Thistle

How Nave’s arranged it

• A noxious plantGenesis 3:18Job 31:40Hosea 10:8
• Parables of2 Kings 14:92 Chronicles 25:18Matthew 7:16

The passages, in Bible order (6)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 6 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 3:18

   Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 3:182 voices

   “Thorns also and thistles, etc. - Instead of producing nourishing grain and useful vegetables, noxious weeds shall be peculiarly prolific, injure the ground, choke the good seed, and mock the hopes of the husbandman; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field - thou shalt no longer have the privilege of this garden of delights, but must go to the common champaign country, and feed on such herbs as thou canst find, till by labor and industry thou hast raised others more suitable to thee and more comfortable.

   “THIS was not the penalty which might have been pronounced upon Adam. This curse does not fall directly on him— it glances obliquely and falls upon the ground whereon he stands—"Cursed is the ground for your sake." It is not from materialism that a curse comes upon the spirit of man, but it is from the erring spirit that the curse falls upon the material creation.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 3:18→

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2. 2 Kings 14:9

   But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

   ›Commentary on 2 Kings 14:92 voices

   “The thorn bush [mentioned here] is a tiny plant and herb and is not the blackberry bush, [whose fruits] we eat. "Since, if ever," he says, "the thorn bush were sent to a cedar, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son for a wife,' it …

   “The Oriental use of apologues on the most solemn and serious occasions is well known to all, and scarcely needs illustration (compare marginal reference). It is a common feature of such apologues that they are not exact parallels to the case whereto they are applied, but only general or partial resemblances. Hence, there is need of caution in applying the several points of the illustration.

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3. 2 Chronicles 25:18

   But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

   ›Commentary on 2 Chronicles 25:181 voice

   The thistle that was in Lebanon - See the explanation of this 2Ki 14:9 (note). After reciting this fable, the Targum adds, “Thus hast thou done in the time thou didst send unto me, and didst lead up from the house of Israel a hundred thousand strong warriors for a hundred talents of silver: and after they were sent, thou didst not permit them to go with thee to war, but didst send them back, greatly enraged, so that they spread themselves over the country; and having cut off three thousand, they brought back much spoil.”

   Everything gathered on 2 Chronicles 25:18→

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4. Job 31:40

   then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.

   ›Commentary on Job 31:402 voices

   “Let thistles grow instead of wheat - What the word חוח choach means, which we translate thistles, we cannot tell: but as חח chach seems to mean to hold, catch as a hook, to hitch, it must signify some kind of hooked thorn, like the brier; and this is possibly its meaning. And cockle - באשה bashah, some fetid plant, from באש baash, to stink.

   “At Job 31:37 would be the regular conclusion in strict art. But Job 31:38-40 are naturally added by one whose mind in agitation recurs to its sense of innocence, even after it has come to the usual stopping point; this takes away the appearance of rhetorical artifice. Hence the transposition by EICHORN of Job 31:38-40 to follow Job 31:25 is quite unwarranted.

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5. Hosea 10:8

   The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

   ›Commentary on Hosea 10:82 voices

   “The high-places - Idol temples. Of Aven - Beth-aven. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars - Owing to the uncultivated and unfrequented state of the land, and of their places of idol worship, the people being all carried away into captivity. “And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, And to the hills, Fall on us.” “This sublime description of fear and distress our Lord had in view, Luk 23:30, which may be a reference, and not a quotation.

   "He made his king pass like foam over the face of the water of Samaria, and the high places of idols shall be destroyed, the sin of Israel." LXX: "He has cast out his king from Samaria as a brand on the face of the water, and the altars will be removed." For "foam," which the LXX and Theodotion translated as φρύγανον, that is, "brand," Symmachus has placed ἐπίζεμα, wanting to show the upper waters of boiling water, and the foam and bubbles rising, which the Greeks call πομφόλυγας.

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6. Matthew 7:16

   By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

   ›Commentary on Matthew 7:162 voices

   “In this part of the Sermon on the Mount our Lord begins to draw his discourse to a conclusion. The lessons he here forces on our notice are broad, general and full of the deepest wisdom. Let us mark them in succession. He lays down a general principle for our guidance in all doubtful questions between man and man. “We are to do to others as we would have others do to us.”We are not to deal with others as others deal with us: this is mere selfishness and heathenism.

   “Ye shall know them by their fruits--not their doctrines--as many of the elder interpreters and some later ones explain it--for that corresponds to the tree itself; but the practical effect of their teaching, which is the proper fruit of the tree.

   Everything gathered on Matthew 7:16→

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