רוש and ראש, Deut. xxix, 18; xxxii, 32; Psalm lxix, 21; Jer.
viii, 14; ix, 15; xxiii, 15; Lam. iii, 5, 19; Hosea x, 4; Amos vi, 12.
In the two latter places our translators have rendered the word
_hemlock_ in the others, _gall_. Hiller supposes it the _centaureum_,
described by Pliny; but Celsius shows it to be the hemlock. It is
evident, from Deut. xxix, 18, that some herb or plant is meant of a
malignant or nauseous kind, being there joined with _wormwood_, and in
the margin of our Bibles explained to be “a poisonful herb.” In like
manner see Jer. viii, 14; ix, 15; and xxiii, 15. In Hosea x, 4, the
comparison is to a bitter herb, which, growing among grain, overpowers
the useful vegetable, and substitutes a pernicious weed. “If,” says the
author of “Scripture Illustrated,” “the comparison be to a plant growing
in the furrows of the field, strictly speaking, then we are much
restricted in our plants likely to answer this character; but if we may
take the ditches around, or the moist or sunken places within the field
also, which I partly suspect, then we may include other plants; and I do
not see why hemlock may not be intended. Scheuchzer inclines to this
rather than _wormwood_ or _agrostes_, as the LXX have rendered it. The
prophet appears to mean a vegetable which should appear wholesome, and
resemble those known to be salutary, as judgment, when just, properly
is; but experience would demonstrate its malignity, as unjust judgment
is when enforced. Hemlock is poisonous, and water-hemlock especially;
yet either of these may be mistaken, and some of their parts, the root
particularly, may deceive but too fatally.”
viii, 14; ix, 15; xxiii, 15; Lam. iii, 5, 19; Hosea x, 4; Amos vi, 12.
In the two latter places our translators have rendered the word
_hemlock_ in the others, _gall_. Hiller supposes it the _centaureum_,
described by Pliny; but Celsius shows it to be the hemlock. It is
evident, from Deut. xxix, 18, that some herb or plant is meant of a
malignant or nauseous kind, being there joined with _wormwood_, and in
the margin of our Bibles explained to be “a poisonful herb.” In like
manner see Jer. viii, 14; ix, 15; and xxiii, 15. In Hosea x, 4, the
comparison is to a bitter herb, which, growing among grain, overpowers
the useful vegetable, and substitutes a pernicious weed. “If,” says the
author of “Scripture Illustrated,” “the comparison be to a plant growing
in the furrows of the field, strictly speaking, then we are much
restricted in our plants likely to answer this character; but if we may
take the ditches around, or the moist or sunken places within the field
also, which I partly suspect, then we may include other plants; and I do
not see why hemlock may not be intended. Scheuchzer inclines to this
rather than _wormwood_ or _agrostes_, as the LXX have rendered it. The
prophet appears to mean a vegetable which should appear wholesome, and
resemble those known to be salutary, as judgment, when just, properly
is; but experience would demonstrate its malignity, as unjust judgment
is when enforced. Hemlock is poisonous, and water-hemlock especially;
yet either of these may be mistaken, and some of their parts, the root
particularly, may deceive but too fatally.”