HEMLOCK

Ho 10:4 Am 6:12, in Hebrew, ROSH, usually translated gall or bitterness, De 32:32, and mentioned in connection with wormwood, De 29:18 Jer 9:15 23:15 La 3:19. It indicates some wild, bitter, and noxious plant, which it is difficult to determine. According to some it is the poisonous hemlock, while others consider it to be the poppy.

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Hemlock. Hemlock
(1.) Heb. rosh (Hos. 10:4; rendered “gall” in Deut. 29:18; 32:32; Ps. 69:21; Jer. 9:15; 23:15; “poison,” Job 20:16; “venom,” Deut. 32:33). “Rosh is the name of some poisonous plant which grows quickly and luxuriantly; of a bitter taste, and therefore coupled with wormwood (Deut. 29:18; Lam. 3:19). Hence it would seem to be not the hemlock cicuta, nor the colocynth or wild gourd, nor lolium darnel, but the poppy so called from its heads” (Gesenius, Lex.).

(2.) Heb. la’anah, generally rendered “wormwood” (q.v.), Deut. 29:18, Text 17; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15; 23:15. Once it is rendered “hemlock” (Amos 6:12; R.V., “wormwood”). This Hebrew word is from a root meaning “to curse,” hence the accursed.

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HEMLOCK. → A poisonous and bitter plant Ho 10:4; Am 6:12 → See GALL

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hemlock. Hemlock, n. a poisonous herb, a tree

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Hem″lock (?), n. [[OE. hemeluc, humloc, AS. hemlic, hymlic.]] 1. 1. (Bot.) The name of several poisonous umbelliferous herbs having finely cut leaves and small white flowers, as the Cicuta maculata, bulbifera, and virosa, and the Conium maculatum. See Conium.
☞ The potion of hemlock administered to Socrates is by some thought to have been a decoction of Cicuta virosa, or water hemlock, by others, of Conium maculatum. 2. 2. (Bot.) An evergreen tree common in North America (Abies, or Tsuga, Canadensis); hemlock spruce.
The murmuring pines and the hemlocks. Longfellow. 3. 3. The wood or timber of the hemlock tree.
Ground hemlock, or Dwarf hemlock. See under Ground.