Kejadian 3:18

3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

but you will eat the grain ¹  of the field.

Kidung Agung 2:2

The Lover to His Beloved:

2:2 Like ²  a lily among the thorns, ³ 

so is my darling among the maidens.

Yesaya 33:12

33:12 The nations will be burned to ashes; ⁴ 

like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

Yehezkiel 2:6

2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers ⁵  and thorns ⁶  surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, ⁷  for they are a rebellious house!

¹ tn The Hebrew term עֵשֶׂב (’esev), when referring to human food, excludes grass (eaten by cattle) and woody plants like vines.

² sn This is an example of emblematic parallelism. An illustrative simile appears in the A-line and the subject of the comparison is in the B-line. The particles כֵּן…כְּ (cÿ…ken, “like…so”) form an emphatic comparative construction (e.g., Ps 123:2), see IBHS 641-42 §38.5a.

³ tn Alternately, “thorn bushes.” The term הַחוֹחִים (hahokhim) is probably derived from חוֹח (khokh,“thorn-bush, briars, thistles, thorns”; HALOT 296 s.v. I חוֹחַ; BDB 296 s.v. חוֹחַ) rather than חוֹח (khokh, “crevice”; HALOT 296 s.v. II חוֹחַ): “Like a lily among the thorns” rather than “Like a lily among the rock crevices.” The picture is of a beautiful flower growing in the midst of thorn bushes (1 Sam 14:11; 2 Kgs 14:9; 2 Chr 25:18; Job 31:40; Prov 26:9; Isa 34:13; Hos 9:6) rather than a beautiful flower growing in the midst of rocky outcroppings (1 Sam 13:6; 2 Chr 33:11). The Hebrew term is related to Akkadian hahu and haiahu “thorn” and hahinnu “thorny plants” (AHw 1:308) and Aramaic hahhu (HALOT 296). The “thorn bush” is a thistle plant (Poterium spinosum) which has prickly spines covered with thistles, but also sprouts beautiful small red flowers (Fauna and Flora of the Bible, 184-85).

sn The Lover accommodates her self-denigrating comparison, but heightens it to praise her: If she insisted that she was nothing more than a common flower of the field, then he insisted that all other women were like thorns by comparison. The term חוֹח (khokh, “thorn”) is often used as a figure for utter desolation and the cause of pain; it is the antithesis of fertility and beautiful luxuriant growth (Job 31:40; Isa 34:13; Hos 9:6).

⁴ tn Heb “will be a burning to lime.” See Amos 2:1.

⁵ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

⁶ tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.

sn Here thorns may be a figure for hostility (Ezek 28:24; Mic 7:4).

⁷ tn Heb “of their faces.”