One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 39. Wild herbs. Hebrew oroth. Septuagint αριωθ, may denote any thing that could be “gathered.”—Gourds: colocynthides. They resembled cucumbers; but were so bitter, that they were styled, “the gall of the earth.” Vallesius, (Phil. chapter 36.) who observes, that a small quantity may cause death, (chapter 37.) and that the remedy used by the prophet was supernatural; though Lemnius (chapter 7.) asserts, that the mixture of barley-flour would take away the bitterness. Tirinus.—It has, in effect, that tendency; but the hand of God must still be acknowledged. Calmet.