PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 119 



confident, that it is strictly the same with our common 

 hyssop : the hyssop of those parts differing from that 

 of ours ; as Bellonius hath observed in the hyssop 

 which grows in Judaea, and the hyssop of the wall 

 mentioned in the works of Solomon, no kind of our 

 hyssop ; and may tolerably be taken for some kind of 

 minor capillary, which best makes out the antithesis 

 with the cedar. Nor when we meet with libanotis, is 

 it to be conceived our common rosemary, which is 

 rather the first kind thereof amongst several others, used 

 by the ancients. 



3. That it must be taken for hemlock, which is 

 twice so rendered in our translation, 1 will hardly be 

 made out, otherwise than in the intended sense, and 

 implying some plant, wherein bitterness or a poisonous 

 quality is considerable. 



4. What Tremellius rendereth spina, and the vulgar 

 translation pal\urus> and others make some kind of 

 rhamnus, is allowable in the sense ; and we contend 

 not about the species, since they are known thorns in 

 those countries, and in our fields or gardens among us : 

 and so common in Judsea, that men conclude the 

 thorny crown of our Saviour was made either 

 paliurus or rhamnus. 



1 Hosea x. 4; Amos vi. z. 



