Reference: Leek
American
A bulbous vegetable resembling the onion. The Hebrews complained in the wilderness, that manna grew insipid to them; they longed for the leeks and onions of Egypt, Nu 11:5. Hassel-quist says the karrat, or leek, is surely one of those after which the Israelites pined; for is has been cultivated in Egypt from time immemorial. The Hebrew word is usually translated "grass" in the English Bible. Its original meaning is supposed to be greens or grass.
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We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt and without cost, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
Easton
(Heb hatsir; the Allium porrum), rendered "grass" in 1Ki 18:5; 2Ki 19:26; Job 40:15, etc.; "herb" in Job 8:12; "hay" in Pr 27:25, and Isa 15:6; "leeks" only in Nu 11:5. This Hebrew word seems to denote in this last passage simply herbs, such as lettuce or savoury herbs cooked as kitchen vegetables, and not necessarily what are now called leeks. The leek was a favourite vegetable in Egypt, and is still largely cultivated there and in Palestine.
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We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt and without cost, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go into the land to all the fountains of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, that we lose none of the beasts.
While it is yet green, in flower, and not cut down, it withers before any other herb [when without water].
Behold now the behemoth (the hippopotamus), which I created as I did you; he eats grass like an ox.
When the hay is gone, the tender grass shows itself, and herbs of the mountain are gathered in,
For the waters of Nimrim are desolations, for the grass is withered away and the new growth fails; there is no green thing.
Watsons
LEEK, ????, in Nu 11:5, translated "leek;" in 1Ki 18:5; 2Ki 19:26; Job 40:15; Ps 37:2; 90:5; 103:15; 104:14; 129:6; 147:8; Isa 35:7; 37:27; 40:6, it is rendered "grass;" in Job 8:12, "herb;" in Pr 27:25; Isa 15:6, "hay;" and in Isa 34:13, "a court." It is much of the same nature with the onion. The kind called karrat by the Arabians, the allium porrum of Linnaeus, Hasselquist says, must certainly have been one of those desired by the children of Israel, as it has been cultivated and esteemed from the earliest times to the present in Egypt. The inhabitants are very fond of eating it raw, as sauce for their roasted meat; and the poor people eat it raw with their bread, especially for breakfast. There is reason, however, to doubt whether this plant is intended in Nu 11:5, and so differently rendered every where else: it should rather intend such vegetables as grow promiscuously with grass. Ludolphus supposes that it may mean lettuce and sallads in general; and Maillet observes, that the succory and endive are eaten with great relish by the people in Egypt: some or all of these may be meant.
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We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt and without cost, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt and without cost, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go into the land to all the fountains of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, that we lose none of the beasts.
While it is yet green, in flower, and not cut down, it withers before any other herb [when without water].
Behold now the behemoth (the hippopotamus), which I created as I did you; he eats grass like an ox.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
You carry away [these disobedient people, doomed to die within forty years] as with a flood; they are as a sleep [vague and forgotten as soon as they are gone]. In the morning they are like grass which grows up -- "
As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
He causes vegetation to grow for the cattle, and all that the earth produces for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth -- "
Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
When the hay is gone, the tender grass shows itself, and herbs of the mountain are gathered in,
For the waters of Nimrim are desolations, for the grass is withered away and the new growth fails; there is no green thing.
And thorns shall come up in its palaces and strongholds, nettles and brambles in its fortresses; and it shall be a habitation for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
And the burning sand and the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lay resting, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
Therefore their inhabitants had little power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops and like a field of grain blasted before it is grown or is in stalk.
A voice says, Cry [prophesy]! And I said, What shall I cry? [The voice answered, Proclaim:] All flesh is as frail as grass, and all that makes it attractive [its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good] is transitory, like the flower of the field.