RHAMNUS, a Sort of Thorn, or prickly Bush, call’d Buckthorn. The Word Rhamnus is found in three Places of the Vulgate. Judg. ix. 14. Miserunt omnia ligna ad rham-
LXX. Ῥάμνος. Vulgate Rhemmum.num : And ver. 15. Egrediatur ignis de rhamno: And, lastly, Psalm lviii. Priusquam intelligerent spinæ vestræ rhamnum. In all these three Places the Hebrew has Atad, which properly signifies a Bramble, or a Thorn. The Scripture speaks of it as of a thing very easily set on Fire, and which gives a very quick Flame. For Example, in the Passage of the Psalms now quoted; Priusquam intelligerent spinæ vestræ rhamnum, sicut viventes, sic in ira absorbet eos: That is, “ Before they can “ know that their Thorns are arrived to “ the Strength of a Shrub, he will swallow “ them, as it were alive, in his Anger. ” But the Hebrew says, “ Before that your “ Kettles can have receiv’d Heat from “ your lighted Thorns, the Wrath of “ God, like a Whirlwind, shall overthrow “ them. ”1
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. Psalm lviii. 9. these Words are thus read in our Version; Before your Pots can feel the Thorns, he shall take them away as with a Whirlwind, both living, and in his Wrath. ↩