Thistle
Thistle
is the rendering, in the A.V., of two Heb. and one Gr. word: 1. דִּרדִּר, darddr, any thorny plant, especially of the weed-like sort; always collectively in parallelism with קוֹוֹ, kots, "thorn" (Ge 3; Ge 18; Ho 10:8); 2. חוֹחִ, choäch, a stronger or hook-like thorny bush (2Ki 14:9; 2Ch 25:18; Job 31:40; elsewhere "thorn," etc.); 3. τρίβολος, a three-pronged thorn, the caltrop (Mt 7:16; "brier," Heb 6:8). The tendency of all vegetation in Palestine to run into spines, noticeable in the merest weeds as well as in trees, is a subject of remark to all travelers (see Hackett, Illust. of Script. p. 126). The thistle (a common name for various genera, especially Carduus cirsium, etc.) grows abundantly in. most countries, and is a small plant; but in the warm air of Palestine, and in rich soils like the plain of Esdraelon, the large and luxuriant thistle will overtop the mounted horseman. On the road from Jerusalem to Ramaj Hasselquist (Travels,-p. 280) found six different sorts; and in the south of Judaea, in the course of one afternoon, Messrs. M'Cheyne and Bonar counted ten or eleven species. Miss Beaufort speaks of giant thistles of the height of a man on horseback, which she saw near the ruins of Felham (Egyptian Sep. and Syrian Shrines, 2, 45, 50). "The most common species of this weed in Palestine are, Notobasis Syriaca, a tall flowering pink thistle with powerful spines; Scolymus maculatus, a very noxious plant, with a bright-orange flower and Carthemus oxycantha,
another yellow-flowering thistle. Whose formidable spines inflict irritating wounds, like the sting of a poisonous insect" (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 424 sq.). SEE THORN.
