Hebrew word · H4846

מְרֹרָה

merorot

gall

From the root m-r-r, "to be bitter." As a noun it means bile or gall (Job 16:13, "he pours out my gall on the ground") and venom (Job 20:14, "the venom of asps"). Here the plural describes the clusters, "bitter (ones)." It is related to mārôr, the bitter herbs of Passover (Exod 12:8).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) bitter thing, gall, poison

1a) gall, gall-bladder (seat of gall)

1b) poison, venom

1c) bitter thing

1d) bitterness

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 32:32

Range of meaning

From the root m-r-r, "to be bitter." As a noun it means bile or gall (Job 16:13, "he pours out my gall on the ground") and venom (Job 20:14, "the venom of asps"). Here the plural describes the clusters, "bitter (ones)." It is related to mārôr, the bitter herbs of Passover (Exod 12:8).

Against the English

All versions say "bitter." NIV turns it into "bitterness" filling the clusters. The English loses the overtone of bile and venom the Hebrew word can carry.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 20:14 uses mərōrat pətānîm, "venom of cobras," almost the same phrase as v. 33 here (rōʾš pətānîm). This shows that bitterness and venom are one idea in this vocabulary.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 32:32 מְרֹרֹ֖ת [are] bitter

    But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter.

    Here: From the root "bitter" (m-r-r). Used here to describe the clusters: "bitter clusters," or "clusters of bitterness." Elsewhere the noun means bile or venom (Job 16:13; 20:14), so the word carries a sense of bitterness that sickens or kills.

Job · 3

  1. Job 13:26 מְרֹר֑וֹת bitter things

    For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

  2. Job 20:14 מְרוֹרַ֖ת venom of

    yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.

  3. Job 20:25 מִֽמְּרֹרָת֥וֹ from gall-bladder his

    It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.