Topic
Wormwood
10 passages cited, from 4 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 They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently.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.
- Jeremiah 9:15Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
- Deuteronomy 29:18Easton · ISBE · Nave A bitter plant
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
- Proverbs 5:4Easton · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
- Jeremiah 23:15Smith · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
- Lamentations 3:19Smith · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
- Amos 5:7Easton · Smith · ISBE
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
- Revelation 8:11Easton · ISBE · Nave SYMBOLICAL
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
- Lamentations 3:15Smith · ISBE
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- Amos 6:12Easton · ISBE
¶ Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
- Revelation 8:10Easton
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 7 references
Heb. la’anah, the Artemisia absinthium of botanists. It is noted for its intense bitterness (Deut. 29:18; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15; Amos 5:7). It is a type of bitterness, affliction, remorse, punitive suffering. In Amos 6:12 this Hebrew word is rendered “hemlock” (R.V., “wormwood”). In the symbolical language of the Apocalypse (Rev. 8:10, 11) a star is represented as falling on the waters of the earth, causing the third part of the water to turn wormwood.
The name by which the Greeks designated it, absinthion, means “undrinkable.” The absinthe of France is distilled from a species of this plant. The “southernwood” or “old man,” cultivated in cottage gardens on account of its fragrance, is another species of it.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 5 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 9 references
wurm'-wood (la'anah (De 29:18; Pr 5:4; Jer 9:15; 23:15; La 3:15,19; Am 5:7; 6:12, the King James Version hemlock); apsinthos (Re 8:11)): What the Hebrew la`anah may have been is obscure; it is clear it was a bitter substance and it is usually associated with "gall"; in the Septuagint it is variously translated, but never by apsinthos, "wormwood." Nevertheless all ancient tradition supports the English Versions of the Bible translation. The genus Artemisia (Natural Order Compositae), "wormwood," has five species of shrubs or herbs found in Palestine (Post), any one of which may furnish a bitter taste. The name is derived from the property of many species acting as anthelmintics, while other varieties are used in the manufacture of absinthe.
E. W. G. Masterman
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); 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.