדק, Prov. xv, 19; Micah vii,
4. It seems hardly possible to determine what kind of plant this is.
Some kind of tangling prickly shrub is undoubtedly meant. In the former
passage there is a beautiful opposition, which is lost in our rendering:
“The _narrow way_ of the slothful is like a perplexed path among briers;
whereas the _broad road_” (elsewhere rendered _causeway_) “of the
righteous is a high bank;” that is, free from obstructions, direct,
conspicuous, and open. The common course of life of these two characters
answers to this comparison. Their manner of going about business, or of
transacting it, answers to this. An idle man always takes the most
intricate, the most oblique, and eventually the most thorny, measures to
accomplish his purpose; the honest and diligent man prefers the most
open and direct. In Micah, the unjust judge, taking bribes, is a brier,
holding every thing that comes within his reach, hooking all that he can
catch. 3. סרבים, Ezek. ii, 6. This word is translated by the Septuagint,
παροιϛρήσουσιν, _stung by the œstrus_, or _gadfly_; and they use the
like word in Hosea iv, 16, where, what in our version is “a backsliding
heifer,” they render “a heifer stung by the œstrus.” These coincident
renderings lead to the belief that both places may be understood of some
venomous insect. The word סרר may lead us to _sarran_, by which the
Arabs thus describe “a great bluish fly, having greenish eyes, its tail
armed with a piercer, by which it pesters almost all horned cattle,
settling on their heads, &c. Often it creeps up the noses of asses. It
is a species of gadfly; but carrying its sting in its tail.” 4. סלון,
Ezek. xxviii, 24, and סלונים, Ezek. ii, 6, must be classed among thorns.
The second word Parkhurst supposes to be a kind of thorn, overspreading
a large surface of ground, as the dewbrier. It is used in connection
with קוצ, which, in Gen. iii, 18, is rendered _thorns_. The author of
“Scripture Illustrated” queries, however, whether, as it is associated
with “scorpions” in Ezek. ii, 6, both this word and _serebim_ may not
mean some species of venomous insects. 5. סרפד, mentioned only in Isaiah
lv, 13, probably means a prickly plant; but what particular kind it is
impossible to determine. 6. שמיר. This word is used only by the Prophet
Isaiah, and in the following places: Isa. v, 6; vii, 23–25; ix, 17; x,
17; xxvii, 4; and xxxii, 13. It is probably a brier of a low kind; such
as overruns uncultivated lands.