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
Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;
Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor.
Before they are conscious of it, let them be cut down like thorns; let a strong wind take them away like waste growth.
And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down.
Like the cracking of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh of a foolish man; and this again is to no purpose.
And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.
For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way.
And they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a rod in his right hand, and they went down on their knees before him, and made sport of him, saying, Long life to the King of the Jews.
And the men of the army made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. And they kept coming and saying, Long life to the King of the Jews! And they gave him blows with their hands.
And because the revelations were so very great, in order that I might not be overmuch lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, one sent from Satan to give me pain. And about this thing I made request to the Lord three times that it might be taken away from me. read more. And he said to me, My grace is enough for you, for my power is made complete in what is feeble. Most gladly, then, will I take pride in my feeble body, so that the power of Christ may be on me. So I take pleasure in being feeble, in unkind words, in needs, in cruel attacks, in troubles, on account of Christ: for when I am feeble, then am I strong.
But you have knowledge that with a feeble body I was preaching the good news to you the first time; And you did not have a poor opinion of me because of the trouble in my flesh, or put shame on it; but you took me to your hearts as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.