לַעֲנָה

From the study of Amos 5:7

Range of meaning

Wormwood, a plant of the genus Artemisia (several species grow in the Levant), famous for its intensely bitter taste. In the Bible it is always figurative: bitterness, misery, the sour aftermath of sin or suffering. It is often paired with rōʾš, a poisonous or bitter plant usually rendered 'gall' or 'poison'.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, BSB and WEB keep 'wormwood', which preserves the concrete picture and the link to other passages, but many modern readers no longer know what the plant is. NIV's 'bitterness' and NLT's 'a bitter pill' explain the image but lose the plant and its scriptural echoes.

How it drifted

The plant has dropped out of everyday knowledge. The word now calls up Revelation's falling star, absinthe, or literary names more readily than a familiar bitter taste.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 29:18 (a root bearing 'poison and wormwood', the person who turns from the covenant); Prov 5:4 (the forbidden woman is 'bitter as wormwood' in the end); Jer 9:15 and 23:15 (God will feed the faithless people wormwood); Lam 3:15, 19 (the poet's affliction is 'wormwood and gall'); Amos 6:12. The Greek translators usually rendered it with words for bitterness or gall rather than a plant name. Rev 8:11's 'Wormwood' (apsinthos) draws on this prophetic imagery.

From the study of Jeremiah 9:15

Range of meaning

A bitter plant, generally identified as a species of wormwood (Artemisia, e.g. A. herba-alba or A. judaica), which grows in dry Levantine terrain. It is extremely bitter but not normally deadly. In every one of its biblical uses (Deut 29:18; Prov 5:4; Jer 9:15; 23:15; Lam 3:15, 19; Amos 5:7; 6:12) it is figurative, standing for bitterness: bitter consequences, bitter suffering, justice turned sour.

Against the English

'Wormwood' (KJV, NASB, BSB, WEB) keeps the plant. 'Bitter food' or 'bitterness' (NIV, ESV, NLT) keeps the sense but loses the picture, and with it the link to Deuteronomy 29:18 that a reader of the Hebrew would catch.

How it drifted

Wormwood is no longer a familiar plant, so for many readers the word now calls up the falling star of Revelation 8:11 or the drink absinthe rather than a bitter desert herb.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 29:18 (Heb 29:17) warns against a 'root bearing rosh and laʿanah', meaning a person or clan who turns to other gods. Lamentations 3:15, 19 looks back on Jerusalem's fall: 'he has sated me with wormwood… my affliction… wormwood and rosh.' The Greek translators usually turned it into abstract words ('bitterness', 'distress') rather than naming a plant. Revelation 8:11 uses the Greek word for wormwood (apsinthos) for a star that makes waters bitter, probably drawing on this group of texts.

From the study of Amos 6:12

Range of meaning

Wormwood, a bitter herb, probably a species of Artemisia that is common in the Levant. Used as the proverbial picture of bitterness and of suffering under judgment or disaster.

Against the English

BSB, YLT: "wormwood". KJV: "hemlock" here, though it says "wormwood" elsewhere. WEB: "bitterness". "Hemlock" wrongly suggests a specific lethal plant. "Bitterness" loses the plant picture that matches "fruit".

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 5:7 ("you who turn justice into wormwood"), Deuteronomy 29:18, Proverbs 5:4, Jeremiah 9:15 and 23:15, Lamentations 3:15, 19. The Septuagint uses pikria or apsinthos. Revelation 8:11 picks up the same prophetic picture with the star "Wormwood" (Apsinthos).