Herb

Herb - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

(1.) Heb. eseb, any green plant; herbage (Gen. 1:11, 12, 29, 30; 2:5; 3:18, etc.); comprehending vegetables and all green herbage (Amos 7:1, 2).

(2.) Yarak, green; any green thing; foliage of trees (2 Kings 19:26; Ps. 37:2); a plant; herb (Deut. 11:10).

(3.) Or, meaning "light" In Isa. 26:19 it means "green herbs;" in 2 Kings 4:39 probably the fruit of some plant.

(4.) Merorim, plural, "bitter herbs," eaten by the Israelites at the Passover (Ex. 12:8; Num. 9:11). They were bitter plants of various sorts, and referred symbolically to the oppression in Egypt.

Herb - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HERB, n. erb. [L. herba.]

1. A plant or vegetable with a soft or succulent stalk or stem, which dies to the root every year, and is thus distinguished from a tree and a shrub, which have ligneous or hard woody stems.

2. In the Linnean botany, that part of a vegetable which springs from the root and is terminated by the fructification, including the stem or stalk, the leaves, the fulcra or props,and the hibernacle.

The word herb comprehends all the grasses, and numerous plants used for culinary purposes.

hurb, urb:

(1) yaraq, "green thing" (Ex 10:15; Isa 15:6); a garden of herbs" (De 11:10; 1Ki 21:2); "(a dinner, the margin portion of) herbs" (Pr 15:17).

(2) `esebh; compare Arabic `ushb, "herbage," "grass," etc.; "herbs yielding seed" (Ge 1:11); "herbage" for food (Ge 1:30; Jer 14:6); translated "grass" (De 11:15; Am 7:2); "herbs" (Pr 27:25, etc.).

(3) deshe', translated "herb" (2Ki 19:26; Pr 27:25; Isa 37:27; 66:14 the King James Version), but generally GRASS (which see).

(4) chatsir, vegetation generally, but translated GRASS (which see).

(5) 'oroth, 'owroth (plural only), "green plants" or "herbs." In 2Ki 4:39 the Talmud interprets it to mean "colewort," but it may mean any edible herbs which had survived the drought. In Isa 26:19 the expression "dew of herbs" is in the margin translated "dew of light" which is more probable (see DEW), and the translation "heat upon herbs" (Isa 18:4 the King James Version) is in the Revised Version (British and American) translated "clear heat in sunshine."

(6) botane (Heb 6:7).

(7) lachana = yaraq (Mt 13:32).

See also BITTER HERBS.

E. W. G. Masterman