Reference: THISTLES AND THORNS
American
Under these terms, together with brambles, briers, and nettles, are included numerous troublesome plants, many of them with thorns, well fitted to try the husbandman's patience, Ge 3:18. Plants of this class were a symbol of desolation, Pr 24:31, and were often used as fuel, Ps 58:9; Ec 7:6; Isa 33:12. They also served for hedges, Ho 2:6. A petty village on the plain of Jericho is now protected against Arab horsemen by a hedge of thorny Nubk branches. Dr. Eli Smith, visiting the plain where Gideon once threatened to tear the flesh of the princes of Succoth with thorns and briers, noticed such plants there of remarkable size, some of the thistles rising above his head on horseback, Jg 8:7. Few of the Hebrew terms can now be affixed with certainty to particular varieties among the many found in Syria. The plant of which the thorny crown of the Savior was made, with the design to mock rather than to torture him, is supposed to have been the Zizyphus Spina Christi, a common tree with dark and glossy leaves, having many small and sharp spines on its round and pliant branches, Mt 27:29; Joh 19:2-3. Paul's "thorn in the flesh," 2Co 12:7-10, may have been some bodily infirmity, unfavorable to the success of his public ministrations. Compare Ga 4:13-14; 2Co 10:10.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Also, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field.
And Gideon said, Therefore when LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns. The face of it was covered with nettles, and the stone wall of it was broken down.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.
And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
And having woven a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And having knelt down before him, they ridiculed him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews!
And the soldiers having woven a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and put around him a purple garment. And they said, Hail, king of the Jews! And they gave him slaps.
And so that I might not be over exalted by the extraordinariness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an agent of Satan so that he would buffet me, so that I would not be over exalted. I besought the Lord thrice about this, that it might depart from me. read more. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is made fully perfect in weakness. More gladly therefore I will boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of the Christ may reside in me. Therefore I am pleased in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in restrictions, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
But ye know that through a weakness of the flesh I preached the good-news to you the first time. And ye did not disdain, nor did ye reject my trial in my flesh, but ye received me as an agent of God, as Christ Jesus.