Nettles
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary [1]
We find this name given to two different words in the original. The first is חרול , Job 30:7; Proverbs 24:31; Zephaniah 2:9 . It is not easy to determine what species of plant is here meant. From the passage in Job, the nettle could not be intended; for a plant is referred to large enough for people to take shelter under. The following extract from Denon's Travels may help to illustrate the text, and show to what an uncomfortable retreat those vagabonds must have resorted. "One of the inconveniences of the vegetable thickets of Egypt is, that it is difficult to remain in them; as nine-tenths of the trees and the plants are armed with inexorable thorns, which suffer only an unquiet enjoyment of the shadow which is so constantly desirable, from the precaution necessary to guard against them." The קימוש , Proverbs 24:31; Isaiah 34:13; Hosea 9:6; is by the Vulgate rendered "urtica," which is well defended by Celsius, and very probably means "the nettle."
Morrish Bible Dictionary [2]
These are mentioned in scripture as a sign that a place was deserted and given up to desolation. In Job the poor outcasts are described as taking shelter under them. Job 30:7; Proverbs 24:31; Isaiah 34:13; Hosea 9:6; Zephaniah 2:9 .
Webster's Dictionary [3]
(1): ( n. pl.) Small lines used to sling hammocks under the deck beams.
(2): ( n. pl.) Reef points.
(3): ( n. pl.) The halves of yarns in the unlaid end of a rope twisted for pointing or grafting.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
net ´' lz : (1) חרוּל , ḥārūl , ( Job 30:7; Proverbs 24:31; Zephaniah 2:9 margin, in all, "wild vetches"); the translation "nettles" is due to the supposed derivations of ḥārūl from an (obsolete) חרל , ḥāral , meaning "to be sharp" or "stinging," but a translation "thorns" (as in Vulgate) would in that case do as well. Septuagint has φρύγανα ἄγρια , phrúgana ágria , "wild brushwood," in Job, and certainly the association with the "saltwort" and the retm , "broom," in the passage would best be met by the supposition that it means the low thorny bushes plentiful in association with these plants. "Vetch" is suggested by the Aramaic, but is very uncertain. (2) קמּושׁ , ḳimmōsh ( Isaiah 34:13; Hosea 9:6 ), and plural קמּשׁנים , ḳimmeshōnı̄m ( Proverbs 24:31 ), translated (English Versions of the Bible) "thorns," because of the translation of ḥārūl as "nettles" in the same verse From Isaiah 34:13 ḳimmōsh is apparently distinct from thorns, and the translation "nettle" is very probable, as such neglected or deserted places as described in the three references readily become overgrown with nettles in Palestine The common and characteristic Palestine nettle is the Urtica pilulifera , so called from the globular heads of its flowers.
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [5]
The word (charul) which is so rendered, occurs in three places in Scripture. Thus in , it is written, 'I went by the field of the slothful, etc., and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles (charullim) had covered the face thereof.' So in it is stated that he was insulted by the children of those whom he would formerly have disdained to employ, and who were so abject and destitute that 'among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together;' and in , 'Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation.' Considerable difficulty has been experienced in determining the plant which is alluded to in the above passages. The majority of translators and commentators have thought that some thorny or prickly plant, or a nettle, is intended. Hence brambles, the wild plum, and thistles, have been severally selected; but nettles have had the greatest number of supporters.
