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
Thorn also and thistle, shall it shoot forth to thee, - when thou hast come to eat of the herb of the field:
And Gideon said, Therefore, when Yahweh hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with the nettles.
Before your kettles can perceive the kindled bramble, Be he green or be he withered, he shall be swept away.
And lo! there had come up all over it - thorns, there had covered the face thereof - thistles, and, the stone fence thereof, had been thrown down.
For, as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so, is the laughter of the dullard, - even this, then, was vanity.
So shall peoples, become, as the burnings of lime, - As thorns lopped off, with fire, shall they be burned.
Therefore, behold me! hedging up her way, with thorns, - and I will wall her in, and, her footpaths, shall she not find.
and, plaiting a crown out of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand, - and, kneeling before him, began to mock him, saying - Joy to thee, King of the Jews!
And, the soldiers, plaiting a crown out of thorns, placed it upon his head, and, a purple robe, cast they about him; and kept coming unto him, and saying - Joy to thee! O King of the Jews! - and were giving unto him smart blows.
Wherefore, lest I should be unduly lifted up, there was given to me a thorn o in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he might buffet me, - lest I should be unduly lifted up. In this behalf, thrice, besought I, the Lord, that it might depart from me; read more. And at once he said unto me - Sufficient for thee, is my favour, for, my power, in weakness, is made complete. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may spread a tent over me. Wherefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, and straits, in behalf of Christ; for, as soon as I am weak, then, am powerful.
Howbeit ye know that, by reason of a weakness of the flesh, I myself announced the glad-message unto you, formerly; And, your trial, in my flesh, ye despised not, neither spat ye in disgust , but, as a messenger of God, ye welcomed me - as Christ Jesus.