Discussion
We bring together here nine Hebrew words, five Greek words, and one Latin word. We would have included the Hebrew word ‘atad here, but since it is tree-sized, we have included it in Chapter 1 (see Boxthorn). Also, the Hebrew word barqan could have been treated here, but we have taken it to refer to thistles (see Thistles). Hepper suggests that barqan could have referred to branches of the boxthorn. The Hebrew and Greek words discussed below are usually translated “thorn,” “bramble,” or “brier” in English. The words “brier” and “bramble” have technical usages. Bramble technically refers to thorny plants in the rose family (genus Rubus), and it includes blackberries and raspberries, both common as food plants in Europe and North America. Brier can refer to a type of rose with pink flowers, also called the sweetbrier or eglantine, or to a prickly vine in the eastern United States called the bullbrier, greenbrier, and other names.
chedeq
In both references to this Hebrew word there is an association with a fence or hedge (mesukah). The first line of PRO 15:19 says literally “The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns [chedeq ].” The first line of MIC 7:4 says “The best of them is like a brier [chedeq ],” which is parallel to “the most upright of them a thorn hedge.” ISA 5:5 mentions a vineyard with a hedge. This hedge may have been made of stones, but may well have been topped with thorny branches of spiny burnet or Christ thorn. HOS 2:8 (6) refers to God hedging the path of wayward Israel with “thorns” (sirah).
na‘atsuts
This Hebrew word occurs twice in Isaiah. In ISA 7:19 we read that flies and bees will settle on “thornbushes” (na‘atsuts). Later in the vision of the new Israel, ISA 55:13 says beautiful cypress trees will replace thornbushes (na‘atsuts), and fragrant myrtle shrubs will replace briers (sirpad).
sirah
Two passages where this Hebrew word occurs are ECC 7:6 (“For as the crackling of thorns [sirah ] under a pot …”) and HOS 2:8 (“Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns [sirah ] …”). According to Zohary, sirah could refer to the Thorny or Spiny Burnet Sarcopoterium spinosum. A related Arabic word sir /thir is still used for hedging and as fuel for cooking and for lime kilns.
sallon /sillon
Both references to this Hebrew word are from Ezekiel. In EZK 2:6 it is in a doublet with sarav: “… though briers [sarav ] and thorns [sallon ] are with you … .” In EZK 28:24 we read that in the new Israel “there shall be no more a brier [sillon ] to prick or a thorn [qots ] to hurt them.”
tsen, tseninim
This singular Hebrew word tsen occurs two times with a botanical meaning; it is found also in AMO 4:2 with the meaning “hook.” In PRO 22:5 a we read “Thorns [tsen ] and snares are in the way of the perverse.” Hepper suggests that here we may have the True Bramble (Blackberry) Rubus sanguineus (French mûre, mûrier; Spanish zarza). JOB 5:5 says “His harvest the hungry eat, and he takes it even out of thorns [tsen ] … .” See below for discussion of this difficult verse. The plural Hebrew word tseninim is used in NUM 33:55; JOS 23:13 in a metaphorical sense: the enemies of Israel will be like thorns in the Israelites’ bodies.
qots
This is probably the most general of the Hebrew words for thorn, occurring twelve times, including six times in doublets with barqan, dardar, sillon, or shamir.
sek
The only place we find this Hebrew word is in NUM 33:55, where we read that the inhabitants of Canaan “will be as pricks [sek ] in your eyes and as thorns (tseninim ] in your sides.” However, several related words give us clues to the meaning of sek: sukkah refers to a harpoon in JOB 40:31, and sakkin means “knife.”
shayith
This Hebrew word occurs seven times, always as a doublet with shamir, and only in Isaiah.
shamir
This Hebrew word occurs eight times in Isaiah with a botanical meaning, seven of which are in parallel with shayith. RSV usually translates the doublet as “briers [shamir ] and thorns [shayith ].” In ISA 10:17 the order of these Hebrew words is reversed, so RSV has “thorns and briers.” RSV translates shamir as “diamond” or “adamant,” a type of hard stone, in JER 17:1, JER 17:1; EZK 3:9; and ZEC 7:12. The name “Shamir” occurs in JOS 15:48 and JDG 10:1; JDG 10:2 as a place name and in 1CH 24:24 as a personal name.
akantha
This Greek word occurs in MAT 7:16 b, which asks “Are grapes gathered from thorns [akantha ] or figs from thistles [tribolos ]?” Interestingly, the parallel passage in LUK 6:44 keeps akantha, but substitutes batos (“bramble bush”) for tribolos. In HEB 6:8 akantha is in a doublet again with tribolosAkantha also occurs in the story of the sower (MAT 13:7; MAT 13:7; MAT 13:22; MRK 4:7; MRK 4:7; MRK 4:18; LUK 8:7; LUK 8:7; LUK 8:14). In MAT 27:29; JHN 19:2 “a crown of thorns [akantha ]” is placed on Jesus’ head. Scholars have speculated for centuries over what species akantha refers to in these verses. Linnaeus was so convinced that it must be the Syrian Christ Thorn Ziziphus spina-christi that he made “Christ-thorn” the species name. Others, particularly Hebrew botanists, argue for the Spiny Burnet Sarcopoterium spinosum on the grounds that the soldiers would have taken the most available thorny plant. It could also have been the Paliurus spina-christi, the Lotus Thorn Ziziphus lotus, or the Boxthorn Lycium shawii (see Boxthorn). We believe that Matthew and John were not interested in the particular bush that the thorns came from, so they used a general word here.
