Topic
Bitter Herbs
3 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Exodus 12:8Smith · ISBE · Nave Eaten symbolically with the Passover meal
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
- Numbers 9:11ISBE · Nave Eaten symbolically with the Passover meal
The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
- Lamentations 3:15ISBE
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
In the reference works
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 1 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 3 references
hurbs, or urbs (merorim): Originally in the primitive Passover (Ex 12:8; Nu 9:11) these were probably merely salads, the simplest and quickest prepared form of vegetable accompaniment to the roasted lamb. Such salads have always been favorites in the Orient. Cucumbers, lettuce, water-cress, parsley and endive are some of those commonly used. Later on the Passover ritual (as it does today) laid emphasis on the idea of "bitterness" as symbolical of Israel's lot in Egypt. In modern Palestine the Jews use chiefly lettuce and endive for the "bitter herbs" of their Passover. In La 3:15 the same word is used: "He hath filled me with bitterness merorim, he hath sated me with wormwood." Here the parallelism with "wormwood" suggests some plant more distinctly bitter than the mild salads mentioned above, such, for example, as the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthus) or the violently irritating squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium).
E. W. G. Masterman
In the topical indexes
Texts: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.