Reference: Heath
American
Supposed to be the Juniper, a low tree found in desert and rocky places, and thus contrasted with a tree growing by a water-course, Jer 17:5-8; 48:6.
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Easton
Heb 'arar, (Jer 17:6; 48:6), a species of juniper called by the Arabs by the same name ('arar), the Juniperus sabina or savin. "Its gloomy, stunted appearance, with its scale-like leaves pressed close to its gnarled stem, and cropped close by the wild goats, as it clings to the rocks about Petra, gives great force to the contrast suggested by the prophet, between him that trusteth in man, naked and destitute, and the man that trusteth in the Lord, flourishing as a tree planted by the waters" (Tristram, Natural History of the Bible).
Illustration: Juniperus Sabina or Savin
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Fausets
Hebrew aroer, arar; Arabic dnax; the Juniper sabina or Juniper savin with small scale-like leaves, close to the stem, a gloomy looking bush on a sterile soil, symbolizing "the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord" (Jer 17:6); the Hebrew means "naked"; such is he whose defense is other than Jehovah, a shrub in a barren soil, contrasted with the "tree spreading out her roots by the river," i.e. the man that trusteth in Jehovah (Jer 17:7-8; compare Jer 48:6, margin).
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Hastings
Morish
arar, aroer. These words are supposed to refer to the Arabic Arar, which is a juniper (the Juniperus sabina). It grows on the rocks even to their summits in most sterile soil. It stands therefore as a fit emblem of the man who "maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Jer 17:6. Moab also, under the judgement of God, is compared to 'the heath in the wilderness.' Jer 48:6. The Juniperus communis is another species.
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Smith
Heath.
was some species of juniper, probably the savin, a dwarf, stunted juniper which grows in the most sterile parts of the desert.
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Watsons
HEATH, ????, Jer 17:6; 48:6. "He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land." The LXX and Vulgate render oror, "the tamarisk;" and this is strengthened by the affinity of the Hebrew name of this tree with the Turkish oeroer. Taylor and Parkhurst render it "a blasted tree stripped of its foliage." If it be a particular tree, the tamarisk is as likely as any. Celsius thinks it to be the juniper; but from the mention of it as growing in a salt land, in parched places, the author of "Scripture Illustrated" is disposed to seek it among the lichens, a species of plants which are the last production of vegetation under the frozen zone, and under the glowing heat of equatorial deserts; so that it seems best qualified to endure parched places, and a salt land. Hasselquist mentions several kinds seen by him in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. In Jer 48:6, the original word is ?????, which the Septuagint translators have read ????, for they render it ???? ??????, wild ass; and, as this seems best to agree with the flight recommended in the passage, it is to be preferred. See WILD ASS.