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Bible Dictionaries
Gourd
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or It has been supposed that Jonah's gourd was the Ricinus Communis, or castor-oil plant. It grows in the East to the height of eight to twelve feet, and one species much higher. Its leaves are large, and have six or seven divisions, whence its name of Palma Christi. Since, however, it is now known that in the vicinity of the ancient Nineveh, a plant of the gourd kind is commonly trained to run over structures of mud and brush, to form booths in which the gardeners may protect themselves from the terrible beams of he Asiatic sun, this goes far to show that this vine, called in the Arabic ker'a, is the true gourd of Jonah. If the expression, "which came up in a night," Jonah 4:10 , is to be understood literally, it indicates that God "prepared" the gourd, Jonah 4:6 , by miraculously quickening its natural growth.
The WILD GOURD is a poisonous plant, conjectured to mean the colocynth, which has a cucumber-like vine, with several branches, and bears a fruit of the size and color of an orange, with a hard, woody shell, within which is the white meat or pulp, exceedingly bitter, and a drastic purgative, 2 Kings 4:39 . It was very inviting to the eye, and furnished a model for the carved "knops" of cedar in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings 6:18 7:24 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Gourd'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/g/gourd.html. 1859.
