Weed

Weed (סוּŠ, suph, Jon 2:6; elsewhere rendered "flag," Ex 2:3; Isa 19:6, but usually as an epithet of the Red Sea, lit. the weed-sea; Sept. φῦκος; Lat. alga, see Pliny, 31:46,4; 9:25), the sea-weed (Fucus natans of Linn.; Fucus marinus, Pliny, 26:66 and 79), a sort of sea-grass with lanciform, serrated leaves, and threadlike knotted stalks, which grows in great abundance on the shores of the Mediterranean (Jon 2:6; see Hirtius, Bell. Afric. 24), but especially of the Hellespont (Ovid, Heroid. 18:108; Belon, Observ. 2:3), as likewise of the Red Sea (comp. Strabo, 16:773; Diod. Sic. 3:19, μνίον), the last taking its name (יִם סוּŠ) from that circumstance. SEE RED SEA. The plant is described by Acosta (in Clusii Exoticor. Libb. [Antw. 1605], page 293), Delile (Flora AEgypt. in Descr. de I'Egypte, 19:113), Bochart (Phaleg, 4:29), Celsius (Hierobot. 2:67 sq.). There are several varieties (see Pliny, 27:25; 32:22; Galen, Med. Sinpl. vin.l 21, 9), of which it is uncertain which is the Egyptian species (Pliny, 13:44; Theophr. Plant. 4:9: see Gesenius, Thesaur. page 944). SEE FLAG. Noxious weeds in general seem to be denoted by the phrase "thorns and thistles" (Ge 3:18). SEE THORN.