Hebrew word · H6975

קוֹץ

kotz

thorn

Thorn, thorn-bush. The most common general word for thorny growth, often found in pairs (qôṣ wədardar, "thorns and thistles").

Appears 12 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

1) thorn, thornbush

1a) thornbush

1b) thorn

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

Range of meaning: Thorn, thorn-bush. The most common general word for thorny growth, often found in pairs (qôṣ wədardar, "thorns and thistles").
Against the English: "Thorn" is accurate. KJV's "grieving thorn" uses "grieve" in its older sense of "cause pain", not "make sad".
Used elsewhere in the period: Genesis 3:18 (the ground cursed with thorns); Judges 8:7, 16 (Gideon threshing the men of Succoth with thorns); Isaiah 33:12; Jeremiah 4:3 and 12:13. Thorns are the plant of a land under curse and gone to waste.

Range of meaning: qôṣ: thorny plants generally (Gen 3:18; Jer 4:3; Hos 10:8). šāmîr: thorny scrub or briers, probably various spiny shrubs of the Judean hills. In one sense it also means a hard stone, 'diamond' or 'emery' (Jer 17:1; Ezek 3:9; Zech 7:12).
Against the English: Translations render the pair with 'thorns and briers' and add an 'and' that the Hebrew does not have. Exact botanical identification is not possible. The point is useless, spiny cover where vines and grain used to grow.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isaiah normally pairs šāmîr with šayit ('thorn-scrub and weeds'): 5:6; 7:23–25; 9:18; 10:17; 27:4. Only here is šāmîr paired with qôṣ. In 7:23 a vineyard worth a thousand silver shekels becomes šāmîr and šayit.

Range of meaning: Thorn, thorn-bush, thistle. It covers the spiny scrub that grows on ground that is uncultivated, abandoned or cursed. It is often paired with dardar 'thistle' (Genesis 3:18; Hosea 10:8) or used of brushwood that burns quickly (Exodus 22:6; Isaiah 33:12).
Against the English: 'Thorns' is accurate. The English word does not carry the echo a Hebrew hearer would catch: thorns are what the ground gives back under a curse, and what takes over a field after an invasion has emptied it.
Used elsewhere in the period: Genesis 3:18 (qôṣ wədardar, the cursed ground); Jeremiah 4:3 ('do not sow among thorns'); Isaiah 32:13 ('thorns and briers come up on the land of my people'); Isaiah 5:6 (the abandoned vineyard). The motif of futile sowing appears among the covenant curses (Leviticus 26:16, 20; Deuteronomy 28:38–40), and Assyrian treaty curses likewise threaten that the sown field will yield nothing.

Genesis · 1

Genesis 3:18 וְק֥וֹץ and thorn[s]

Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

Exodus · 1

Exodus 22:6 קֹצִים֙ thornbushes

If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.

Judges · 2

Judges 8:7 קוֹצֵ֥י <the> thorns of

“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
Judges 8:16 קוֹצֵ֥י [the] thorns of

Then he took the elders of the city, and using the thorns and briers of the wilderness, he disciplined the men of Succoth.

2 Samuel · 1

2 Samuel 23:6 כְּק֥וֹץ [is] like thorn[s]

But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.

Here: 'Like thorn(s)', singular used for the whole class (thorn-growth in general). It is the counter-image to the fresh grass that sprouts after rain in verse 4: the righteous king brings growth, the worthless are the weeds a farmer clears off.

Psalms · 1

Psalm 118:12 קוֹצִ֑ים thorns

They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

Here: 'Thorns.' Dry thornbrush was cheap kindling. It flared up loudly and burned out almost at once (Eccl 7:6). The enemies' attack was fierce, noisy and short.

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 32:13 ק֥וֹץ thornbush[es]

and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

Here: The ordinary word for thorny weeds, the same word as in Genesis 3:18, 'thorns and thistles it shall bring forth'.
Isaiah 33:12 קוֹצִ֥ים thornbushes

The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze.

Jeremiah · 2

Jeremiah 4:3 קוֹצִֽים׃ thorns

For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.

Here: Thorny scrub, the first thing to take over uncleared or neglected land in the Judean hills. If it is not uprooted it chokes whatever is sown there.
Jeremiah 12:13 וְקֹצִ֣ים and thorns

They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

Here: 'But thorns.' The object is placed before its verb to set it against 'wheat'. These are the thorny weeds that take over neglected or ruined land, and the word recalls the thorns of the curse on the ground in Genesis 3:18.

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 28:24 וְק֣וֹץ and a thorn

For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.’

Here: The common word for thorns, the same one used for the curse on the ground in Genesis 3:18. It pairs with "brier" to mean thorny growth of every kind.

Hosea · 1

Hosea 10:8 ק֣וֹץ thorn[s]

The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

Here: Thorny scrub; singular used collectively ('thorns'). Paired with the next word it echoes the curse on the ground in Genesis 3:18.

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