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
and thorns and thistles shall it yield thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
And Gideon said, "Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmun'na into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers."
Before your pots feel the thorns, green or burning, they shall be whirled away.
and lo, it was all grown over with thistles, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and its stone wall 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 burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence her in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
and having woven a crown out of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and, bowing the knee before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
And the soldiers having plaited a crown of thorns put it on his head, and put a purple robe on him, and came to him and said, Hail, king of the Jews! and gave him blows on the face.
And that I might not be exalted by the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan that he might buffet me, that I might not be exalted. For this I thrice besought the Lord that it might depart from me. read more. And he said to me, My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for Christ: for when I am weak, then I am powerful.
But ye know that in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first; and my temptation, which was in my flesh, ye did not slight nor reject with contempt; but ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.