Bitter Herbs

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

מרודים .  Exodus 12:8 , and  Numbers 9:11 . The Jews were commanded to eat their passover with a sallad of bitter herbs; but whether one particular plant was intended, or any kind of bitter herbs, has been made a question. By the Septuagint it is rendered επι πικριδων ; by Jerom, "cum lactucis agrestibus;" and by the Gr. Venet., επι πικρισιν . Dr. Geddes remarks, that "it is highly probable that the succory or wild lettuce is meant." The Mischna in

Pesachim, cap. 2, reckons five species of these bitter herbs:

1. Chazareth, taken for lettuce:

2. Ulsin, supposed to be endive or succory:

3. Tamca, probably tansy:

4. Charubbinim, which Bochart thought might be the nettle, but

Scheuchzer shows to be the camomile:

5. Meror, the sow-thistle, or dent-de-lion, or wild lettuce.

Mr. Forskal says, "the Jews in Sana and in Egypt eat the lettuce with the paschal lamb." He also remarks, that moru is centaury, of which the young stems are eaten in February and March.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Bitter Herbs ( merôrîm ,   Exodus 12:8 ,   Numbers 9:11 ). The bitter herbs of the modern Jewish Passover in Palestine are specially lettuce and endive. Other salads, such as parsley, cucumber, chicory, and water-cress, are also commonly eaten, indeed are prime favourites. The author of   Lamentations 3:15 , in using the same word merôrîm (tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘bitterness’), doubtless had more bitter and less wholesome plants in his mind, perhaps the colocynth or Ecballium elaterium , the wild gourd of   2 Kings 4:39 . See, further, Passover.

E. W. G. Masterman.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Bitter Herbs. The Israelites were commanded to eat the Paschal Lamb "with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs."  Exodus 12:8. These "bitter herbs" consisted of such plants as chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds, sow-thistles and wild lettuces, which grow abundantly in the peninsula of Sinai, in Palestine and in Egypt. The purpose of this observance was, to recall to the minds of the Israelites, their deliverance from the bitter bondage of the Egyptians.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Bitter Herbs.  Exodus 12:8. The Jews were commanded to eat the Passover with a salad of bitter herbs; and the Rabbins tell us that such plants as wild lettuce, endives, and chicory were employed for that purpose, as they still are by the Arabs In those regions. The use of them on that occasion was intended to call to their remembrance the severe and cruel bondage from which God delivered them when they were brought out of Egypt.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

No particular herbs are specified by name, indeed the word 'herbs' is added in the A.V., so that it is literally 'bitterness.' The paschal lamb was to be eaten with 'bitter herbs,' doubtless signifying the sense in the souls of those partaking that it was for their sins the victim was slain.  Exodus 12:8;  Numbers 9:11 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Exodus 12:8 Numbers 9:11 Lamentations 3:15

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hûrbs , or ûrbs ( מררים , merōrı̄m ): Originally in the primitive Passover ( Exodus 12:8;  Numbers 9:11 ) these were probably merely salads, the simplest and quickest prepared form of vegetable accompaniment to the roasted lamb. Such salads have always been favorites in the Orient. Cucumbers, lettuce, water-cress, parsley and endive are some of those commonly used. Later on the Passover ritual (as it does today) laid emphasis on the idea of "bitterness" as symbolical of Israel's lot in Egypt. In modern Palestine the Jews use chiefly lettuce and endive for the "bitter herbs" of their Passover. In  Lamentations 3:15 the same word is used: "He hath filled me with bitterness merōrı̄m , he hath sated me with wormwood." Here the parallelism with "wormwood" suggests some plant more distinctly bitter than the mild salads mentioned above, such, for example, as the colocynth ( Citrullus colocynthus ) or the violently irritating squirting cucumber ( Ecballium elaterium ).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Bitter Herbs, literally bitters. There has been much difference of opinion respecting the kind of herbs denoted by this word.

It however seems very doubtful whether any particular herbs were intended by so general a term as bitters; it is far more probable that it denotes whatever bitter herbs, obtainable in the place where the Passover was eaten, might be fitly used with meat.