Viper
In Job 20:16, Isa. 30:6; 59:5, the Heb. word eph'eh is thus rendered. The Hebrew word, however, probably denotes a species of poisonous serpents known by the Arabic name of el ephah. Tristram has identified it with the sand viper, a species of small size common in sandy regions, and frequently found under stones by the shores of the Dead Sea. It is rapid in its movements, and highly poisonous. In the New Testament echidne is used (Matt. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33) for any poisonous snake. The viper mentioned in Acts 28:3 was probably the vipera aspis, or the Mediterranean viper. (See [658]ADDER.)
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Dictionary
Gall
(1) Heb. mererah, meaning "bitterness" (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb. rosh. In Deut. 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. In Hos. 10:4 the Hebrew word is rendered "hemlock." The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:19). Comp. Jer. 8:14; 23:15, "water of gall," Gesenius, "poppy juice;" others, "water of hemlock," "bitter water." (3.) Gr. chole (Matt. 27:34), the LXX. translation of the Hebrew rosh in Ps. 69; 21, which foretells our Lord's sufferings. The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to Mark (15:23), "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father (John 18:11).
Dictionary
Chamois
Only in Deut. 14:5 (Heb. zemer), an animal of the deer or gazelle species. It bears this Hebrew name from its leaping or springing. The animal intended is probably the wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus), which is still found in Sinai and in the broken ridges of Stony Arabia. The LXX. and Vulgate render the word by camelopardus, i.e., the giraffe; but this is an animal of Central Africa, and is not at all known in Syria.
Dictionary
Consolation of Israel
A name for the Messiah in common use among the Jews, probably suggested by Isa. 12:1; 49:13. The Greek word thus rendered (Luke 2:25, paraklesis) is kindred to that translated "Comforter" in John 14:16, etc., parakletos.
Dictionary
Flag
(Heb., or rather Egyptian, ahu, Job 8:11), rendered "meadow" in Gen. 41:2, 18; probably the Cyperus esculentus, a species of rush eaten by cattle, the Nile reed. It also grows in Palestine. In Ex. 2:3, 5, Isa. 19:6, it is the rendering of the Hebrew suph_, a word which occurs frequently in connection with _yam; as yam suph, to denote the "Red Sea" (q.v.) or the sea of weeds (as this word is rendered, Jonah 2:5). It denotes some kind of sedge or reed which grows in marshy places. (See [213]PAPER, [214]REED.)
Dictionary
Glede
An Old English name for the common kite, mentioned only in Deut. 14:13 (Heb. ra'ah), the Milvus ater or black kite. The Hebrew word does not occur in the parallel passage in Leviticus (11:14, da'ah, rendered "vulture;" in R.V., "kite"). It was an unclean bird. The Hebrew name is from a root meaning "to see," "to look," thus designating a bird with a keen sight. The bird intended is probably the buzzard, of which there are three species found in Palestine. (See [243]VULTURE.)
Dictionary
Gourd
(1.) Jonah's gourd (Jonah 4:6-10), bearing the Hebrew name kikayon (found only here), was probably the kiki of the Egyptians, the croton. This is the castor-oil plant, a species of ricinus, the palma Christi, so called from the palmate division of its leaves. Others with more probability regard it as the cucurbita the el-keroa of the Arabs, a kind of pumpkin peculiar to the East. "It is grown in great abundance on the alluvial banks of the Tigris and on the plain between the river and the ruins of Nineveh." At the present day it is trained to run over structures of mud and brush to form boots to protect the gardeners from the heat of the noon-day sun. It grows with extraordinary rapidity, and when cut or injured withers away also with great rapidity. (2.) Wild gourds (2 Kings 4:38-40), Heb. pakkuoth, belong to the family of the cucumber-like plants, some of which are poisonous. The species here referred to is probably the colocynth (Cucumis colocynthus). The LXX. render the word by "wild pumpkin." It abounds in the desert parts of Syria, Egypt, and Arabia. There is, however, another species, called the Cucumis prophetarum, from the idea that it afforded the gourd which "the sons of the prophets" shred by mistake into their pottage.