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 sprout for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Gideon said, "Well then, when Yahweh gives Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will trample your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness."
Before your pots can feel [the heat of] a thornbush, whether green [or] {dry}, he will sweep it away.
and behold, it was overgrown--all of it was covered [with] thorns, its surface with nettles, and {its stone wall} was broken down.
Like the sound of thorns under a pot, so also the laughter of fools. This also [is] vanity!
And [the] peoples will be burning [to] lime-- they are burned [like] thorns [that have been] cut down in the fire.
Therefore, Look! I [am] going to hedge her path {with thorns}, and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall [against] her, and she will not find her paths.
and weaving a crown of thorns, they put [it] on his head, and [put] a reed in his right hand. And kneeling down before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!"
And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and placed [it] on his head, and put a purple robe on him, and were coming up to him and saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" and were giving him slaps in the face.
even because of the extraordinary degree of the revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, in order that it would torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would depart from me. read more. And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, because the power is perfected in weakness." Therefore rather I will boast most gladly in my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in calamities, in persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
But you know that because of an illness of the flesh I proclaimed the gospel to you the first time. And you did not despise or disdain [what was] a trial for you in my flesh, but you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus.