Hebrew word · H6498
פַּקֻּעֹת
paku'ot
gourd
Wild gourds: round fruits of a creeping vine. The likely root is פקע/בקע, 'to burst, split open'. A related word, פְּקָעִים, names the gourd-shaped ornaments carved in Solomon's temple (1 Kgs 6:18; 7:24).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
gourds
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 2 Kings 4:39
- Range of meaning
Wild gourds: round fruits of a creeping vine. The likely root is פקע/בקע, 'to burst, split open'. A related word, פְּקָעִים, names the gourd-shaped ornaments carved in Solomon's temple (1 Kgs 6:18; 7:24).
- Against the English
English 'wild gourds' is accurate but does not tell a modern reader that the plant was probably known as a bitter purgative, something that would make the eaters ill.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Plant specialists (e.g. Zohary, Plants of the Bible) and most commentators identify it as colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis). It is a trailing desert vine common in the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea region. Its fruit looks like a small striped melon or orange but is intensely bitter and a violent laxative, and a large dose can kill. The Latin Vulgate translates it colocynthidas. A minority view favours the squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium), whose fruit bursts open, which would fit the 'burst' root. Either plant is toxic.
Where it appears
2 Kings · 1
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2 Kings 4:39 פַּקֻּעֹ֥ת gourds of
One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
Here: Round gourd-like fruits, most likely colocynth: a melon-like wild fruit that is extremely bitter and a strong laxative. In quantity it can be dangerous.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.