leeks Summary and Overview

(Heb. chatsir). The leek was a bulbous vegetable resembling the onion. Its botanical name is Allium porrum. The Israelites in the wilderness longed for the leeks and onions of Egypt. #Nu 11:5| The word chatsir, which in #Nu 11:5| is translated leeks, occurs twenty times in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew term, which properly denotes grass, is derived from a root signifying "to be green," and may therefore stand in this passage for any green food --lettuce, endive, etc.; it would thus be applied somewhat in the same manner as we use the term "greens;" yet as the chatsir is mentioned together with onions and garlic in the text, and as the most ancient versions unanimously understand leeks by the Hebrew word, we may be satisfied with our own translation.

chazir, literally, grass. The leek is green, and grasslike in its form of leaf. The allium porrum, the Welshman's national emblem, worn on David's day. The poor in Egypt eat them raw with bread, and as sauce to roast meat. So Numbers 11:5, "we remember the leek," etc. Hengstenberg suggests that clover-like grass is meant, which the poor much relish, under the name halbeh, scientifically Trigonella foenum Graecum. But Septuagint and the Egyptian usage favor KJV.