the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Wormwood
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or לעגה , Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:15; Lamentations 3:19; Amos 5:7; Amos 6:12; αψινθον , Revelation 8:11 . In the Septuagint the original word is variously rendered, and generally by terms expressive of its figurative sense, for what is offensive, odious, or deleterious; but in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and in the Latin Vulgate, it is rendered "wormwood;" and this is adopted by Celsius, who names it the absinthium santonicum Judaicum, [bitter wormwood of Judea.] From the passages of Scripture, however, where this plant is mentioned, something more than the bitterness of its qualities seems to be intimated, and effects are attributed to it greater than can be produced by the wormwood of Europe. The Chaldee paraphrase gives it even the character of "the wormwood of death." It may therefore mean a plant allied, perhaps, to the absinthium in appearance and in taste, but possessing more nauseous, hurtful, and formidable properties.
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Wormwood'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/w/wormwood.html. 1831-2.