akanthinos
This Greek word is derived from akantha. It is used of the crown of thorns in MRK 15:17; JHN 19:5. It seems to be a generic word, meaning “thorny” or “made of thorns.”
batos
The famous burning bush in EXO 3:2; EXO 3:3; EXO 3:4 (seneh in Hebrew) is rendered by the Greek word batos in the Septuagint, and that word is used in the retelling of the story in MRK 12:26; LUK 20:37; ACT 7:30; ACT 7:35 (see Burning bush). The only clue that this might have been a thorny plant is that Luke uses it in parallel with akantha in LUK 6:44 b: “For figs are not gathered from thorns [akantha ], nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush [batos ].”
ramnos
In LJE 1:70 (71), a passage that echoes JER 10:5, the Greek word ramnos refers to a bush that birds land on. How did the translators of RSV know it was a “thorn bush”? It is possible that they used “thorn bush” for ramnos in LJE 1:70 because the Septuagint translators used ramnos to translate the Hebrew word for “bramble” (‘atad) in JDG 9:14; JDG 9:15 (see Boxthorn).
tribolos
This Greek word only occurs in MAT 7:16; HEB 6:8, where it is rendered “thistles.” In both passages it is paired with akantha.
spina
In 2ES 16:33; 2ES 16:78 the Latin word spina is used to refer to thorns growing on the roads of a deserted land. The context requires a general word that implies a bush that blocks the road so people cannot pass easily.
Translation
As in the case of thistles and nettles, the contexts for other thorny plants are usually rhetorical, and translators need to be free to use appropriate cultural equivalents. In many cases doublets are involved (for example, “thorns and thistles,” “thorns and briers”) or synonyms in parallel lines. In many languages there may not be nearly as many words in the semantic domain “thorny plants” to choose from as there are in Hebrew, so translators will have to use their vocabulary more than once, trying to be concordant where possible.
JDG 8:7; JDG 8:16: Two problems arise in these verses. First, the identity of the plant(s) referred to and second, the meaning of the Hebrew verb rendered “flail” (dush). Gideon promises to punish the people of Succoth by flailing their flesh with “thorns” (qots) and “briers” (barqan). The Hebrew verb dush occurs elsewhere with the meaning “thresh,” “trample,” or “beat.” It is unclear here whether Gideon is simply threatening to beat the people of Succoth with thorny branches, or using a metaphor, saying, in effect, “I’m going to deal with your bodies as a farmer threshes/beats his grain at harvest time, only I will use thorny branches.” It must be remembered that threshing was and is done in many ways—by beating the grain with sticks, by having donkeys and oxen tread on it, or by dragging a sledge over it. In the development of agriculture, we can assume that beating by hand came first, followed by having animals trample the grain, and finally, the invention of the sledge, and that the verb dush started with the sense of “beat” and then took on the more specific meanings as the technology changed. The threshing sledge had protrusions on the underside which crushed the grain and made the outer shell come off (see WTH, Threshing board, sledge). So some commentators have suggested that barqan here may actually refer to a sledge. However, the simplest solution is often the best, and Gideon’s threat is probably adequately translated by a verb that means “beat” (GNB) or “whip” (NCV, GW), rather than by “trample” (NRSV), “thresh” (NJPSV), or “flail” (RSV, REB). Translating dush as “tear” (NIV, NLT, NKJV) seems to be going beyond the normal semantic range of that word. Still, the use of “your flesh/bodies” instead of simply “you” raises the possibility that the writer intends something other than just “beat someone with a tool.” So translations following NIV, NLT, and NKJV also have some merit.
JOB 5:5: This verse is about God giving rich people their just reward by letting poor people inherit their wealth. The second line seems to say “they will take [the rich man’s] harvest, even from among thorns [tsinnim, plural of tsen ].” Commentators who take tsinnim as thorns here picture either thorny places on the edge of the field, where seed has fallen (so GNB, NCV, GW; see MAT 13:7) or perhaps a field surrounded by a thorn hedge, which was very common. In the latter case, the sense is that the poor people will even penetrate a thorny fence to take the rich man’s grain (so NLT, FRCL).
Various commentators have considered the above situation strange, and have assumed that a word other than “thorns” was intended by the writer. REB and NJPSV take tsinnim as a plural for tsinna’ (“basket/pannier”). NJPSV says “carrying it off in baskets,” and REB has “stronger men seize it from the panniers.” “Stronger men” here results from taking the Hebrew word ’el as “strong man” rather than as the preposition “to.” Others, using different emendations, have translated this line as “and carry away to hiding places” (Dhorme), “he takes it to the famished” (Guillaume), “or God shall take it away by blight” (NAB, using square brackets), and “God snatches it from their mouths” (NJB). The Septuagint, perhaps following a different text, has “but they shall not be delivered out of calamities.” A number of commentators take this line as untranslatable and delete it. The Jewish commentator Moshe Eisemann adds this bit of explanation: The poor gleaners in the picture are not in a hurry. They take their time gleaning, even taking the grain from the thorny places or from behind thorn hedges, because they have no fear of being chased away. With this in mind, I recommend staying with “thorns” by following GNB and NCV or NLT and FRCL.