herb Summary and Overview

(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 , a plant which, in distinction from the shrub or tree, is without true woody tissue. Herbs die to the ground, if not entirely, during the dry Oriental summer. But those of them that are biennials or perennials revive with the fall rains or in the spring. Six Hebrew words are translated by the general term before us, five of them with unquestionable correctness. The word thus rendered in 2 Kgs 4:39; Isa 18:4; Isa 26:19 involves the idea of brightness, and is perhaps some particular plant. If so, the most probable opinion is that it is colewort or some plant of the cabbage tribe. See Grass.